Thursday, September 18, 2014
Fellows Riverside Gardens hosts Small Garden Symposium
By LINDA M. LINONIS
YOUNGSTOWN
This week, for the first time in the 56-year history of Fellows Riverside Gardens, some 70 members of the American Public Gardens Association gathered at Mill Creek MetroParks for a Small Gardens Symposium titled “Moving Your Garden Forward.”
A creative project, “Gathered,” which was among opening activities Wednesday, took its cue from Fellows Riverside Gardens as a place where gardeners congregate to share plant tips, newlyweds come to be photographed and some 375,000 people visit annually for recreation, education and communing with nature. “Gathered,” a garden art piece, challenged participants to use natural materials to make something unique.
The natural artwork was created in the Outdoor Gallery in the Woodland Garden, where Tony Armeni, a Youngstown artist, and Anita Wesler, retired education manager at the park, supervised. “We had a rough idea to build three forms. ... The first is tepee-like,” Armeni said. The second, constructed mostly of donated bamboo, is wide enough to walk through. The third, a tall form, repeats the use of use of oak limbs and leaves in the other structures. “Visitors can continued to add to it. ... We have a supply of plant materials,” Wesler said.
Keith S. Kaiser, horticulture director, said the gardens association has some 20 sections that focus on various aspects of public gardens; he is chairman of the small-gardens section. “Small gardens are those with a budget under $1 million, and Fellows is just under that,” Kaiser said. Fellows covers 12 acres and includes the D.D. and Velma Davis Education and Visitor Center, which includes an art gallery, history museum, horticulture library, gift shop and meeting and banquet rooms.
“We’ve grown so much in the last 20 years,” said Kaiser, who has worked at Fellows for 25 years. “We will share that experience of growth and expansion.” He added, “We want to encourage participants that they can get things done with the money, time, volunteers and staff they have.”
Kaiser said the symposium has been more than a year in the making. “We want to show off what we have here,” Kaiser said, adding the event is a learning experience for participants. Like a garden that changes with the seasons, Fellows continues to offer new activities and programs. Kaiser said a canopy tree walk is in the works.
“We’re an urban garden close to the city,” Kaiser said. In fact, the sounds of birds calling, bees buzzing and squirrels squealing mix with the muffled noise of traffic from nearby Interstate 680 and local roads. City residents and workers may break up their day by stopping at the park to brown-bag it for lunch or sit quietly in Fellows’ gazebo to read a book while mothers and children meander through the gardens.
He noted Fellows is a part of the “richness of public gardens in Ohio” that includes Toledo Botanical Gardens, Stan Hywet Hall and Gardens in Akron, Holden Arboretum in Willoughby and Franklin Park Conservatory in Columbus.
Kaiser said Fellows and the park in general are destinations for Valley residents and out-of-town visitors. “They don’t just drive by,” he said. “This is a great place for relaxation and enjoyment. And you can learn something about the plants here,” he said. Kaiser noted that the gardens added beehives to enhance natural pollination and are focusing on native plants including goldenrod, iron weed and milkweed.