I am writing to object to the destruction of the Enota Multiple Intelligences Academy Smartville garden to build a parking lot. This garden is unlike any school garden that I have seen because of the unusual plant materials and the masterful incorporation of environmental ideas into the design.

I chose this garden as a model school garden site to share with attendees to a recent Landscape Planning Short Course offered jointly by the University of Georgia Department of Horticulture and the UGA College of Environment and Design. The 35 landscape architects that I transported from Athens to Gainesville to this garden in February 2015 marveled at the design and environmental educational content of this garden.

More importantly than being a model garden design to be emulated by professionals, I believe this garden is an invaluable asset to the school and the community. I am aware of numerous studies on the positive influence of a garden such as this on the behavior, learning capacity and eating habits of students, and also on the morale of the faculty and staff within the school. I am sure the students, faculty and parents in the school take great pride in the garden, which is important for the image of the school in the community.

This garden has amazing transformative impact by connecting students to nature and nurture. I am amazed that such a paradise for learning and reflection is being summarily destroyed. I know that I join a chorus in the community decrying the destruction of this garden.

That you don’t know what you got till it’s gone. They paved paradise and put up a parking lot.

Dr. Timothy J. Smalley
UGA Josiah Meigs Distinguished Teaching Professor, Athens