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Volunteers sought to tend garden at Women’s Park
Volunteers who give time to Warren garden are welcomed with open arms
By LINDA M. LINONIS
WARREN
Volunteers in the Women’s Park get “sweaty and dirty,” but as dedicated gardeners, they love it that way.
“We get so many compliments on the garden,” said Marti Flint, vice president of the Upton Association board of directors. She and Darlyn Gardiner, also on the board, coordinate volunteers in the Women’s Park.
Volunteers meet at 9:30 a.m. Wednesdays at the park that faces Mahoning Avenue Northwest, across the street from the Harriet Taylor Upton Association, 380 Mahoning Ave. NW.
Wearing their pink shirts with “Women’s Park” stitched on them, gardening gloves and boots, volunteers spend a few hours each week pulling weeds, deadheading flowers, cleaning the pond and doing general garden chores.
Volunteers who can give time in the garden, whether regularly or occasionally, are welcomed with open arms. There is a core group of volunteers who live in Trumbull County.
The Upton Association sells bricks used on the pathways and courtyards in the park. The bricks are inscribed with the names of women. Sally Mazer, a board member and brick chairwoman, said about 1,000 bricks have been sold. It’s an ongoing project. Though some of the bricks are in memory of those who have passed, many are in honor of women who can enjoy seeing their names and inscriptions when they visit the park.
When the park was in the planning stage, Mazer and Sue Herman, also on the board, visited various gardens to acquire ideas. “Then we got all the details worked out,” Herman said.
A focal point is a bronze statue of a young woman holding a book behind her back.
“The book behind her back hints at the inner self,” Flint said.
A large urn, filled with plants, is another point of interest in the butterfly garden, where cone flowers, black-eyed Susans and butterfly bushes are planted. Flint said the garden features an array of hostas, boxwood and many perennials. “We fill in with annuals for more color,” she said. “It’s a work in progress.”
Just like many other gardens in the Valley, the plantings in the Women’s Park were hurt by the harsh winter.
Flint said volunteers continue to work on damaged sites, replanting what didn’t come back and adding new plantings.
The women said the park is a destination for wedding parties and graduates.
Flint said brides dressed in Harley Davidson gear to traditional white gowns have their photos taken in the park.
The park and the Upton House also are tour destinations for Warren fourth-graders through a grant from Trumbull 100 that provides bussing.
“We all have gardens at home,” Gardiner said, noting volunteers give so much time to the Women’s Park.
“It’s work, but there’s a lot of rewards because we’ve all formed new friendships,” she continued. “Gardening is therapeutic.”
Kay Fisher, one of the original board members, described herself as the “financial person” involved in the Women’s Park.
The park, occupying a quarter acre next to city hall, was developed by the Upton Association to salute women.
That seems only natural because the association’s mission, as described on its website is to “preserve the memory of Harriet Taylor Upton.”
Upton, who lived in the Upton House on Mahoning Avenue for 60 years, was prominent in the women’s suffrage movement led by Susan B. Anthony.
The house was the temporary center of the National American Woman Suffrage Association in 1903.
The park doesn’t focus on Upton, but celebrates women in general.
Fisher said the park was dedicated in 2003.
The land came from the homestead of Henry Perkins, a founder of Warren, whose home is now city hall, located next to the park. It was part of his gardens.
Fisher said the project cost about $117,000.
She and other volunteers raised funds by “selling the idea” to area businesses and community organizations, who “bought” sections of the garden.
The funds are used to maintain the park; the city mows the grass.
“The park is an appreciation of womanhood,” Fisher said, adding it’s a serene place to visit.