Fenway Victory Gardens: Events

2010 NEWS:
Coming Soon: New Park Trees! Grow Boston Greener has approved Fenway Garden Society's application for funding for the planting of 4 new trees historically selected from the Olmsted list and matched for soil and siting conditions in the park. 3 red maples will be under planted in the picnic area where current stands of trees are performing poorly, with the goal of providing continuous urban canopy in areas with poor drainage. Additionally, one black tupelo will replace the failing plum tree across the road, near the wheelbarrow yard. Anyone interested in helping water these trees during 2010 can write to us and volunteer.

Because of a donation of 135 man-hours of volunteer time to the tree preservation effort from three local residents, arborist Ben Dushku, owner of Greenstar Tree Company in Watertown, MA, along with independent animal activist, Bertram Hickman of Boston, and the help of a fellow gardener, the FGS is having $10,000 worth of needed tree work done in the garden for free.

The Fenway Garden Society is responsible for maintaining all of the trees in the Victory Gardens, including the Park trees planted by Richard Parker. Gardeners are responsible for maintaining any non-park trees that are located in their own gardens.

Over the last few years we have spent thousands of dollars of gardener's money to prune and maintain the park trees.

For many years, the trees have been a burden to the FGS budget, often maintained out of necessity or desperation at the end of the year, rather than as part of a planned maintenance program.

Trees must be pruned and maintained on a regular basis for overall health and wellbeing. This year, three trees were condemned, and pruning of dead and dangerous limbs were mandated by a City of Boston arborist.

It was estimated that park trees will need about 45 hours of work by a certified arborist. This year we have secured an amazing opportunity where we have an arborist who has volunteered to donate almost $10,000 in needed tree work for the garden for free.

To take advantage of this opportunity, we invited the Parks department to tour the garden and assess the health of each tree and approve the project. We have identified all of the trees that need immediate attention for safety and health of the overall canopy in the gardens, and began our action plan October 8, 2008.

We received approval to prune the hawthorn trees along Boylston, and save several trees using limbing techniques where the trees would otherwise die and require removal. In addition, we received approval to prune the apple trees along Boylston that have been struggling in past years, and have become very dangerous.

Some trees were condemned for safety reasons, including a badly damaged and split apple tree near the special needs garden that is split in half (already removed), an oak tree (already removed) that was killed by excessive flooding where the picnic tables used to be, and lastly, a giant cottonwood in the back that was struck by lightning.

The arborist has agreed to do this work, and has also created a plan that will save the cottonwood by selective pruning, rather than outright removal, and on October 29 the cottonwood pruning was completed. The arborist has already pruned the oaks by the center path and removed all three condemned trees.

Once all of the park trees are in compliance, meaning all dead and dangerous limbs are pruned, all canopies that shade other trees are adjusted and properly pruned, plus all condemned trees are removed, the FGS will be working with the Historical Commission and Grow Boston Greener to locate sites to plant as many new trees as possible.

This began at the start of the 2008 season. Trees not on common park land which are in people's individual gardens are not considered park trees. These trees are required to meet the guidelines outlined in the rules and regulation where they cannot exceed 5 feet in height - or existing trees must be clear up to 5 feet and cannot shade other gardens.

Compliance with these regulations has been lax in the past, and a point of contention when dealing with the city. This year, gardener trees are in better compliance than ever, thanks to a massive effort. There are still some gardeners who refuse to comply, or will not cooperate, but more than half of all trees identified as a serious problem have been corrected this year.

Gardeners who have trees in their own gardens that are existing and over 5 feet tall must file a compliance plan.

Gardeners can download an existing tree compliance plan here .pdf

In 2003 the FGS spent $3,250 on cutting down 3 trees condemned by Parks. Rather than spend over $10,000 to prune and take down sick or condemned trees this year, we have this staggering opportunity to use a highly skilled arborist who is donating his time.

Once the maintenance has been completed, we should also have a complete map of the gardens and list of every tree, with location, species, approximate age, health and ongoing maintenance recommendations. A valuable tool we have never had in the past.

We will use this map to determine which trees are most appropriate for planting. Once historical approval and city approval is obtained and agreed, we will move into the fourth phase where we actually start planting new trees.

After approval, a certified arborist, the FGS and the Historical Commission will make a request to Grow Boston Greener, a campaign to plant 100,000 new trees in the city by the year 2020, to plant as many new trees as the Victory Gardens can support.

Working with GBG, the FGS will hopefully start planting these new trees by next year. To make this work, we will need gardeners to volunteer to be caretakers for these new trees while they are in their infancy to ensure their ultimate success. More news and a call for volunteers will follow when phase three is complete.

The last phase of the tree plan is to establish an annual maintenance plan where all garden trees, and park trees receive the regular care they need. By updating the map and planning preventative tree maintenance, the FGS will be able to plan for the expense of routine pruning, and maintain a much healthier tree population.

If you have any questions about this tree plan, or you wish to contribute money for the trees in the park, or know of available grants for this type program, please contact Richard Rogers at: richard@richard-rogers.com.