Mission Oaks Gardens: Green Space for All

Mighty Gardens from Little Yards Grow



After visiting the Chelsea Flower Show in London in 1990, Susan Hendley made the “mistake” of telling her husband Bert that they should have a garden of their own at the home in Zanesville they had recently bought and renovated.



As Susan says, “This is his idea of a garden,” referring to present day Mission Oaks Gardens--more than 5 acres filled with hundreds of trees—including 200 kinds of conifers and 25 kinds of magnolia—1,200 varieties of perennials, two ponds, a spectacular rocky waterfall, a bog garden, and numerous azaleas and rhododendrons, just to mention some of the attractions.



The Hendleys formed the non-profit Mission Oaks Gardens Foundation to operate the Gardens as a community education garden getting more children and their parents outdoors. In 2010, they donated the Gardens to the Muskingum Valley Park District, with the Foundation doing the day-to-day operations. The gardens are now protected forever as green space and open to the public from dawn to dusk seven days a week.



They named the Gardens for the Mission Revival style of their 1920s era home and the mature white oaks in a ravine behind their house.



The name also reminds that the gardens have a mission. As Bert says, it is to preserve green space and introduce the public to plants they may not be familiar with, those not typically available at garden centers and those not thought to grow well in central Ohio. Susan adds that the mission is also to show the importance of parks to families, giving children a chance for outdoor recreation.



One of the secrets to Bert’s success it that he joins garden societies dedicated to each plant he wants to learn more about, including ivy, hosta, conifer, rhododendron, azalea, and holly.



There are three sections to the Gardens: a 1 ½ acre conifer garden with 300 trees—many not native to North America—and a large pond and a spectacular rock waterfall; a 1/4 -acre perennial garden with the classic color chart arrangement, from red to blue; and a 2-acre woodland garden.



The Gardens have so many plants and varieties, I can hardly do them justice as a beginning gardener—starting with the rhododendrons and azaleas near the entrance and on to serviceberry, magnolia, holly, maple, persimmon, dogwood, buckeye, and evergreen trees, to hellebores and primrose. They include unusual weeping versions of familiar trees, like redbud and cypress. Bert plans to add more native plants in the future.



Along with almost every plant you get a story relating to things like the variety’s origins and even Bert’s recipe for an organic fertilizer for rhododendron along with the advice to plant container-grown rhododendron a bit above ground and then cover with pine bark mulch.

 

But his main advice, offered repeatedly and pointedly on a tour I took on May 25, was that you’ll never know what will work in your garden unless you try it. He’s found success with many plants that were said not to be hardy enough to survive in Ohio.



The Gardens grew over time as properties came up for sale. He bought one such property, which included a dump. To clear it, Bert had to cart away over 50 dump loads of everything from refrigerators to invasive plants. But he found that the clay shards from a former manufacturer of decorative tiles provided the perfect drainage for part of the conifer garden, which includes conifers from a wide range of areas, including China, Japan, and Korea. He found that many of these conifers don't mind Ohio's cold winters, as long as they can keep their "feet" dry.



The sight of what he did with that property caused an adjacent neighbor to offer the use of some of her land for the gardens. Then an estate sale gave the Park District the chance to buy another property. And, a neighbor leaving town sold his property to the Park District. That land had auto parts buried by a mechanic in the 1930s, near a large sewer ditch. The Mayor of Zanesville at the time made a deal with Bert--if he paid for the pipes the town would install them since it would help keep Zanesville's waterways clean. It took Bert six months to clean the area of car parts and invasive plants, with care taken not to disturb the natural terrain.


Bert admires what Karen Buchwald of the Ariel Corporation does for Mt. Vernon, such as expanding Foundation Park and believes that this gives Mt. Vernon an edge over many other small towns without such great parks--an edge he hopes Zanesville also has with the Mission Oaks Gardens.



The tour of the Mission Oaks Gardens was the fifth event in the “13th Annual Explore the Nature of Knox County” series. I went to the sixth event, the Brown Family Environmental Center’s “Frogs and Tadpoles Family Adventure Day”, at Kenyon College, in Gambier, Ohio, on July 5. Anyone doubting the value of parks to families should take a look at some of the photos I took that day.



The Brown Center collaborates in the series, along with the Knox County Park District, Mission Oaks Gardens, and the Ramser Arboretum. The next event will be at 10 a.m. on July 26, at the Guy Denny wildflower prairie in Fredericktown.



Denny is an advisor to the Owl Creek Conservancy, which sponsors the series, and shares the Mission Oaks Gardens goal of preserving green space.



For more information on the Mission Oaks Gardens go to http://missionoaksgardens.org. For information on the “Explore the Nature of Knox County” series and the Owl Creek Conservancy, go to: www.owlcreekconservancy.org.

Also check out my website:  www.doncomis.simplesite.com.

Bert Hendley shows our tour group one of the many scenic spots at the Mission Oaks Gardens, a treasure he has donated to the public, forever.  (Photo by Don Comis)

Bert Hendley points out some trees to a group touring as part of the "13th Annual Explore the Nature of Knox County" series.  (Photo by Don Comis)

Bert Hendley points out the residential neighborhood the Mission Oaks Gardens sits in the midst of, something rare for showy gardens.  (Photo by Don Comis)

You can get an idea of Bert's friendly, thoughtful manner, as he leads of tour of Mission Oaks Gardens, in Zanesville, Ohio.  (Photo by Don Comis)
 

 

Bert Hendley talks to his dog (hidden in shade in far right), as well as to  plants.  (Photo by Don Comis)

Richard Stallard, Owl Creek Conservancy trustee and retired Kenyon College professor, (wearing black hat, far left) listens, along with others on tour, to Bert Hendley near the Hendleys home at the entrance to Mission Oaks Gardens.  (Photo by Don Comis)

Before the tour begins, Stallard talks with landowner who came to learn more about the rights and responsibilities involved in granting easements to conservancy organizations such as the Owl Creek Conservancy.  (Photo by Don Comis)