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Ryan Gainey. Photo provided to Decaturish

The life and legacy of the late gardener Ryan Gainey is the subject of a new film.

“The Well-Placed Weed,” a film by Steve Bransford and Cooper Sanchez, will be screened in Atlanta on May 17 and Athens on June 14.

No Decatur screenings are planned at this time.

The filmmakers provided information about the two upcoming showings of the film:

May 17: Atlanta premiere at 7pm at the Plaza Theatre (1049 Ponce De Leon Avenue Northeast Atlanta, GA 30306), Tickets are $8 and can be purchased through this Eventbrite link.

June 14: screening at 7:30pm the Cine Theater in Athens (234 W Hancock Ave, Athens, GA 30601). Tickets can be purchased via the Cine website the week before the event or at the door.

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Gainey was a world-famous Decatur gardener and designer, a gifted eccentric who loved Jack Russell terriers. He owned a property in Lexington, Ga. He was staying there in July 2016 when a fire broke out. Gainey rushed inside with a garden hose in an attempt to save his dogs and did not return. Gainey and his dogs died and his Lexington home was destroyed.

The film chronicles Gainey’s life from 2010 to 2016.

“Gainey has been the focus of numerous gardening television programs, but this film is the first project to examine the complexities of his life,” the filmmakers said. “As the film shows, he was a contradictory character, both off-putting and tender, self-absorbed and generous, artificial and authentic. Ryan Gainey was a lover of beauty, and his home garden in Decatur, Georgia was his masterpiece. It was, as he often said, a ‘garden of remembrance’ where his old friends and family lived on in the overlapping blooms of heirloom plants.”

Here’s a trailer for “The Well-Placed Weed.”

Gainey’s Decatur home was recently demolished. In 2016 a large tree fell on it, leaving it uninhabitable. A new home is being rebuilt in its place, but the garden will be preserved.

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