Across this stone will pass the footprints of the future.  The Promise Path that follows will serve as a foundation for dreams yet to fulfill, aspirations yet to be rewarded, and greatness yet to come.  The Promise Path will be their guide and our school's legacy.

Those are the words on the entrance stone to Downing Middle School's Promise Path Garden.  The promise Path was the idea of a PTA member, a way for the first students of a brand new school to leave a legacy and a path to follow for the students who would come after them.  Her idea was to sell stepping stones engraved with the students' names, creating a path in front of the school.  She sold a few stones the first year, but they were laid out in the middle of a bare grass lawn, a path to nowhere.  Then an addition was built onto the school which made it necessary to pick up the stones.

That's when the master gardeners got involved.  The original vision of the Promise Path was to plant a garden around the path of stepping stones.  The project manager decided instead to plan the garden first, making the pathway an integral part of the design.  The requirements were challenging.  The garden had to be very low maintenance since volunteers maintain it.  It had to incorporate a path long enough to accommodate about 10 years of stepping stone sales.  And it had to be beautiful in all seasons because it is a highly visible site.

One of the master gardeners designed the garden, choosing beautiful native and adapted plants.  The plants can withstand long hours of direct sunlight and water shortage if necessary.  There are more than 50 plant varieties in the garden, including trees such as Eve's necklace, redbud, Mexican plum, and vitex; shrubs such as spirea, flame acanthus, Texas sage, and fragrant sumac; a variety of grasses including Gulf muhly, Mexican feather grass, and adagio miscanthus; Earthkind roses like mutabilis, knockout, and Katy Road pink; and almost 20 different perennials, including black-eyed Susans, daylilies, Flare hibiscus, ox-eye daisy, creeping phlox, and zexmenia.

The garden was planted in the fall of 2004 and dedicated in May 2005.  This past summer it blazed in colorful glory despite the drought.  The garden may be viewed at 5555 Bridlewood Boulevard in Flower Mound.