By John Burton
RED BANK – Riverside Gardens Park is getting a little bit more attention and love, courtesy of its “adopted” caregivers.
Rumson residents Bob and Karen Hespe and some friends spent part of their Sunday morning giving the West Front Street park a little extra TLC, planting two trees by the park’s entrance that they donated.
“This’ll be a nice addition for what I think is the jewel of Red Bank,” said Bob Hespe about the planting.
The Hespes own and operate Stirling Hands Gardening, Rumson, and have since about 2009 informally adopted the park. At that time, the couple first starting recruiting some volunteers and planted roses in areas of the picturesque park overlooking the Navesink River. Since then they and their friends have regularly come to the park a few times a year to do a little cleaning, pruning and upkeep on the park’s plantings. And in late summer 2013 they planted variegated liriope grass; spreading yew, a type of shrub; and mountain grasses along the park’s western edges.
“A garden is a living thing,” he said, “so, there’s always a need.”
Sunday they were planting two stewartia variety of trees. “They’re considered one of the great landscape trees,” he said. That variety will grow to a reasonably modest 25 feet in height and about 15 feet wide. They produce big white flower blossoms in the summer when most trees don’t flower, and a rich burgundy color during the autumn, he explained.
For the cold months, he noted, “They have extraordinarily interesting bark in the winter which makes them pop like a piece of sculpture.”
“They really are a four-season tree and that’s why we picked them,” he said.
“I’ve always been a public space guy, since I was about 16 and started hiking in parks,” Hespe offered as to his desire to help the park. He and his wife considered undertaking a public project and realized one day walking in the park that this location, while beautiful, could use a little help that the borough may not be able to offer, he said.
“And we’ve been picking away at it ever since,” he said, taking what he called “baby step after baby step,” on improving the location.
“They have a love; they have a talent; and they saw a need,” noted Memone Crystian, director of the borough’s Department of Parks and Recreation, labeling the couple “truly the epitome of community-minded citizens.”
Over the winter and spring the park had undergone substantial renovations, repairing damage caused by vandals and nature – especially Sandy in October 2012 –reopening it in early summer.
“I think it’s looking very good,” Hespe said. “And it’s been a pleasure to contribute to its resurgence.”
Riverside Gardens Park serves as a centerpiece for the much of the borough’s outdoor public activities, such as movie nights and concerts in the summer and the annual 9/11 memorial services. It’s regularly used for professional photo shoot backdrops, weddings and local school functions.
