A membership-based gardening club is in the works for a 15-acre tract in Greenville County’s Piedmont area.
Ed and Sheila Lollis are working to get the unique concept off the ground, a business they said they hope will foster community and a love for things that grow.
Birch Leaf Gardens will feature 100 4-foot-by-8-foot elevated planter beds that members will lease, as well as a greenhouse, common areas, a refreshments stand, trails and an orchard and vineyard.
Eventually, they said they hope to host public events there, such as school trips, farmers markets and other gatherings.
Sheila Lollis said a copse of birch trees near the center of the property could serve as a natural amphitheater.
“We want it to be something in the future that will allow communities to come together and people to come together to just have a calm place to exist,” she said.
The Lollises are in the process of rezoning the property off Gunter Road to make way for the new club. In the meantime, Ed Lollis said grading has already begun, and he plans to begin building a fence and planting the orchard. If the rezoning goes smoothly, they said they hope to be open for business sometime next year.
The two bought the property earlier this year, and have already started developing a network of trails on the wooded portion of the land.
“Once you’re inside the property, it is really just a nice, calm, quiet area — really, really beautiful,” Ed Lollis said.
Both husband and wife have long cultivated a love for gardening, but said they’re preparing to embark on the process of securing their master gardener certifications. Once the club is up and running, they said they will host classes for members to share their knowledge.
While members can plant whatever they want in their rented planter boxes, the Lollises will operate the orchard and vineyard themselves, growing figs, persimmons and Asian pears, as well as muscadines, which are already growing wild on the site.
“We’re just trying to keep it as simple as possible but enough that people can taste things they’re not used to getting all the time,” Sheila Lollis said.
The Lollises live near the Piedmont property where they plan to establish the new business.
Eventually, Ed Lollis said, they intend to build a new house behind the club and make it their full-time home. Before they move to the site, though, they hope to have already established a vibrant gardening community there.
“The idea is to get people back in touch with nature and the benefits of that,” Ed Lollis said. “It benefits us more than just a meal, more than just the taste of a fig. It brings you calm.”