Forsyth Park Educational Shade Garden

The Trustees’ Garden Club (TGC) will use the Founders Fund grant to help fund the Forsyth Park Educational Shade Garden in Savannah, Georgia.  In 1733, Savannah had the foresight to dedicate green space to and for its citizens, and Forsyth Park has become the community’s joy and pride. The project is a celebration of the park, the TGC’s founding centennial, and part of the TGC’s long-standing public/private partnership with the city for stewardship of Savannah’s crown jewel.

The educational shade garden project will transform a historically significant, centrally located, underutilized, and damaged area of Forsyth Park into a horticulturally immersive experience.  The project will expand and protect the existing tree canopy threatened by park users and other activities. It will enhance opportunities for passive recreation and gatherings while educating the public on shade plantings and their benefits. It will showcase the city’s treatment of shade as infrastructure and urban planning necessary for community well-being.

Purposeful use of shade increases outdoor activities, promotes public health by adding protection from the sun, and helps ameliorate heat islands, stormwater, and air and noise pollution. Importantly, the shade garden will preserve a space that benefits all, especially nearby residents who are among the most vulnerable to heat and stormwater and whose access to green space is limited.

Creation of the shade garden is a tangible result of TGC’s Forsyth Park Project and collaboration with the Cultural Landscape Foundation which began in 2016.  By 2020, a Master Plan was underway and a conservancy established;  Friends of Forsyth Park, a non-profit community-wide conservancy board on which TGC holds two seats.  

Preliminary work on site design and plant selection is underway and groundbreaking can begin once funds are available. TGC will fund the project from its community fundraiser, and members will contribute work days for plant installation. The city has generously offered in-kind contributions including landscaping design, engineering, lighting, irrigation, soil preparation, and amendments.