Friends of Gardiner Park

Friends of Gardiner Park Contact information, map and directions, contact form, opening hours, services, ratings, photos, videos and announcements from Friends of Gardiner Park, Landmark & historical place, 721 N 2nd Avenue, Laurel, MS.

Gardiner Park Arboretum was the first in Mississippi and Park Place Garden Club spent many hours establishing it in the ...
02/16/2020

Gardiner Park Arboretum was the first in Mississippi and Park Place Garden Club spent many hours establishing it in the 1980s. Unfortunately Katrina and the December tornado decimated the Arboretum.

We are working hard to replace trees and hope to have the Arboretum re-certified by this time next year.

Sydney and I were so honored to get to spend time with Robert and Frank Thibideaux on Thursday. We learned so much and ...
02/15/2020

Sydney and I were so honored to get to spend time with Robert and Frank Thibideaux on Thursday. We learned so much and received good advice on how to proceed with trees for the Park.

The Laurel Garden Club and LRMA donated the trees the Thibideaux have given to them to the Arboretum- a live oak and a cedar. Park Place Garden Club is so grateful for this generous gift.

On Friday Susan Vincent and I completed inventorying the trees near the school building. It was heartbreaking to see some century old trees uprooted of severely damaged.

02/15/2020

As president of our “in the process of forming” a non-profit for the “Friends of Gardiner Park,” I have some exciting updates. And for those who don’t want to read further, but want to contribute financially...please be patient and don’t lose your passion! We will update you with that info as soon as we have it!

1) We are changing our name of this webpage to match our new name, “The Gardiner Park Restoration Fund.” Thank you, George Bassi, for this name!

2) Our newly-elected board is as follows:

Everett “Robbie” Robinson = president
Susan Boone Vincent = vice president
George Bassi = treasurer
Mary Anne Sumrall = secretary

Feel free to contact any of us with questions or comments.

3) The Laurel Garden Club and LRMA are donating trees to the arboretum (a live oak and a cedar). They will be planted at the end of the month by George Bassi and members of the Laurel Garden Club.

4) Susan Vincent and Mary Anne Sumrall plan to inventory the trees by the school. There were 102 trees in the arboretum but a number of those will need to be removed due to severe decay, death, or undesirable (non-native trees to our area of Mississippi = Chinese Tallow).

5) The mayor, Laurel’s public works Dept., Steven Crawford (City Landfill), and Everett “Robbie” Robinson are working together to remove the remaining logs and fallen trees from the park and keep them in a separate location at the city landfill until we are ready to have them milled and dried in a kiln.

6) We are DESPERATELY in need of old photos of Gardiner Park...preferably BEFORE hurricane Camille. Please contact us if you have any or know someone who might. We want pre-Camille photos because that hurricane did damage that our park has never fully recovered from. One of organization’s critical missions is to restore fully our beloved park to her lush, green, glory days!

7) Rain, rain, rain and MORE RAIN slated to come next week is impacting our goals for planting trees this spring (NOW) so please bare with us! Slapping a coat of paint on an old house is a quick way to get curb appeal; however, researching, planning, designing, and crafting a plan to restore a park cannot be rushed.

Last but not least...Laurel is so fortunate to have so many behind-the-scenes, highly-trained experts (gardeners and arborists) working diligently with us on this project. All are donating countless hours and resources to ensure our success! It is just amazing.

Everett/“Robbie”

Work has begun in Gardiner Park. Today Park Place members worked with Meacham Harlow and Cynthia Rahaim to begin inven...
02/08/2020

Work has begun in Gardiner Park. Today Park Place members worked with Meacham Harlow and Cynthia Rahaim to begin inventorying the remaining trees in Gardiner Park. So grateful to these generous and knowledgeable women for their time and help.

01/25/2020

Everett (Robbie)Robinson and I met with Mayor Magee, Elvin Ulmer, and Lorenzo Anderson to discuss Gardiner Park. All three have agreed to serve on a steering committee along with Susan Vincent, George Bassi, Cynthia Rahaim, Sydney Swartzfager and the two of us.

We have permission to collect the wood from the fallen trees to use in fund raising. The City will work with Park Place Garden Club to install irrigation sprinklers, not only in the arboretum area, but also near the school to support the trees which will be planted.

We are most appreciative to all who have pledged support and we will keep everyone updated as we move forward to restore our beautiful Gardiner Park.

01/11/2020

The destruction from the December 2019 tornado. This is the corner of 10th Street and 4th Avenue.

01/10/2020

The goal of this webpage is to raise funding for this beloved local park and the Laurel School District, as they recover from the December 2019 tornado that ravaged our community. By collecting all of the fallen trees from Gardiner Park, we plan to have it milled and dried in a kiln so that local furniture makers and artisans of all types can create pieces that we sell via an auction. While no one would have ever dreamed of cutting down any trees in this park, we want to make the best of what has happened and give our community, those who have grown up here and moved away, as well as visitors the once-in-a-lifetime opportunity of “owning a piece of Gardiner Park.” We also plan time sell t-shirts designed by Mandy Buchanan, a Laurel artist who has been featured on HGTV’s “Hometown.” And yes, Ben Napier has already graciously offered to design a piece of furniture for our fundraiser (event date to be determined)! We are excited, too!

For those who are not aware, this park was designed by Frederick Olmsted, the same man who designed the internationally renowned Central Park in New York City. Gardiner Park is also the first arboretum in our great state of Mississippi. However, with this tornado, Gardiner Park lost so many enormous trees that it now must have a sprinkler system installed for any hopes of replanted trees and other vegetation to survive. We are raising funds for that system. We must also raise funds to offset the expected cost of milling and drying the lumber.

Address

721 N 2nd Avenue
Laurel, MS
39440

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