Georgia Funder for Founders Memorial Garden

Celebrating the Founders Memorial Garden

 

For generations, the Founders Memorial Garden has been a place of beauty, reflection, and connection. From quiet walks among the blooms to joyful celebrations under its canopy, this cherished space holds countless memories for our community. 

As we launch this week-long fundraiser, we invite you to explore the personal stories of those who have found inspiration, solace, and joy within the garden’s pathways. Their experiences highlight why preserving this historic treasure matters—not just for today, but for future generations. 

Join us in celebrating these stories and ensuring the Founders Memorial Garden continues to thrive. Every donation helps nurture its legacy and keep it flourishing for years to come. 

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FMG-The Poppy LadyThe Poppy Lady  

The inspiration for the outstanding illustrated children’s book on Moina Micheal, The Poppy Lady, came when the author discovered an ancient paper veteran’s poppy in her elderly father’s effects. He explained that, while training for World War 2 radio duty in Athens, he met Ms. Micheal while barracked at the Georgian Hotel. He then produced this photo of him in the Founders Garden, posing with the poppies Ms. Michael planted around the sundial in remembrance of the many men and women at war. 

Sources: Steven Brown  

New Voice & Giveaway: Barbara Elizabeth Walsh on The Poppy Lady: Moina Belle Michael and Her Tribute to Veterans – Cynthia Leitich Smith 

 

 


 

“Working at the garden for about eight months gave me a greater appreciation and admiration for horticulturists, designers, and all other “lovers of plants.” Getting to be a part of a bigger picture – one where students, families, and couples came to feel at peace and relive memories felt so fulfilling. It’s hard work to cultivate a garden that looks beautiful year-round and I’m incredibly thankful for the opportunity that the Founder’s Memorial Garden gave me to learn about the amazing work that is done here. When I walk through the garden, even now, I feel the dirt under my nails and remember the hot summer days spent pulling weeds and I think that’s a really special experience to share that with others.”

Dailey Jackson, BLA student 

 

I had the opportunity and privilege to work at the Founders Memorial Garden for a year and a half. In the back half of my time at the garden, Dr. Mitchell had stepped down as the curator, and I had a lot more responsibility and say in how the garden was cared for. I felt like I was becoming a part of the garden, or maybe it was becoming a part of me. Its dirt had my sweat from hot summer work days, where mulch was laid and limbs were pruned. It had my blood in the mosquitoes which lived in the fallen magnolia leaves, leaves which we fruitlessly tried to pick up to prevent the mosquitoes in the first place. The air had my CO2 from each shaky breath I took in those cold days of winter where I watched the garden die, anticipating its rebirth in the spring. My role at the garden meant I could be there when there wasn’t another person around in the early mornings and quiet summers, but I was also able to be present at its fullest, with weddings and graduation ceremonies and campus tour groups. The latter reminding me of why this garden in particular is so special to me, as it was the first place we went to on my own campus tour as a senior in high school. The beauty of the garden being right on campus made me so excited to go to this school, and I was oblivious to the fact that I would be able to give back to this very space only a few years later. Now the garden is not mine to care for anymore because the FMG is a garden full of change. Change in the people who work there, to the plants throughout the seasons, and in me. It is a garden that carries more of me than I ever anticipated, and I am so grateful it is here.”

Caleb Butcher, BLA student  

 


 

The following three stories originally appeared in Place + Meaning + Experience, a book to commemorate CED’s 50th Anniversary 

 

 

The Other Hubert

“The Other Hubert” by Donna Gabriel

Every family has that special someone who is just a little different—they are a character, they entertain you, they stand out in the crowd. Well, for CED that was Hubert the Cat. Yes, a cat named after our first dean of the College, Hubert Bond Owens.  

Hubert lived in one of the oldest homes on Lumpkin Street, the Founders House, also known as the Lumpkin House. He ruled his kingdom, the Founders Memorial Garden, with a pampered paw. All his loyal subjects (students, staff, and faculty) took care to bring gifts of bacon or sausage each morning and pay homage to this handsome prince. His golden orange coat with streaks of fluffy white fur could only be touched by those loyal subjects that brought him food. (He preferred bacon.)  

Hubert the Cat was often caught roaming through the bushes and trees, demanding obedience from the squirrels and chipmunks that lived in the Founders Garden. Needless to say, the goldfish pond was a constant worry for the prince as he was never quite able to capture one of those slippery shiny suckers. He passed away in 2008 and is buried in the garden. All his loyal subjects raised funds and had a statue erected as a monument in his honor: a beautiful sculpture of a Cheshire Cat. Alas—scoundrels tried to steal the statue but destroyed it when they let it tumble down the steps to the sidewalk on Lumpkin Street, shattering it into hundreds of small pieces. Although the statue was never replaced, to this day Prince Hubert’s final resting ground—shaded by a large southern red oak tree and adorned with colorful southern indica azaleas—is still revered and maintained by his royal gardeners and his many loyal subjects.  

Our memories and the spirit of Hubert the Cat still live in the garden. There have been other garden cats, but none have matched the regal quality that he possessed. Do not be surprised if you think you see him in the garden; I have been told that both Huberts still frequent the grounds.  

 

“A Special Place for All Seasons” by John C. Waters

In all seasons, the UGA community and visitors from around the world have enjoyed the Founders Memorial Garden for varying events—from outdoor classrooms and meetings, to Shakespeare and dance performances to weddings and family gatherings, to a quiet place of respite. It is comprised of three essential areas: the north garden, a shady woodland garden perfect for quiet study or reflection; the house and outbuildings with accompanying terrace and formal boxwood garden; and the south garden, which contains a serpentine perennial garden and pool, a camellia walk and arbor, and a short winding nature trail.  

Each area has a unique personality. In the fall, visitors are inspired to look up at the leafy array of oranges, yellows, and reds; in the hot summer, to gaze down into the cool waters of the fountains and small pool; and in the spring, when the irises first open, to lounge with a book on the pebbled terrace. Winter is lovely, too, when a visitor can sit in the warm sun on the enclosed-courtyard flagstones and enjoy the fragrance of the winter honeysuckle. In any season, this jewel in UGA’s North Campus remains a favorite site to all who know her. So, how did she come to be?  

The year 1928 saw the beginning of Hubert Owens’s program in landscape architecture (LAR) and the founding of the Garden Club of Georgia (GCG). By 1938, GCG was seeking a way to honor the founders of America’s first garden club, Ladies’ Garden Club, organized in Athens in 1891. Owens proposed a collaboration in which LAR faculty and students would provide designs and supervise construction; GCG, through its statewide network of local clubs, would provide the funding; and UGA would provide the site and perpetual maintenance. The site chosen by Owens was the Lumpkin House which had just been named as the next home for LAR, thus providing easy access for design and supervision of the work in progress. Work began in 1939 and completed in 1950. In 1939, the Founders Memorial Garden was the largest single project undertaken by any state garden club.  

Lumpkin House (1857) was constructed as faculty housing and so named as the only UGA address on Lumpkin Street. The use of the building evolved to provide housing (1919-24) for Mary Dorothy Lyndon, UGA’s first Dean of Women; Phi Mu Sorority (1924-28), the first sorority on campus; the LAR program (1938-56); GCG state headquarters and house museum (1963-98); and College of Environment and Design (CED) (1998-present) for faculty offices, seminars, its Environmental Ethics Program, and as a teaching resource for its landscape architecture and historic preservation programs.  

Upon completion of the garden, the transformation of the site demonstrated the landscape potential of UGA’s campus, the Athens community, and countless locations across Georgia. Thus, the Founders Memorial Garden introduced the idea of landscape architecture as a professional endeavor that could benefit society. Today, its recognitions include the 1972 National Register of Historic Places listing and 1999 American Society of Landscape Architects centennial year selection as one of 362 landmark examples of landscape architecture.  

In any season, this jewel in UGA’s North Campus remains a favorite place to all who know her.  

 

“A Reflection on the Founders Memorial Garden” by Matthew Dean  

Humans need places to retreat. It is our nature to desire and maintain spaces that offer a sense of safety, a reprieve from stress, and opportunities to reflect. For me, the Founders Memorial Garden will exist in the memory of both my undergraduate and graduate study at UGA. It was an oasis within the ceaseless energy of campus.  

The garden is both a teacher, offering inspiration and proudly displaying its plant species and constructed forms, and an old friend, offering a space to sit to quiet the mind. It’s the first place I met my cohort for the first-year luncheon in the Founders House, each of us enlivened with excited anticipation for the experiences ahead, and it will be the last place we say goodbye as we gather for the annual end-of-year barbecue and conclude the semester for the final time. No place on campus has been as special to me.  

It is my hope that future generations of landscape architecture students will continue to appreciate and regard the Founders Memorial Garden with the same zeal as myself and the many generations before me.


 

Keep the Garden Growing!

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