The young trees in the Ward Parkway median from Gregory Boulevard to 75th St. will someday shelter walkers and joggers from the sun and wind. But for now, they need their own protection.

That’s why volunteers from the Ward Parkway Homes Association spent a recent Saturday morning spreading mulch around approximately 180 trees.

The mulch will prevent the trunks from getting slashed by lawn mowers and weed wackers, says Linda Harris, landscaping chairperson for the association. That can kill the fledgling trees, she says.

She says the association has a good partnership with the city.

“Because we’ve shown interest, they’ve shown interest,” she says.

The Kansas City Parks and Recreation Department provided the mulch, but due to budget constraints could not have supplied the manpower, says Bob Facer, inspector and landscape technician for the department’s south region.

He says the city mows the lawn and trims the trees, but cannot afford to do much else. That’s where the neighborhood association comes in.

“For us to provide a dollar and have it turn into two dollars, it’s great; it’s gold; it’s the best thing that can happen for us,” he says.

Tom Hogan, a longtime volunteer with the association, says the median collaboration started about five years ago.

He and other residents noticed Ward Parkway south of Gregory Blvd. needed improvement. With a neighborhood grant, the homes association purchased trees and shrubs, and the city planted them.

These included disease resistant elms, a symbolic tree for the Ward Parkway neighborhood. In 1930, the Daughters of the American Revolution dedicated 441 elm trees from Meyer Blvd. to about 76th St.—one for every Kansas City soldier killed in World War I. Most of the elms have died of old age or Dutch elm disease.

The association agreed to weed and mulch the beds in the islands. 

Hogan says at first people didn’t get the design. They saw shrubs and tiny trees, some of them planted asymmetrically. But he says there is a Zen involved in the layout of the evergreen, hardwoods and flowering trees.

“These trees, a lot of them will be here 100 years,” he says. “This will be a big improvement for the neighborhood and I think for the city because a lot of people drive by on Ward Parkway.”

On Saturday, Hogan was mulching a bed of wild roses.

Looking south on Ward Parkway, he says, “I think the neighborhood continues to improve. It’s just all the invisible things that go on behind the scenes.”

Harris says about eight volunteers signed up to work on Saturday. She’d like to recruit more.

“It’s kind of like a work party. It’s a barn raising and the barn’s in little tiny pieces,” she says.   

Islands in the street:

that is what they mulch

By Bridget Heos

bheos@dispatchtribune.com

A reprint of an article from

The Wednesday Magazine

October 27, 2004

Tom Hogan - past chair of Beautification Committee

Linda Harris - current chair of Beautification Committee