Granbury club turns Pecan Plantation garden dreams into reality

The Green Thumb Garden Club had a dream. Although its members lived in a little piece of paradise near Granbury called Pecan Plantation, they envisioned a grand statement inside the entrance to welcome residents and visitors alike into the bucolic community.

The result represents their thoughtful planning, lots of sweat and creative financing.

The traffic circle just through the front gate was the perfect spot. The circle’s half-acre interior held 14 mature pecan trees — remnants from the pecan farm started in 1949 by O.P. Leonard, a prominent Fort Worth businessman. (A smaller version of the Leonard Bend Pecan Farm still operates inside the community gates). The pecan trees provided the community’s identity, and the ground beneath them was a blank canvas.

Ten years after the club’s initial ideas, the established garden’s centerpiece is an elevated berm displaying several boulders from which a flagpole rises. Wood ferns and ajuga blanket the mound, and a single forest pansy struggles to survive. It’s in its third incarnation after being eaten to the ground twice by the local deer.

Symmetrical beds surround the berm. A continuous river of bearded and Louisiana iris in shades of blue and purple flows around the circle, a nod to the nearby Brazos River. Large swaths of wood ferns back up the iris for summer interest, and groupings of ‘Harbor’ nandinas in the rear supply winter interest with their red leaves.

Two smaller beds contain pink Chinese foxglove, a spring bloomer that self-seeds enthusiastically, and Naked Ladies, so named for their habit of producing lush spring foliage that dies back by summer and is replaced by leafless stems displaying pink, lilylike flowers.

Sprinkled throughout the circle are tall, lavender-mauve poppies and shorter, orange poppies that bloom profusely in the spring and then disappear.

The circle’s outer ring features 42 white redbuds, clouds of yellow Tete-a-Tete daffodils and a barrier of multi-colored Arizona cobblestones, which protects the garden from careening car tires and provides visual definition. At three points of entry, arched wrought-iron pedestrian bridges invite people to wander along the pecan shell walkways.

Several wrought-iron benches are tucked around the garden for quiet reflection.

Linda Kunzman, president of Green Thumb, explains that the garden is evolving. The pecan trees provide more shade now than they used to, but the iris still fully flower because their bloom period precedes the pecan trees’ leafing out. However, the larkspur that once succeeded the daffodils has largely disappeared due to the shade provided by the growing redbuds. ‘Cora’ vincas are planted in their place now for summer color.

Planting annuals, replenishing the pecan shell mulch and the regular maintenance of weeding and cleaning up costs money. To raise it, the club holds three fundraisers a year — hot dog sales during the community’s annual garage sales and a bike ride open to bike clubs in the fall. When the iris and Naked Ladies need dividing, selling the discarded plants makes a few bucks, too.

The club funded the purchase of the redbuds with donations from the community. Each tree “was purchased and donated by community members in memory or honor of someone they love,” Kunzman explains. A white stone marker commemorates the 42 donors. The benches have been purchased with donations with the same intentions.

Kunzman, a master gardener, is rightly proud of the garden, but the community takes obvious pride in it, too.

“Yesterday, kids were here taking prom pictures,” she says. “And the garden hosts wedding party pictures. People bring their kids here to take pictures. People sit with their coffee and read. Others come to reflect on loved ones.”

Several pecan tree seedlings that need plucking out catch Kunzman’s eye, a task for another day.

“That’s gardening,” she says. “You have to take the good with the bad.”

This story was originally published April 21, 2016 at 2:34 PM with the headline "Granbury club turns Pecan Plantation garden dreams into reality."