Covington is The Hollywood of the South™

March brings us Daylight Saving Time (March 9), St. Patrick’s Day (March 17) and the first day of spring (March 20)! Feel the essence of the budding season in Covington’s treasured spaces and places. It’s an especially great time to take a tour before Spring Breakers ascend to our oasis of filming locations, restaurants, bars, shops, performances and entertainment centers!

Farm Food Tours and Classes

L.A. Bonds and her family live in a Victorian-era home on a 5-acre farm in Covington; a small Southern plantation established in 1875. Bonds Estate & Gardens is a family-owned and operated working farm that grows a variety of fruits, nuts, vegetables, indigenous flowers and medicinal, culinary and aromatic herbs.

Imagine orchards and fields with peach and pecan trees, zucchini, cucumbers, beets, carrots, potatoes, tomatoes, watermelons, okra … all homegrown goodness.

The Bonds Estate is a hub for educational programs and resources for individuals interested in whole body wellness. You can attend a class, events, and workshops with the clinical herbalist. Community Supported Agriculture (CSA) memberships are available until March 21 (capacity is limited).

One of L.A.’s students wrote her, “After the tour I felt more connected to nature and have a better understanding of where my food came from, and the work needed to get it there.”

Call to register for a Taste of the Past Tour or a Heritage Tour. Walk the grounds upon which former enslaved families survived, died or escaped. Learn about the local history of enslaved people and its impact in Georgia.

Taste of the Past Tour guests can taste, smell and feel the growing fruits, vegetables and herbs. Parts of walkways are gravel or grass. There are accessible bathrooms onsite.

• Fun Fact: The Bonds Estate is often scouted for major films and TV shows, including an appearance in the now streaming Under His Influence (BET+).

“Everything that we need, God has already supplied,” said L.A. “I give people a greater context about the space and history in general. I like to tell people that there is nothing that we cannot find in nature that will bring us healing. All we have to do is look.”

Bonds Estate & Gardens

220 Hopewell Church Rd. in Covington

bondsestateandgardens.org | 678-744-3372

Beautiful Trails and Parks

Covington is home to miles of beautiful trails, parks, and playgrounds. For those in the mood to see delicate and colorful butterflies, head to Academy Springs Park (3120 Conyers St.) to be immersed in the Satsuki Garden Club Pollinator Garden. Check out all the park options in Newton County.

The Hollywood of the South™ Tours

Covington is beautiful every season, but especially now as the days are brightening, getting a little longer, and the daffodils are being joined soon by garden roses, magnolias, dogwoods and other flora.

• Tour at your own pace on the Historic Homes Tour, where front and side yard gardens and lawns are maintained as part of the homes’ beauty. Stop first at the Covington Welcome Center at 1143 Oak Street to pick up the brochure or download it here.
  Note: These are self-guided architectural tours where gardens are part of the thrill when viewed from sidewalks only.
• Guided filming location tours are offered by Mystic Falls Tours to see landmarks from The Vampire Diaries and other Covington film sites, including locations like the Lockwood Mansion and the home used as the Gilbert house.
• Take a trolley tour with Main Street Trolleys to see filming locations that represent Mystic Falls, Virginia; Sparta, Mississippi; Hazzard County, Georgia; and Serenity, S.C.; right here in Covington. Hear stories and get exclusive views of some of the most iconic places to appear in famous films made in Covington.