New landscaping for a Lincoln Highway monument

At the John Andrew Hopley monument on golf course property on the Lincoln Highway, junior gardeners from Peas in a Pod and Nuts about Nature were supported by parents and friends as they managed plantings.

For numerous decades a stone monument standing on the front of the golfing course property close to Ohio 330 on the Lincoln Freeway has been somewhat forgotten. For me it seemed smaller. It was the six towering evergreen trees that may have contributed to that idea.

This monument was assembled to honor John Andrew Hopley. The stones used to build the special marker came from quite a few sources. It was erected and dedicated in August 1929.

Months ago Elaine Gebhardt Naples contacted me. A eyesight was borne. We talked with Mike Hocker of Galion who shares a passion for nearly anything similar to the Lincoln Memorial Freeway. That was true of Hopley also.

Enthusiastically I drafted a grant proposal seeking some funding to begin a target on this just one-of-a-kind monument. The Ohio Affiliation of Yard Golf equipment Foundation was good about flowers, shrubs, soil and mulch. The intention was to use junior gardeners sponsored by the Earth, Wind and Flowers Backyard Club to launch an effort and hard work to have individuals detect the monument.

On July 1, a blended group of customers of Peas in a Pod and Nuts About Character, some moms and dads and two friends joined forces. In two several hours a curved trench was dug even with persistent roots. Twelve bags of soil additives had been mixed and blended. We experienced water with a weak fertilizer solution prepared.

Crops involved four boxwood shrubs, two clumps of Karl Foerster grasses, two substantial pots of geraniums, a flat of purple and white petunias and two flats of white lobelia.

There had been lots of cones from the evergreens flanking the monument that ended up raked up and disposed of close by. Let me share that the old evergreens were pruned by Oberlanders a couple weeks earlier. It manufactured a massive difference in bringing visibility to this tribute to Hopley. We mulched the place. Six other members who were being on holiday vacation will complete this endeavor.

Making this step ahead along with me were Janet Nance, Carissa and Abi Chester, Jessa Coons and sons Eli and Nehemiah, Becky and Mike Prenger and sons Owen and Weston, Kyle Smith and his mother, Amy and Logan Laipply and his mom, Emily.

Tags: Highway, landscaping, Lincoln, monument