The gardens were substantially complete when the Greenway was formally opened in October 2008. MassHort continued to make improvements – 10,000 daffodil bulbs were planted in December of that year together with more than a thousand Hellebores – and a sponsor was found for a dozen ‘winter interest’ planters. Little was done in January 2009 because, well, it was the dead of winter. But MassHort had already moved ahead on establishing a maintenance program for the Gardens, using its own staff and securing the cooperation of the 160-strong members of the Massachusetts Master Gardener Association, whose skills were also much in evidence in the building of the gardens.

Everything came to a screeching halt in early February 2009. At a Greenway Conservancy meeting, formal control of the Greenway passed from the Turnpike Authority to the Greenway Conservancy. That transfer formally terminated all subcontracts and licenses held between the Turnpike Authority and outside organizations, including MassHort. The Greenway Conservancy immediately informed MassHort that its services were no longer needed, and would it please remove those planters on its way out?

So, there was a plan and it was being executed. Anyone who says different hasn’t looked at the record.

I’m not a soil expert, but I know someone who is. I asked him about the compaction issues on the Greenway. He is adamant that whatever drainage and compaction issues are present can be easily and inexpensively remedied. There is no need to tear out the gardens. It is, in his opinion, simply an excuse. And, he says, when you’ve hired your own landscape architect before you’ve evebn taken soil samples, your plan isn’t to re-arrange a few perennials – you’re going to re-build from scratch.

So, what’s really happening? I’ll hazard a guess which may be right or may be way off base. The Greenway Gardens are the one piece of the Greenway over which the Conservancy exercised no oversight. MassHort built them and, against all odds (the financial imposion of the organization included), they succeeded brilliantly. But now there’s a new owner and the new owner wants to ‘redecorate’ as one would a house. Hire a designer and build what you want. It’s human nature.

The problem is that the Greenway Conservancy isn’t the ‘owner’ of the Greenway; it’s the steward of the park for thebenefit of the public. They have no Beacon-Hill-given ‘right’ to tear out gardens that (at least in my opinion) are the best part of the Greenway. The Conservancy is just doing so because the presence of the Greenway Gardens is annoying. Perhaps an appropriate analogy is that of a second marriage in which the new wife must daily pass through a living room decorated by the previous spouse. It may be impeccable, but it’s a constant irritant. And so, to alleviate that irritation, the Greenway Conservancy is fully prepared to tear out $850,000 worth of gardens and spend $1.5 million to replace them, with the taxpayers footing the bill.

Full disclosure: I was one of the volunteers who helped build the Greenway Gardens and I continue to do volunteer work with MassHort. My wife is a Master Gardener.

Neal Sanders