Soil³ Story: Garden Rooms Created by a Master Gardener Using Soil³

On a very hot day in June, I met Melanie Landrum in her magnificent garden on the edge of the Canongate Golf Course in Newnan, Georgia. I was there to shoot a video with Melanie and hear about all the ways she uses Soil³. Her warm smile and contagious gardening enthusiasm is as inviting as her incredible garden spaces.

Melanie and her husband, Ron, moved back to this home where she grew up to care for her parents in their elder years. When her parents passed away, she and Ron decided to stay and they’ve been living and gardening there full time for the last 15 years.

Melanie’s Dad was the golf pro at the Canongate Club for 34 years and both her parents were gardening enthusiasts as well. Her Mom loved flowers and her Dad liked to grow vegetables. Melanie is keeping up the family gardening traditions.

A Garden with Rooms

What a treat it was to spend time with Melanie in her garden - I really should say gardens (plural). The Landrum’s one-acre property is organized into different garden “rooms” that include a vegetable garden, a cottage garden, a beautiful greenhouse, a cutting garden, and potting shed - all surrounded by borders with gorgeous ornamental trees, shrubs, and plants. The roses weren’t blooming when I was there but Melanie loves them and told me she has at least 50 varieties throughout the garden.

Melanie grows a wide variety of flowers including roses, hydrangeas, zinnias, cosmos, and dahlias in her cutting garden.

Soil³ in Every Garden Room

Melanie uses Soil³ throughout every “room” in her beautifully designed and maintained garden space. Everywhere you look, there is something lovely and interesting to see. Gorgeous potted arrangements, bird houses, feeders, and many delightful ornaments and garden art pieces are tucked in among the neat storage sheds that are surrounded with borders and filled with countless varieties of interesting plants and flowers.

Melanie has seen how Soil³ is great for her vegetable garden and she fills and tops her raised beds regularly with it. In addition to vegetables and herbs, she likes to include annual flowers. The flowers help attract pollinators and make her vegetable garden look even more appealing.

Her attention to details is awe inspiring. Even her greenhouse, where she uses Soil³ for seed starting, propagation, and cultivation, is decorated and very inviting.

Melanie's garden beds are full of interesting plants and pollinators including (clockwise from top left): mustard greens, clary sage, and an Eastern Tiger Swallowtail butterfly enjoying the Stokes aster.

Melanie uses Soil³ in her vegetable garden, where she also grows herbs and annual flowers because she wants it to look pretty year-round.

Another inviting spot, Melanie's greenhouse is beautifully landscaped and decorated.

A Garden that Stops Traffic

Because their home is surrounded by the golf course, Melanie says it’s like living in a fishbowl. Although the stunning garden borders do create some privacy, Melanie’s goal is to stop traffic and she certainly does.

She is full of enthusiasm for gardening and loves to share with everyone, even the curious golfers who often stop to ask questions as they pass. Some ask her if she stays out there all of the time. She tells them that if they’re noticing her in the garden then they’re also playing a lot of golf, explaining that gardening is her love, just like golfing is to them. Then, she cheerfully asks them to stop by on their way back to pick up some fresh flowers or vegetables to take home.

Melanie's garden views are stunning in all directions. 

Curious golfers often stop to look and ask Melanie questions about her garden.

Melanie Knew Soil³ Had to Be Good

Melanie heard about Soil³ from one of her gardening friends and decided to read more about it. That’s when she discovered that Soil³ is made by Super Sod, a name she recognized. Having grown up in the golf community, she remembered that her father had great respect for the company. She knew if Soil³ was a Super-Sod product that it had to be good. She orders Soil³ regularly to build, top, and maintain her garden beds. When the golfers notice her Big Yellow Bag of Soil³, they’ll stop to ask if the soil is her secret to growing such a beautiful, healthy, and productive garden and she tells them “yes, absolutely it is."

When golfers see the Soil³ BigYellowBag in Melanie's garden they stop to ask if it is the secret to her gardening success.

Melanie and Other Coweta County Master Gardeners Use Soil³

Melanie is also very involved with the Coweta County master gardeners organization. They are fans of Soil³ and use it in their demonstration garden, along their nature trail, and for preparing plants for their annual plant sale as well as in their own home gardens. She also told me about the “Backyard Gardening Association” that the Coweta County Master Gardeners organize to provide information and educate their community. The Master Gardeners hold monthly public meetings and host local gardening experts to speak on a variety of gardening and landscape topics.

Melanie is so warm and welcoming that I didn’t want to leave that day. She has a wealth of gardening experience to share. We literally had so much ground to cover while producing her video that we didn’t have much time to visit. She invited me to return again, when we can have more time to relax, linger and take in every inch of beauty in her garden spaces. I can’t wait.

Photos and video by Laurie Wakefield.