Since the 1960s, volunteers have worked to make the 64-acre bird sanctuary known as Pendleton King Park a garden of Eden in the Garden City -- none with more dedication than Kay and Tom Mills.

Both are members of the Pendleton King Park Foundation and Friends of Pendleton, a group of master gardeners and garden club members who work with the city to improve and beautify the park.

Mrs. Mills is a master gardener, involved in everything at the park, especially fundraising and developing a master plan. She started the hydrangea garden, and the annual hydrangea show and sale, as well as the yearly plant swap, according to Will Bowman, who, along with his wife, Kay, is also a dedicated Pendleton King Park volunteer.

"Kay and Tom are heavily involved in everything," Mr. Bowman said.

The Millses' friend and neighbor, Bill Franke, now deceased, was president of the Pendleton King Park Commission and got Mrs. Mills on the commission, she said.

"I started working with that, and then I just got more involved and more involved," she said. "And when I took the master gardening course, then it was a natural for me to do my volunteer hours at the park. So as a part of that, I started the Pendleton King Park Plant Swap 11 years ago."

The 11th annual Pendleton King Park Plant Swap and Sale will be from 10 a.m. to 1 p.m. on May 3.

Dr. Mills, who is retired from Medical College of Georgia, is quick to say he's not a master gardener but enjoys digging in the dirt and hammering nails with Habitat for Humanity.

"You know, I was with the medical school for a long time, and I had to stay clean, because I was in research," he said. "Now I can come out here and dig in dirt and really get dirty. It's good. And so I am not a master gardener, but I am a foundation board member."

He's also quite a carpenter. He and Mr. Bowman renovated and painted the park's historic carriage house. They also did a lot of work preparing the park's tank for a new paint job.

Among the Mills and Bowman family endeavors at the park, the most impressive is the hydrangea garden they and others created. They raised the money to build a pergola and brick commemorative fence and gate, built the pergola, put in an irrigation system, hauled the mulch the city provided, dug the holes, acquired the hydrangeas and planted them. Only the brickwork and wrought iron on the fence was done by professionals, they said.

"We got hydrangeas the week before the first show," she said. "We planted them in 100 degrees."

In the four corners of the garden are crape myrtle trees from bicentennial park in downtown Augusta.

Volunteers found them in pots in a holding area at the bottom of the park and with the city's help, planted them.

The pergola, dedicated to Dr. and Mrs. Mills, is made of Ipe, a Brazilian mahogany so hard nails can't be driven into it.

Dr. Mills and the other workmen built it by drilling holes and putting in stainless steel screws.

The garden has about 40 varieties of hydrangeas and about 400 plants.

The next show and sale, Hydrangeas Galore, will be at 10 a.m. until sold out May 31 at the park's Franke Pavillion.

"We'll also have a tour of the gardens," Mrs. Mills said. "We'll have volunteers here to answer questions about hydrangeas they like, and they can go over and buy them."

Last year, they sold out in 45 minutes and made $4,000 for the park, which really helped, she said. This year, they'll have 500 plants of 60 varieties.