In what may well be called a magnificent obsession, Brian Sakowski has created a stunning public garden on Arena Drive in Hamilton.
The garden is a public one because there’s no need to make an appointment or to buy a ticket to see this colorful creation, which fills the entire front of the property — even both borders of the sidewalk. Just drive or walk by and should you see Sakowski weeding or watering, stop and have a chat or two with him. Visitors are free, Sakowski says, to walk around the paths he designed to have a closer look at the various plantings.
Until 5 years ago, this garden was a typical green lawn, backed by a few shrubs next to Sakowski’s house. The rear of his property was another matter. There, Sakowski had been slowly transforming a bland back yard into a vibrant display.
That transformation began over 30 years ago, when a gardener on his Princeton letter carrier mail route gave him a clump of daffodils with the promise that once planted they would require no care other than cutting a bouquet or two for his wife, Anita. The daffodil bulbs performed as promised.
“They still flower every spring,” Sakowski says.
Soon, Sakowski was accepting donations from other gardeners on his mail route. It should be noted that such generosity masks a practical motive. When a gardener offers something to you, it means he or she will have more space for other plants. But gardeners do love to share and get other people excited about this activity.
While the Princeton gardeners passed on growing advice with their plant gifts, Sakowski decided to get a more formal horticultural education, and enrolled as a Master Gardener. Today, with that background and decades of experience, he is always happy to pass on gardening wisdom to others. And, after viewing his front yard garden, it is obvious that he has a lot to report.
In 2016, a friend suggested he submit his backyard garden to the annual Gardening Contest held by the Pennsylvania Horticultural Society. This competition celebrates the greater Philadelphia area’s collective gardening effort and has been known to drawn close to 1,000 entries. Sakowski gave his backyard a try and he, or rather his garden, won a Blue Ribbon, the highest prize.
Two things then happened to spur Sakowski on to display greater, public creativity.
First he was featured in the national Country Gardens magazine (now defunct as a result of circulation drop during the COVID-19 pandemic). That 2018 article reached almost 1 million readers. Many of these were located along Sakowski’s mail route as he made sure everyone knew about it.
Others were fellow members of St. Raphael-Holy Angels Parish in Hamilton. There, Father Gene announced one Sunday that Sakowski’s garden was featured in a national magazine, an honor that not many can claim.
By that time, Sakowski had pretty much run out of space in his backyard. There were still lots more bulbs, perennials, and shrubs he wanted to grow. And since most people could not see his back garden, he felt it time to show everyone what he could create in a more public space.
As one gets into gardening, which can be viewed as a living art form, design is crucial to a successful garden’s appearance. Through visits to other gardens throughout New England and the mid-Atlantic area and annual visits to the Pennyslvania Horticultural Society’s flower show, Sakowski had learned to appreciate and to harmonize plant texture, color, and height.
Over the years, he has acquired some favorites. “Perennial geraniums are my old time favorite,” he says. Of these, Biokovo stands out. This exceptionally easy care ground cover is evergreen, covered in white flowers for weeks in late spring, and boasts red and orange tinged foliage in fall and even into winter.
“Deer and rabbits leave it alone,” Sakowski notes, “and it thrives in shade to part sun. Native coneflowers are a close second. These perennial sun lovers have been bred to produce flowers in purple, orange, white, yellow, and red and they create an extravant display throughout summer. “They are super in cut flower arrangements too,” he adds.
All that history went into the creation of his front yard display. That plus a greater appreciation for the environment. He chooses plants that do not need excessive chemicals to survive and creates his own fertilizer that also works as a mulch to smother weeds.
This is a mixture of licorice root, compost from his vegetable garden, and leaves that he gathers and shreds. Second, he retired as a letter carrier last year.
Now with national coverage behind him and additional free time in front of him, Sakowski could not only fine tune his front garden but also more fully appreciate it. He calls it “a pollinator’s Disney World” as various bees busily hum about.
On an individual level he is combating the dramatic bee population decline that Rutgers scientists have documented this year.
It has also meant that he could almost get rid of the last remaining bit of lawn that needed to be cut. Sakowski is not a devotee of lawn cutting and even less of the loud, annoying noise of gas lawn cutters. Where the strip between the street and sidewalk was formerly all grass, it now features pockets of colorful bulbs in spring and perennials in summer.
So as the American slang expression introduced a century or more ago, states, “Come on by.” This public garden is easy to spot when you are on Arena Drive, and Sakowski encourages all to walk along the pathways and appreciate the rolling artistic display.
There is even a bench for those who would like to sit a minute or two. He urges visitors to return throughout the growing season, since the display is forever changing as flowers and their colors emerge and then fade only to be replaced by others.
“It’s never static,” he says, “and it’s wonderful to see how it develops week by week, month by month.”
The view of Brian Sakowski’s front yard from the street. (Photo by Brian Sakowski.),
