Labor of love keeps flower boxes blooming

Nancy Kunkle waters a flower box on Hilliard Boulevard.

Most gardeners have an ongoing list: weed, water and dead-head. Simple enough for one garden, but imagine checking off that list for 219 gardens which do not even belong to you.

Nancy Kunkle, Westlake city gardener extraordinaire, is tasked with that job from May to September. For sixteen years, she has tended the Hilliard Boulevard gardens with the care that only a true lover of flowers would take.

Back in 1994 when she was raising two children, working at one full-time and one part-time job, she noticed that rain alone was not enough to keep the flowers on the boulevard looking their best. "I would see these boxes, some of them were taken care of, but most of them weren't," Nancy recalled.

So she called John Lehlbach, Westlake's Service Director at the time, with her concern. Mr. Lehlbach approached Mayor Clough to ask if he would hire Nancy to care for the flowers. Thus began her labor of love, first evenings and weekends and finally throughout the week all summer long.

Nancy starts her day by filling up the 100-gallon water tank on her city truck from a fire hydrant at Clague Park, and then heads out to water, weed and dead-head the flower boxes on Hilliard Boulevard. Depending on the dryness of the boxes, she refills her tank ten to twenty times over the 2 1/2 days required to water all of the 219 flower boxes.

"I love the job, being outdoors, seeing people I've met over the years walking down the sidewalk. And it's a great job because flowers don't complain. But I will not miss the traffic on Hilliard; no one goes 35 miles per hour, at times it's like a speedway."

This year, Nancy plans to retire and she will be hard to replace. What will Nancy do after her retirement?

"Then I'll be able to care for my own garden," she said with a laugh.

Nancy's dedication to keeping the Hilliard flowers blooming will be missed.