Blair Street Gardens Ribbon Cutting

press release: A group of downtown and east side residents (The Blair Street Gardens Committee, Inc.) has been maintaining three public gardens in downtown Madison for over 30 years. One of these gardens – the Gateway Garden in the 600 block of Williamson Street – has been transformed from a formal garden into a small urban park. A ribbon-cutting to celebrate the transformation and thank contributors will be held Wednesday, September 28, 2016 at 3 p.m. at the garden.

The garden is viewed by a substantial population every day. At a major Madison vehicular intersection, the garden is also adjacent to the Capitol City Bike Trail and the Gateway Mall, and heavily used pedestrian sidewalks.

The transformation included removing the formal garden bed, re-grading the area, and adding gravel pathways, retaining walls, raised beds, a paved patio and stone benches. Trees, shrubs, native plants, and a gravel garden have been planted. The garden is now a place for bicyclists and pedestrians to rest, and for groups to gather. The transformation can be viewed at: http://blairstreetgardens.org/photos.html

The list of corporate donors exemplifies the community spirit of the Madison area gardening and landscaping community. Major donors include Avant Gardening & Landscaping, the Green Spaces Committee of the Marquette Neighborhood Association, the MGE Foundation, the City of Madison Neighborhood Grant Program, and the Wisconsin Hardy Plant Society. In-kind donations were made by: Barnes, Inc.; Breezy Hill Nursery; Ebert's Greenhouse; Flower Factory Nursery; JFNew/Cardno; Johnson’s Nursery; Jung’s Garden Center; Kopke's Greenhouse; Madison Block & Stone; Madison Sand & Gravel; McKay Nursery; Midwest Decorative Stone; Moyer’s Landscape Services; Proscapes; The Reiner Family; Struck & Irwin Fence; Tree Health Management; and the Wisconsin Nursery and Landscape Association.

In addition, volunteers donated countless hours to coordinate the project and plant the literally hundreds of donated plants.