PRUNING THE LANDSCAPE OF HISTORY AT MAY GREENE GARDEN

Amid the riotous color of red hollyhocks and yellow-and-burnt orange daisies, Larry Bohnsack prunes away with the quiet confidence of a master gardener.

For her, it's a labor of love -- helping to restore the landscape of history at the May Greene Garden.

"The spot has been a garden since before the Civil War," said Bohnsack, one of about 20 to 25 people who have hoed, fertilized, planted and pruned the tiny plot of ground at the corner of Themis and Fountain streets into a gem of a garden.

There was a garden plot there before Ruth Greene arrived from Marble Hill shortly after the Civil War. Greene planted a new garden at the site, which was located next to her home -- a pre-Civil War, yellow-brick house that stood at the end of end of the garden until it was razed in 1964 for a bank parking lot.

The garden is named after Greene's daughter, May, who was a prominent teacher in the Cape Girardeau public school system for 53 years, from 1879 to 1932.

Over the years, May Greene served as principal at the Broadway, Lorimier and Washington schools. One of the city's elementary schools was named in her honor on May 21, 1929.

May Greene, who resided in the family home, maintained the garden following the death of her mother in 1914.

When May Greene died in 1948, her half-sister Nell Nicodemus returned from Colorado to reside in the family home and maintain the garden. Miss Nell, as she was called, died in November 1962.

In December 1963, the house became the property of then First Federal Savings and Loan, which tore down the house for a parking lot in 1964.

The remainder of the May Greene site was purchased by the federal government.

When the old post office was torn down and a new Federal Building constructed just to the north of the garden, there was talk of turning the site into a parking lot.

"The newly-organized Cite de la Rose Garden Club took on the task of saving it from being buried under concrete," Bohnsack said.

"In 1968, they worked hard to gain permission from Uncle Sam to restore the garden, even appealing to Lady Bird Johnson who responded with a letter of assistance," said Bohnsack.

The club leased the garden site under a series of three-year contracts. Club members planted and cared for the garden until the organization folded in 1980. After that, a few former members continued to maintain the garden for three more years, until their money and energies were exhausted.

In 1983, the federal government took control of the garden again.

"Without the tender loving care of true gardeners, with indifferent mowing practices, as well as age, the garden deteriorated rapidly. Trees became damaged and had to be removed, and the constant mowing of the bulb tops caused an end to their blooms," recalled Bohnsack.

By March of 1988, the garden was little more than a vacant lot. "All that remained was one lovely magnolia tree that the garden club had planted and a sea of Bermuda grass," remembered Bohnsack.

The federal government's General Services Administration talked again of turning the site into a parking lot.

But aided by the efforts of Cape Girardeau's park board, a group of Cape Girardeau residents, including Bohnsack, banded together to save the site and restore the garden.

On July 11, 1988, the May Greene Garden Association was organized and a list of immediate needs was drawn up.

"It was formidable and any sensible group would have said, `forget it," recalled Bohnsack, a retired vocal music teacher.

The group had no money, no usable water line to the property (the only water line was buried under the financial institution's parking lot), Bermuda grass had to be killed and new grass planted before winter, and the city's parks department said it would provide no help until all the planting was completed.

A telephone fund drive, however, brought in a little money and the project was precariously launched.

Through various donations, the group obtained the funds to buy some trees. The garden is now home to three dogwoods and a crab apple tree. Two boxwoods, whose origins were in the garden, have been returned and replanted in the flowering lot.

The group decided to replace two chat walks with brick ones, obtaining 5,000 bricks from the razing of the old shoe factory.

Bohnsack said they thought the bricks were free. They were, but the group was presented with a $500 bill for cleaning them.

So another money-making project commenced. This time, the association decided to sell gardening aprons.

"During this period," recalled Bohnsack, "I almost lost my happy home for my husband would arrive home to a house full of friends with their sewing machines, cutting shears and half-finished yellow aprons everywhere."

Fortunately, more than 100 people bought the aprons and the needed funds were raised.

But the group still faced financial hurdles, as the city wouldn't take over maintenance of the garden until it was completed.

"Here we were with several thousand bricks stored on the spot where the azaleas and Dave Niswonger's iris bed were to be planted, and no one had come forth to lay the brick sidewalks, and there were no funds to buy mortar or sand.

"Furthermore, we were being charged each month for water and trash pickup and occasional mowing when we ran out of volunteers," said Bohnsack.

By the summer of 1989, the group was almost broke, at one point getting down to a meager $7 in its bank account.

The group managed to limp through with a letter-writing S.O.S. campaign and a refund of city trash fees.

Eventually, more donations came in and the brick sidewalks were laid.

In the fall of 1990, vandals destroyed a dogwood tree, which had to be replaced. A 4-foot-tall hemlock was found missing in the spring of 1991, presumably taken by some Christmas thief, Bohnsack said.

In the fall of 1991, the garden was finally finished and a dedication ceremony was held.

The city now mows the grass, there's an iris-surrounded birdbath, plenty of petunias, a water line to the property, and an information-laden wooden kiosk and sign built by a Boy Scout for his Eagle project.

The garden has frequent visitors, ranging from Federal Building employees to steamboat passengers. Girl Scouts have picnicked in the garden.

"We have something blooming in all seasons, from early spring until the killing frost," said Bohnsack.

But while the city mows the grass, the handy gardeners still volunteer countless hours maintaining the flowers and shrubs.

Bohnsack often visits the garden several times a week. And the garden still has a major need.

The association wants to obtain an automatic watering system, which could cost at least $2,000 to $3,000.

"What we want is a system that's buried and can come on at 3 in the morning and go off by itself, so we don't soak our neighbors," she said.

Right now, volunteers like Bohnsack must drag hoses around the small lot, getting soaked both by sweat and water.

Securing an automatic watering system will require some more fund raising, but Bohnsack has no doubt the group can meet its goal. For Bohnsack and her fellow gardeners, the roots of success run deep.