When Vince Dooley schemes about the design of a particular section of his nearly 5-acre garden in Athens he’ll often make mental measurements in terms of first downs and envision plantings like football formations.
There’s the T-formation, with two plants in front and one in back, or the wishbone with one plant in front and two in back, and theoretically he says, he could run a spread, but he’d need big plants or small trees and lots of space for that.
Whatever the formation, the former University of Georgia head football coach and athletics director loves his plants. Several years after he stopped coaching between the hedges, the legendary coach who led his team to six Southeastern Conference titles and one national championship in 1980, discovered a late-blooming passion for the shrubs and flowers that now adorn his own backyard.
On Oct. 21, he, along with Atlanta gardening guru, author and radio show host Walter Reeves, will share insights about gardening at the Columbus Botanical Garden’s Garden Gala at the Green Island Country Club. The event marks the garden’s 10th anniversary and will serve as a fundraiser as organizers work toward realizing their ambitious 20-year master plan for a 22-acre garden. Tiger, Dawg and digger
As a one-time Auburn University quarterback turned hall-of-fame Georgia coach, Dooley is likely to get a hero’s welcome in Columbus, where football fans often bleed either red and black or orange and blue.
Dooley said his interest in gardening blossomed in a class he audited with University of Georgia horticulture professor Michael Dirr, a renowned expert on woody plants.
working as UGA - ics director, Dooley made a habit of auditing courses in areas of interest for him — from history and political science to art history. Then he decided he’d like to learn something about plants, too.
“I thought I’d take one course and satisfy that curiosity,” Dooley said. “Never did I realize that that one course … would lead to another would lead to another would lead to another. From that, this infection took place, so I’ve been horticulturally bit, and I haven’t found a remedy yet. I enjoy the mental part of it, studying the garden; I enjoy the physical part; I enjoy the spiritual part.”
Dooley, sporting his shirt and tie, studied alongside casually dressed horticulture students, learning the Latin names of hundreds of plants and the craft of cultivating them properly. He took several courses, from both Dirr and Dr. Allan Armitage, an expert in herbaceous plants.
He befriended both professors, and Dooley and Dirr can often be found tinkering together in the garden, touring nurseries across the Southeast, hiking and even exploring gardens overseas.
Now Dooley is finishing work on a book entitled “In Dooley’s Garden: The Horticultural Journey of a Football Coach,” due to be published in the spring. Collector’s garden
Dooley said he’s adopted different gardening philosophies over the course of studying horticulture and experimenting in his garden.
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