New garden at Route 6, Point Road island a ‘work of love’

MARION — The crossing of Route 6, Point Road and Delano Road forms a triangular island within the intersection of pavement. Previously, it was just an empty lot, but now the island is a garden of plants. It was years in the making.

The Marion Garden Group recently installed a garden bed in the site, which “features an abundance of perennials that are staged to provide a show of blooms all season,” an announcement said.

Leading the island-garden charge is the groups’ “beautification committee” led by Liz Hatch, Suzy Taylor and Phyllis Partridge.

Hatch said the garden was “a work of love.”

“It’s just a great story,” Hatch said.

The island is state property, so it took two years to get a sprinkler system installed in the garden, as they had to work with both the state and the town to get approval for it, according to Taylor. 

“Without self-watering, it would have been hard to maintain,” Hatch said.

The new plantings at the Route 6 and Point Road island constitute the fifth such garden installed by the Marion Garden Group and its beautification committee in about the last five years.

“When we started this, none of the islands were done,” Hatch said.

The final cost of the project was $77,000, according to the members of the beautification committee. An engineering company was needed in order to get state approval for the project, increasing the cost. 

The Marion Garden Group fundraised and received Community Preservation Committee funds, and the project was well-supported by the town, according to Hatch, Taylor and Partridge. 

But working with both the town and the state was like “chasing your tail,” Hatch said. The state, in particular, made things difficult.

But the beautification committee kept through it to “make Marion look more beautiful,” Partridge said.

“We’re proud of our town,” she said.