MBGC: Welcome back to the garden

It’s June, and I’m happy to be back in Center Moriches and walk around my garden. We still have not had a regular meeting, but this month all members who feel comfortable are invited see to Paula Schmidt’s daylily garden. We ask that everyone wear their mask, brings a chair and a box lunch.

Have you noticed that the Bank Street Park in downtown Center Moriches now has a Blue Star Memorial plaque installed? I want to give you a little history about these markers. After WW II, the National Garden Club wanted to do something to honor the service of all veterans. It started with the Jersey Project when Mrs. Lewis Hull, president of a NJ garden club, got approval from the NJ highway commissioner to plant 1,000 dogwood trees along a five-mile highway designated as The Blue Star Drive. It was named for the blue star in the service flag that hung in windows of homes to honor servicemen and woman. By 1947 the Blue Star Memorial Highway Program was adopted by all member clubs; it was the first program undertaken by garden clubs on a national level. The program has been extended to place markers in parks as well as highways, and the plaque reads, “A tribute to the Armed Forces of America.”

Steven Rosche contacted our club last fall and said he would like to place a blue star marker in one of our parks as his Eagle Scout project. We were thrilled to sponsor him and gave him a guidebook from the national club and offered assistance. He made all the necessary contacts with the park commissioner, Moriches Chamber of Commerce, etc. Along with Troop 414, Steven did fundraising and made flower boxes for park. The MBGC agreed to plant perennials around the marker. Betty Ronston, Eileen DeRicco, Lillie Brown and myself did that last month. A big thank you to Bay Gardens of East Moriches for donating five ‘blue star’ juniperus squamata and a bag of organic fertilizer. Also, a big thank you to Steven Rosche and BSA Troop 414.

The Banks Street Park is a lovely, quiet place; it has several tables and is nicely landscaped. The park is dedicated to Keith Romaine, a Brookhaven councilman who passed away in 2009. Take a minute to sit a spell in the park.