davis_square | Save Boston's Rose Kennedy Greenway Gardens (Reply)

It's difficult sending out a plea to save a Boston garden while those in Haiti live with devastation. However, as a long-time Boston/Somerville resident and active urban gardener, I feel compelled to spread the word about the planned removal of the Boston Greenway Gardens. A number of the master gardeners from the Somerville Garden Club gave many hours to this project.

The Rose Kennedy Greenway Gardens were built at a cost of $850,000 (provided by the Massachusetts Horticultural Society) over the course of 2008. Hundreds of volunteers, helped by professional landscaping firms and arborists, created the gardens using a plan from Halvorson Design Associates.

The Greenway Conservancy's Leadership Council (which assumed control over the land parcels from the now-defunct Massachusetts Turnpike Authority in February 2009) wants to remove the gardens and replace them with hardscaping that would enable such activities as skating and a farmer's market. Sounds reasonable if there was not already plenty of hardscaping in the Greenway area. The Greenway Conservancy also cites the cost of maintenance. MassHort has repeatedly offered to maintain and improve the parcels at no cost to the Conservancy. The Conservancy has consistently declined the offer. Here is more information on the issue:

Emily Rooney's (WGBH "Greater Boston") nine-minute segment on the issue:
http://www.wgbh.org/programs/programDetail.cfm?programid=11&featureid=10297&rssid=1

There is also a Facebook site called "Save Boston's Greenway Gardens"
http://www.facebook.com/topic.php?uid=186933326855&topic=11846