Atlanta got a new garden this week, and what a great story it is. A community reading 
garden is now in place at the Wren's Nest Museum and Storytelling Center -- former home of Joel Chandler Harris, who gave us B'rer Rabbit, Br'er Fox and others in the Uncle Remus Tales. The museum's outdoor storytelling area, long overgrown with kudzu and other 
undesirables, is now aglow with forsythia, azaleas, camellias, and other eye-catching plants. Marshall Thomas, chairman of the Joel Chandler Harris Association, which manages the museum, told the Atlanta Constitution newspaper that the garden enhances the neighborhood. "It lets people know we have a quiet, serene place of beauty," he said.
The garden was a gift from Troy-Bilt, a manufacturer of lawn and garden equipment, and it is amon
g nine reading gardens that the company is installing in several cities across the country. The first garden (left) went in earlier this year in Biloxi, Mississippi. Later this year, other reading gardens will be created in Charlotte, NC, Dallas, Louisville, Chicago, Cleveland, Baltimore, and New York City.
According to Heidi Ketvertis of Troy-Bilt, "a community reading garden brings people together and improves the environment." She said when gardens are devoted to reading "it adds the benefit of encouraging a love of books and learning."
The company is one of the national sponsors of the Keep America Beautiful Great American Cleanup (TM) program.
The Wren's Nest is a Queen Anne style farmhouse bought by Harris is 1883. It became a museum in 1913 and was designated a historic landmark in 1962. It's located at 1050 Ralph David Abernathy Blvd in Atlanta, (404) 753-7735.
(photos: Atlanta: Troy-Bilt; Biloxi: Keep America Beautiful)
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