LYNN — At the Pennybrook entrance of Lynn Woods is a 1-square-acre rose garden that residents once enjoyed, but has since fallen into disrepair.
This spring, the trees around the garden were removed and a fence was installed using a $60,000 American Rescue Plan Act grant to prevent the deer in the reservation from eating the garden’s plants.
Lynn Woods Ranger Dan Small said the garden was restored in 1994, but over the decades, the deer population has increased to more than 200. These deer fed extensively on the plants in the garden, leaving it deteriorated and lifeless.
“We used to love the Rose Garden, and then this is where we ended up,” Small said.
Small said that the garden will once again have “nice climbing rose on all the trellises” and “roses all around” when landscaping begins.
Deer like to eat roses and rhododendrons, two of the staples of the original garden, Small said. Without the fence, the flowers and plants had to be wrapped with wire.
He said the garden was installed in the 1920s and has gone through several phases of deterioration and restoration since.
“So they destroyed the Rose Garden, destroyed a volunteer base, and now there’s nobody taking care of it, and it’s just sitting here,” Small said.
Small said the next step is to have a landscaping company repair and extend the irrigation system, re-mulch the gardening beds and replace the soil, and create a new lawn area, which he hopes to have finished by September.
Once the landscaping is finished, Small said the Friends of the Lynn Woods will provide funds to kickstart a community gardening club that will take care of planting and maintaining roses and other flowers in the garden.
Small said it will take around $5,000 per year to maintain the garden, which he said will come from the Friends of the Lynn Woods as well as revenue from hosting weddings and other events.
Small said the garden could easily host 200 people for an event such as a wedding once it is fixed up.
During the renovation, landscapers will also remove ledges to make the garden ADA-compliant.
Small said he has been working as a ranger at Lynn Woods for 24 years and will retire next year, so being able to complete the project before the end of the year would be a full-circle moment for him.
“So the roses are long gone. When I started working there, there were still roses up here, and it was pretty and there were climbing roses on the trellises,” he said.
Small added the deer started showing up just as he started working there, and within a few years the deer population started to quickly increase.
“Right now it’s a trainwreck,” he said, pointing to a barely visible, gray-looking rose on the ground. “We want to make it classy, that’s my vision.”
