The Friends of Lost Corner have recognized Trisha Thompson’s 20 years of stewardship by naming the Sandy Springs community garden in her honor.
The other board members surprised her on Dec. 14 with a colorful sign above its entrance that declared it as the Trisha Thompson Community Garden
Thompson’s official and unofficial efforts to make the park a community space since 2003 led to the decision for this recognition. She had befriended Peggy Miles along with Cheryl Barlow, visiting her home on the 24-acre tract at 7300 Brandon Mill Road. Miles and Barlow have both been president of their homeowner’s association and checked up on Miles regularly. She was born in the home in 1923.
Miles shared stories about growing up on the property and chatted about the animals and plants she knew by their Latin names. During a visit in 2006, Miles told them she wanted the property left unchanged so everyone could enjoy it.
Thompson and Barlow helped form Friends of Lost Corner at the city’s request to help fulfill the wishes of Miles in 2011. What’s now known as the Trisha Thompson Community Garden was started in 2013.
Most people didn’t know that Eva Galambos, the first mayor of Sandy Springs, was a master gardener. She wanted the community garden created at Lost Corner, so Thompson said they had to rush around to determine its dimensions and design it.
The number of active community gardeners has wound down with fall and the approach of winter.
“People really don’t want to sign up for winter vegetable growing,” she said.
Gardening bed sites will be renewed in the spring, and Lost Corner organizers will notify people including those on the waitlist in January or February. Some beds will be available as they always are because of rotation.
“People, God bless them, always think that they’re going to be down here every other day growing vegetables. No, they’re not,” Thompson said.
Fellow board member Ronda Smith said that Mayor Rusty Paul proclaimed it the Trisha Thompson Community Garden earlier this year.
The community garden meets the needs of residents living in apartments or on tree-filled lots where growing vegetables would be difficult with little sun, Thompson said.
She thanked the long list of volunteers who come to Lost Corner one day a month to clean the edges of the garden’s beds and do the rough work to keep the garden looking good.
“Today it’s virtually weed-free around each of the bed frames and that is because of the volunteer groups that have come over the last several months,” Thompson said.
Peggy Miles had a lot of vision in her planting on the property, so Thompson suggests that today’s gardeners plant pollinators for the birds, the bees, and the butterflies, “It’s not all about tomatoes,” she said.