Park Volunteers Apply Polish to Madison Gems

On a recent walk, I came across someone doing something for free that she wouldn't do for money. She was sitting on the ground weeding the gravel of the Lake Mendota jetty near the Tenney Park locks.  Her advanced age and the close presence of her dog told me she wasn't a park employee, as well as the hand-weeding she was doing in an era of limited budgets and limited mowing.

Sure enough, a friendly conversation yielded the fact that she was a regular volunteer who lives near Tenney Park and tends several of its garden features, as well as the wonderful plantings around the Gates of Heaven synagogue in James Madison Park. A retired Madison high school teacher, "Gigi" said that she weeds the jetty an hour at a time, and if she didn't, "the weeds would be up to your shoulder by the fall."

It turns out that many of the Madison parks have volunteer labor behind their beauty: unsung people whose gardening skills are put to use for the benefit of the public. A great example is Period Garden Park on East Gorham Street, a downtown neighborhood gem which is almost entirely maintained by volunteers.

The People for Parks program organizes many such efforts, and coordinates volunteer opportunities and donations. This Saturday morning, June 28, for example, you can help at a garlic mustard pulling event at Edna Taylor Park.

Like many other public institutions, our parks depend not only on our taxes, but also on many donations of money and time of which we often are unaware.

- Barry Orton

Comments

[Brenda Konkel]

No kidding! The amount of hours spent by volunteers, often invisible, to make our parks beautiful is AMAZING!!!

[Susannah Brooks]

Don't forget the Master Gardeners. They require a certain amount of "public service" gardening to stay certified, I think. My mom, in particular, has taken care of various City-County beds and has maintained the Forest Hill Cemetery plantings by the entrance for several years. (Yes, she's the one who does the giant asparagus and bird's nests, etc.) Some of the other Master Gardeners help out with projects like shepherding newer community gardens (Quann Park).

[Dan Sebald]

It's also a community sort of thing. When I was in Madison, I always enjoyed helping out from time to time in the nearby park when there was an organized planting or weeding. It's a small group of people from the neighborhood one wouldn't meet otherwise.