West Dundee planting party a success

Everyone who participated in West Dundee’s spring cleanup Saturday said the same thing — they couldn’t believe how many volunteers showed up.

“I didn’t expect so many people from the community to be here,” said Molly Ahern, a junior at West Dundee High School in Carpentersville.

“It was really nice to see that there were adults and little kids, too,” said her classmate, Sara Tompkins.

The two were among 52 volunteers who worked for nearly three hours Saturday morning to pick up shrubs and debris, and also planted, trimmed and replaced plants such as petunias, hostas and irises in downtown West Dundee. Volunteers worked along Main Street between First and Second Streets and on Lincoln Avenue by the Fox River.

The initiative was a celebration of both Earth Day, on April 22, and Arbor Day, on April 29, said volunteer Kim Tibbetts, who works as the executive secretary for the village manager.

“It’s great that so many people wanted to participate in this and could have a say in the aesthetic of downtown,” she said.

The project’s master gardeners were resident Herman Tiedeman, who works for Midwest Groundcovers in St. Charles, and West Dundee trustee Becky Gillam, who works at Platt Hill Nursery in Carpentersville.

After the village did away with its landscaping contract three years ago, Gillam and a few friends did a small-scale clean up in 2009, Gillam said. Last year, she decided to turn that effort into the village’s first communitywide initiative. “The response has been great,” she said.

Some of Saturday’s work consisted of creatively redistributing existing plants. “There were a lot of plants that had been in the ground for 10 years and had grown a lot that we pulled and divided,” she said. “That way we save money and everyone benefits.”

Two more cleanup initiatives are scheduled for June 25 and Aug. 27. For information, call village hall at (847) 551-3800.