The Beacon Hill Garden Club and the Peter Faneuil House/Joy Street Residences have formed a partnership to improve the tree canopy and gardens along Joy and South Russell streets.
Beacon Hill Garden Club members created the garden as a gift for South Russell Street and Joy Street residents in the early 1990s. Since then the club’s members, with help from neighbors, have taken care of the garden, planting, pruning and maintaining it through its Civic Beautification committee, chaired now by Marjorie Greville and Miguel Rosales.
Last spring the co-chairs noticed the trees had grown substantially and were in need of pruning. They approached Margarita Rosa, the property manager for Rogerson Communities, which owns the properties, to create a partnership to prune 15 trees. Rogerson and the garden club agreed to split the cost of the pruning evenly.
Currier Landscaping Company finished the work last week. Pruning is important to the health of trees. Removing dead, dying or diseased branches prevents the spread of decay. Trees benefit from increased sun exposure and air circulation promoting the growth of new, healthy leaves and branches. Pruning allows adjacent and understory plants to get more sunlight. In addition, pruning reduces the chances of diseased or weak limbs falling and causing accidents. Finally the shape and appearance of the tree can be substantially improved with proper pruning.
“As one of the Beacon Hill Garden Club Co-Chair for Civic Planting we are very pleased to be able to help improve the tree canopy at the Peter Faneuil Gardens,” Rosales said. “Tree pruning is a vital task to ensure the health and well being of trees in Beacon Hill. We encourage other groups and neighbors to prune their private trees on a regular basis. The City of Boston Parks Department can also accept requests via 3-1-1 for the pruning of trees on sidewalks and parks.”
The Beacon Hill Garden Club strongly recommends periodically pruning trees in the neighborhood, whether along the street or in a private courtyard. The best time to prune is in late fall or early winter as branches and leaves have stopped growing, and there is less danger of insects and bacteria attacking the tree’s wounds as many of these pests are dormant during cold weather.
The Peter Faneuil House gardens are open to the public. They are located at 60 Joy St. with a second entrance on the South Russell Street side.