Let’s all help make Rome beautiful again
It’s not officially Spring for another week, but the tulip poplars, Oklahoma redbuds, some cherry trees and other flowering trees have been busting out for a while. It’s just beautiful, but there is a special place in Rome that really needs a dose of color.
Ridge Ferry Park is a special place for me. It’s one of my favorite places to walk and I’ve developed several paths to meander, depending on the mileage I want for the day or the time that I have available. But they all need some color. If you’re walking down the trail from Burwell Creek, you have to park in the Riverwalk shopping center right now. So if you mosey down behind Shane’s to the point where the sidewalk intersects with the river trail, there is a redbud. And that is where the color ends. Until fall and the leaves start to turn.
I guess I’ve never planted the bug in the right person’s ear. Wouldn’t it be beautiful to have successional flowering trees down the trail?
Imagine some redbuds, some tulip poplars, some Yoshino, Kwanzan or Okame cherry trees, a Bradford pear or three, then throw in a few dogwoods.
I’m not an arborist, but I believe these species will grow in the soils along the trail — and think how pretty they would be.
Shoot, plant a couple of Japanese maples while you’re at it.
I suspect that azaleas and even some rhododendron would do well in some spots along the trail. Mountain laurel might even be appropriate in a few places.
I made a trip to Holland in 2006 and became a huge fan of tulips. I mean, it’s impossible to go to Holland, and in particular the Keukenhof Gardens near Rotterdam, without becoming enamored of tulips. Wouldn’t some of those be gorgeous in plots along the trail?
I’m thinking most of the planting that I’m suggesting could go on the east side of the trail, away from the river which comes out of its banks quite often in the wet months. We’ve been pretty lucky thus far this winter. The Oostanaula has gotten up over the trail between the library and Burwell Creek a number of times, but that’s the lowest point of the trail and I wouldn’t suggest any kind of planting — other than perhaps some ground cover to keep the bank from washing away — in that area.
There is some limited color when you get down to the arboretum between Chieftains Museum and State Mutual Stadium, but it’s just a couple of trees. As best as I remember, there is a cherry tree in that area that was dedicated to one of my heroes, the late Ben Lucas.
Lest I be chastised for forgetting, there is also some wisteria along the trail as you get closer to Chieftains, but not everyone is a long haul walker at lunch or in the evening.
I don’t know how much trees cost, but I’ll go on record with the first $100 donation. That’s the least of what I can do with the cash President Biden is sending me. Anything to make my community more beautiful.
One other note as it relates to the Ridge Ferry Trail. Several of the quarter mile posts have vanished, largely as the result of high water. Seems like a great Eagle Scout project to make some replacements out of bent metal and then fill the interior with concrete to keep them from washing away.
Since I was speaking of making the community beautiful, Emma Wells and her band of volunteers at Keep Rome-floyd Beautiful have been busting it with the Adopt-a-mile program since the pandemic kicked in.
I’m always amazed at the number of folks who want to get outside and help pick up trash left behind by those inconsiderate idiots who feel compelled to flip a beer can or burger wrap out of the car.
It’s amazing what kind of a team-building exercise it can be when a company brings its employees together to help clean up a section of highway. I suspect it also gives some of those folks second thoughts about tossing something out of their window in the future.
Years ago when I worked with the Royal Ambassadors boys youth group at my church, we always picked up trash when we were out on a hike. I had a few kids from time to time who objected, but they always got the point in the end. If you don’t toss it out there, it won’t be there for someone else to pick up. I would be shocked if I were to witness any one of them toss litter from their vehicles as young adults today.
That leads me to a final thought. Littering is rarely witnessed. It isn’t often that somebody haphazardly tosses something out of the car or truck when somebody is riding relatively close to their bumper.
It’s a thing in the night type of violation of the law. I don’t think anyone really wants to be seen as a litterbug. I also think there are very few people who would use their Bluetooth to call in a report of someone littering as they go down the highway. It’s not the sort of thing the Average Joe wants to get involved with, and that’s a shame.