Dogwood Park at Wesley Chapel — Attraction in Wesley Chapel

My only gripe with this park is the manner in which the caretaker & the township haphazardly selected shrubs and trees for its landscape.

This park could have been a showcase model for indigenous, environmentally friendly, North Carolina, native landscaping . Instead it is a model of what NOT to do when planning a landscape. The planting layout is a disaster.

While the caretaker is a nice gentleman who means well, and works hard, but the munipality failed to reach out to the many Union County officials & expert volunteers that could have helped with landscaping.

We have NC State certified master gardeners, Union County Extension agent, and a Union County arborist that all would have happily provided expert advice on landscape plant choices. All FREE! (Taxpayer funded).

Instead of native plants requiring no watering, a truckload of Asian/Japanese/Indian plants, based on cheap price (of course their cheap they replicate too easily) eere over-planted all over the park.

Trees were planted excessively close, and for a park called "Dogwood Park" some are Asian dogwoods instead of the local variety.

It hurts my eyes every time I go here jogging as to the sloppy planting layout.As a master gardener who practices native landscaping on my own property, to see junk, Asian plants scattered everywhere with no pre-planning involved in the process.

Had NATIVE plants been chosen they would not require so much watering. Which brings us to the next issue: Constantly wasting water here, unnecessarily.

With better planning no watering would have been necessary as native plants are already acclimated to local weather.

This park in its current state, is a lesson in what NOT to do when landscaping. Don't just buy things because their 'cheap' or you're getting a good deal. There's reasons for something being cheap.

Master Gardeners are free and a phone call away. Union County extension agent is FREE and a phone call away! Union County arborist is FREE and a phone call away!

Your taxpayer money is already providing these services. Use them when planning landscaping!

You can also visit North Carolina Native landscapers, Piedmont Groups and others on Facebook.

The sprinkler system would not be necessary with native plants.

What's really sad is the native staghorn flowers, oaks, blackberries, wild cherries and muscadine are probably not even noticed by most visitors (I hope they don't cut out the native plants!)

I hope with this post that someone is inspired to remove invasives ( wild privets) and focus on our beautiful native plants which the Carolinas are blessed to have a beautiful...

This park needs a great deal of commitment and attention from the Wesley Chapel Council and park and rec committee. In short try Stallings park. A longer explanation below.

They need an actual financial commitment. It is irresponsible to call it a community park when it doesn’t even have a playground and the idea of restrooms is Porta Johns. The dock is nice but in need of maintenance. long-term the dock will be a money pit. Just one more example of poor decisions. Making the dock out of some composite material that could have stood up to the unprotected conditions. This would have cost more up front but less long term.

Positives The trail is nice. The amphitheater is nice and a good long-term investment. The park is well lit. Stocked fishing.

Needs Actual restrooms! Playground! substantial clearing around the pond. The benches need to be replaced with some composite material. substantial work is needed to redo/complete/remove multiple small projects that were poorly conceived and poorly executed. And yes I know those doing these projects had the absolute best intentions and work a good hearted attempt to improve. I don’t blame them I blame those...

I would definitely recommend stopping by Dogwood Park if you have a dog because there are gated areas for dogs to play unleashed, there is also plenty of paths for the dogs to walk on. If you have kids Dogwood Park has a playground that has recently been updated. Every time I come to Dogwood Park there are kids playing on the playground and dogs playing in the dog park. This park is amazing. I love to come here with my friends, we have set up a picnic here in the past. We laid out some towels, painted on canvases and enjoyed snacks. This was such a fun experience and everyone we ran into at the park was super friendly. The scenery is amazing. There are fountains, a lake, a gazebo, lots of green grass, and a natural path. If you are a nature person this is the place to go. It is so relaxing and one of the only parks in Waxhaw. The gazebo will give you the best view of the lake. The whole park is a great place to take pictures. My family has taken multiple photos here for our Christmas cards and they always...