Birch Leaf Gardens is an effort to bring a deep connection between land and people.

Birch Leaf Gardens is a community garden, a nature space, an agritourism effort to bring a deep connection between land and people. It was named for the beautiful birch tree forest at its center.

Birch Leaf Gardens provides a calm space to connect heart with land, educate young and old alike on gardening practices, while offering an escape from our usually fast-paced lives. It gives members an opportunity to slow down, breath in the land, calm the nervous system and experience nature fully. You will actively engage with the agricultural community, learn sustainable gardening and farming techniques, local traditions, preservation and the joys of rural life.

 Agritourism is the marriage of agriculture and tourism. Today, agritourism includes a variety of experiences in sustainability, hands-on farming, food production, and environmental conservation. The future of Birch Leaf Gardens will include the complete experience. The future amenities will include a nature trail, small orchard and natural amphitheater.

Connection through nature has always been a big part of the Lollis family. Edward Lollis, a lifelong gardener, was raised in a rural area in Texarkana, Arkansas and his wife, Sheila, was raised in the coastal town of Jacksonville, NC. 

Having traveled within the US extensively with their two children, neither were tied to either place permanently. Ed, being raised in the rurales, lived off the land throughout most of his early years. He had fond memories of gardening, canning and preserving food. And both Ed and Sheila have maintained those practices until today, passing down the love of land to their children. That comfortable feeling of country living just never goes away! Both share the desire to share the experience with community friends and families.

Sharing their love of nature through small-scale gardening has led the Lollis’ to open one of Greenville Counties first garden clubs in the semi-rural local community of Piedmont, just outside of Simpsonville, SC. 

It has natural simplicity and appeals to those who desire calm. their moto, “Calm by Design” says it all. Thus, Birch Leaf Gardens is born.