There is a lot that goes into making a city—good schools, good roads, good neighborhoods are all factors—but it’s the little things that are not even necessary that make a city great. All cities have schools. But a beautiful park or a renowned museum, these are special things not every city has.
All around Picayune, in parks and city-owned green spaces, you will note new plants recently set into fresh mulch.
These flowers and flowering cabbages are the product of the city’s greenhouse. The greenhouse was completed over the summer as a cost-saving measure to the city. Now, instead of buying plants, the city can grow its own. The city’s public works director estimates the savings is in the thousands. We commend the city for saving the money, although the greenhouse does more than save the city money.
The seasonal flowers show us, and our visitors, that Picayune’s leaders care enough about the little things to invest time and money into the project. Blake said it best when he wrote, “A dog starv’d at his master’s gate/predicts the ruin of the state.”
These flowers prove that we can take care of more than the basic needs. These flowers show Picayune to be conscientious of beauty.
Green spaces—especially the traffic islands at Highway 11 and Highway 43—could easily enough be turned into grassy patches. The hanging baskets of flowers that line Goodyear Boulevard in front of City Hall could easily be taken down. All of this would save the city even more money. But despite the savings, we would be poorer for it.
We look forward to many years more of beautiful harvests.