The Cultural Arts Building recently got a new look thanks to the hard work of the Horticulture Department. Horticulture staff members Matthew Morgan, Deven Peek, Ray Thomas, Antwan Love, Jonathan Royal, John Deloit, and Horticulturist Ken Johnson created the design and put it into place using their many and varied talents.

Horticulture decided to berm the perimeter to add some height and break up the monotony of the space in which they were working. The Street Department hauled in all of the dirt and built the berm and graded it for Horticulture. The next step was to put irrigation in place. Eddie Davis ran temporary power for the irrigation control. The irrigation system has six zones that cover the turf, the bed and a drip on the trees. During the installation of the irrigation, they ran into some issues with a buried railroad. Mike Taylor and Robert Browder cut the rails out. When they started trenching, they ran into some cross ties that had to be excavated. These were not repurposed as they had rotted underground.

Horticulturist Ken Johnson creatively included the culverts in his division's design. Those culverts were hauled in by Mike Taylor and Ricky Oates of the Street Department. These were used to create a focal point at the corner of Court and Fourth Streets. Each culvert is also irrigated to meet plant needs and fully incorporate them into the landscaping design.

Horticulture began planting pockets of seven gallon and larger plant material such as carissa hollies, vibernum, blue point junipers, Steed's hollies, Hollywood junipers, sky pencil hollies, oakleaf hollies, and green giant arborvitae. After the pockets were completed, fillers along the street-side of the project include green sergeant junipers, dwarf yaupon hollies, blue rug junipers, and adagio grass. Holes were prepped for the large trees that were planted in the beds. Mike and Ricky delivered the remainder of the plant material used in their design. Musashino zelkova were chosen for their upright vase shaped growth pattern. The trees are approximately 16 feet tall for instant aesthetic gratification. Once all large machinery work was complete, Horticulture staff worked from street side inward in order not to disturb green material once planted. Filler material was then finished on the parking lot side of the beds. Culverts were then filled with half gravel and topped off with soil. Culvert plantings include treeform loropetalum, Nellie R. Stevens hollies, Red Star false cyprus, Degroot's Spire Arborvitae, and sky pencil hollies, and then underplanted with blue rug junipers and procumbens nana junipers. The large annual planters were repurposed from other areas in the city. Once all material had been planted, beds were defined and mulched.

Evergreen material was utilized to add year round color. Zelkova and Ann magnolias were chosen to provide fall color and spring blooms.

The Street Department will add gravel and regrade the parking lot in the coming weeks.

This was a cooperative efforts amongst several groups and departments. The City of Prattville thanks all involved and congratulates them on a job superbly done!

More Photos

The Prattville Council for the Creative and Performing Arts funded the majority of the project in an effort to beautify the location. Before the area was very blank and uninviting and needed some major improvements. The Way Off Broadway Theatre also contributed to the improvements, since most visitors come to see a performance here. A new sign was installed which features a message board that can be changed to notify the public of upcoming events.