Discovery Garden At the Hands On! Discovery Center

1212 Suncrest Drive, Gray, Tennessee

The Discovery Garden is located at the Hands On! Discovery Center within the Gray Fossil Site.  NETMGA adopted this project in January 2021 before the site was open to the public. The garden is approximately 10,000 square feet of native shrubs, trees, grasses, flowering perennials, and vines.  It serves as a sustainable pollinator garden and a learning experience for the 90,000 visitors to the museum each year. The garden formally opened in May 2022 and was certified  as a Certified Monarch Waystation the same year.

Many of the plants in the garden are identical to or in the same family as ones that existed at this site over 4 million years ago. Our Master Gardeners enjoy a great relationship with the museum staff and coordinate plantings with them to ensure that any new plants are representative of plant fossils found on the site. Our volunteers typically meet Friday mornings and on other days for special projects and events. 

The adjacent shelter provides a children’s agricultural exhibit to show how agriculture relies on pollinators. The garden and shelter are designed for community involvement whether it’s tending the garden, participating in educational workshops, or enjoying the beauty of the garden. Each visitor can gain an appreciation of native plants and an understanding of pollinators in our region.

We are continuing to help the Gray Fossil Site with maintenance of the water fountain near the museum entrance, addition of landscaping around the main entrance sign, and maintenance of the rock display also near the entrance to the museum.   We have also added more water lilies, water irises, and hyacinths to the fountain. We hosted arborist Ed Sheffy of RowanTree Service in March of this year to show us the latest techniques in tree and shrub pruning.  We have also harvested seeds from the garden and conducted a seed viability program with garden visitors

Priorities in maintaining the garden are:

• Relevance to the paleontological history of the site
• Inspiring wonder and creating drama through the use of texture, size, fragrance, and color of the plants in the garden
• Maintaining a habitat for insects, birds, and small mammals and modeling sustainable gardening practices
• Maintaining a “community of plants” for museum guests to enjoy
• Sharing our knowledge of these plants with the museum visitors and summer camp youth, as well as conducting garden tours during museum events