Ahead of the 2024 season, the Georgia football team is not the only aspect undergoing changes. The iconic privet hedges surrounding Dooley Field at Sanford Stadium are set to undergo revitalization starting next month, as announced by the school on Thursday.
This renovation project involves uprooting and replanting the hedges, maintaining the lineage of plants that has adorned Sanford Stadium for an impressive 95 years. The comprehensive initiative also includes complete soil replacement, as well as improvements in irrigation and drainage systems.
The university’s athletic association revealed that the replanting process would prioritize transferring healthy plants, while any unhealthy hedges would be replaced. The hedges, currently 31 years old with an average lifespan of 20 to 40 years, will be replaced as part of this restoration.
The entire project is scheduled to conclude before the Bulldogs’ G-Day spring game. This effort echoes a historical precedent, as the hedges had to be temporarily removed for women’s soccer games during the 1996 Olympics. Cuttings were taken at that time to cultivate new plants, and the hedges were reinstated before the football season that year.
Reflecting on this tradition, the then-Georgia athletics director Vince Dooley remarked, “They’re the sons and daughters of the original hedges.”
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