A local garden club is making sure Friendship Alley lives up to its name through vibrant flowers and whimsical bicycle accents.
The Let’s Grow Garden Club worked Wednesday to rotate a variety of summer plantings into Friendship Alley, a brick-lined alley in the 400 block of Washington Street between Fourth and Fifth streets in downtown Columbus.
At the end of the day, the flower beds along the south wall of the alley were filled with large red begonias, purple clematis and yellow marigolds which will fill in as the growing season progresses, and surrounding colorful bike wheels scattered throughout the flower beds.
The club took over the alley’s landscaping two years ago when the club made beautifying the space a personal project, said Carolyn Trueblood, former club president. Miller, Carol Evans and Sharon Larson are the committee members organizing the planting for this season.
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The group was inspired to spruce up the walkway to help it reach its full potential after noticing its dilapidated condition two years ago during a tour of downtown Columbus, Trueblood said.
She approached city officials about the club taking on future upkeep of the passageway, which sees quite a bit of pedestrian traffic throughout the year.
“It (Friendship Alley) was neglected and nothing was growing,” Trueblood said. “They had some flower beds that were just kind of empty, so we met with Heather Pope (city redevelopment director) and worked with her on establishing a relationship so we could plant there.”
Friendship Alley, also known as Friendship Way, is an extension of the city’s Streetscape project that began more than a decade ago to improve the appearance of downtown Columbus.
The alley has brick pavers and is decorated with a neon sculpture, a gift from the people of Miyoshi, Japan, a Columbus sister city.
Before taking over Friendship Alley, the 30 or so members of the Let’s Grow Garden Club took care of a planter at the Bartholomew County Fairgrounds. But Friendship Alley is visited far more often than the fairgrounds, and a small sign in the alley notes the club’s gardening contributions to the hundreds of people who walk down the alley every month.
“There’s just a lot of excitement downtown,” club member Mandy Miller said. “A lot more people can see the hard work that we put into things.”
For Larson, the club’s upkeep of the alley is a way to show appreciation for the community.
“It feels good to me to do some sort of project to beautify Columbus,” she said. “We’re pretty proud of the city.”
Wednesday’s planting involved removing pansies and hostas from the beds, and club members worried a bit that forecasted rain might interrupt their plans.
“We were almost going to cancel this because of the weather forecast, but I’m glad we didn’t,” Larson said.
The color and type of flower that would go in each of the 12 alley flowerbeds was planned out on sheets of paper lined up on the bricks of the walkway. Club members would then choose a spot and set to work placing the plants according to the plan.
About eight to 10 volunteers from the club were working throughout the entire day to finish the plantings on Wednesday.
The plants that Larson and other group members used for this project are purchased by the club from proceeds from a yearly plant auction. Club members return to tend to the flowers throughout the summer, using water provided by the Dell Brothers, Inc. clothing store next door.
Among the volunteers working on Wednesday morning was club member Pam Lienhoop, spouse of Columbus Mayor Jim Lienhoop, who said she enjoys spending time with the gardeners for this project. “This is a great group of women,” she said.
More than flowers, however, go into making Friendship Alley beautiful.
This year, The Bicycle Station donated bicycle rims that Miller then painted and attached to posts that stand in the flowerbeds. The rims’ colors match the Columbus community bicycles and coordinate with the alley’s contemporary color palette, Miller explained.
“It looks absolutely beautiful,” said Bennita Kennedy, current club president. “It (the decoration) adds so much color and definition to the area and we’re so pleased with how it came out.”
Amid all this color, rocks with inspirational images and messages are hidden for passersby to find, courtesy of the Columbus IN Rocks, a volunteer group that hides the rocks around the city.
Those who find the rocks are encouraged to post on the Columbus IN Rocks Facebook page where it was found, and then to re-hide it for someone else to discover.
“It’s cute for the kids,” Larson said.
For now, the club oversees only the one alley in Columbus. This is so the group’s efforts can be wholly focused on Friendship Alley, Trueblood said.
“Columbus downtown is a fun, vibrant place, and it (Friendship Alley) gives people a beautiful place to walk through and just enjoy the flowers,” she said.
The club’s efforts receive positive feedback from both local businesses and everyday passerby, according to Evans, and although the group decorates the alley as a means of giving back to the community, the benefits are mutual.
“Every time I have been there and have been working, people walking up and down the alley always comment on how they appreciate it, how much they like it,” Evans said. “It’s been very inspirational for our garden club, just to give back to the city.”
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Friendship Alley, also known as Friendship Way, is in the 400 block of Washington Street between Fourth and Fifth streets in downtown Columbus.
The alley has brick pavers and is decorated with a neon sculpture, a gift from the people of Miyoshi, Japan, a Columbus sister city. The pavers that make up the pathway in the alley were a gift to the city from Miyoshi and bear the names of many Japanese families and companies.
Cork Marcheschi, San Francisco, created the neon sculpture and William A. Johnson, Seattle, Washington, was the project designer.
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For more information about the Let’s Grow Garden Club, contact current club president Bennita Kennedy at [email protected].
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