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Couple share beauty of garden with visitors
LIBERTY
Rodney Toth sees the beauty in all things green, and once a year he tries to share that beauty with the masses.
Toth works year-round in the gardens on his Church Hill-Hubbard Road property tending to various types of plant life, but each Labor Day weekend he and his wife, Kay, open the property to spectators, whip up some punch and provide entertainment for visiting experts and novice gardeners.
Toth retired from the Mineral Ridge school district in 1994 and joined the Men’s Garden Club of Youngstown. He began growing various dahlias, unusual varieties of tomatoes, peppers, hostas, coleus, annuals and perennials. He decided 15 years ago that his work should be shared with everyone.
The gardens attract between 300 and 600 people to the property every year.
“I just thought to myself why not invite people out,” he said. “Everybody comes out, not just gardeners. People just enjoy being in the garden. People come from long distances every year like Cleveland and Akron. One guy comes from Indiana.”
Toth has created several garden stations across the property and does all the planting and general care himself. He said the project becomes a daily task with most of the plants being uprooted and taken inside during the winter.
“I just get a feeling of enjoyment. It’s not really work when you enjoy it,” he said.
Toth’s love of gardening is evident with one glance across the property. His last name is spelled out in large block letters in red and gold Fresh Look Celosia.
There also is a 40-foot-long gourd arbor in the garden with bottle gourd, apple gourd and dipper gourd hanging from the wooden slats inside. The gourds can be used for various projects.
Toth has created eight triangular sections to the garden — one for each of the couple’s grandchildren — with plants such as “chocolate-cherry tomatoes,” “pumpkin on a stick,” “fuzzy wuzzy cucumbers,” “megaton cabbage,” “teddy bear sunflowers,” “strawberry popcorn” and “voo-doo lily.” Each plant is in some way a reflection of each of the grandchildren.
The garden includes seven varieties of tomatoes, some as large as 3 pounds. Toth does not know the proper name for one type of tomato growing in the garden but has named it after the man who provided him the seeds — “Augie.”
“He liked them, and I liked them, too, so he gave me the seeds. They don’t get very big, but they sure are good,” he said.
John Schinkeo, a member of the Men’s Garden Club of Youngstown, came out to enjoy the garden with his fellow club members. He said gardening for himself, Toth and other members of the club is something in the blood.
“I am the youngest of seven, so we had a garden out of necessity. I swore that when I got older I would not have a garden or grass, but it just somehow got in my blood,” he said.
Schinkeo said there is a definite love for gardening shared among club members, but the hobby does serve a purpose.
He said the group sells mums with the proceeds going to charity. The group will have a mum sale Saturday at Fellows Riverside Gardens in Mill Creek MetroParks.