Fenway Victory Garden mourns old willow lost to Irene

August 29, 2011|By Sara Brown, Town Correspondent, Globe Staff

Pieces of the fallen willow, as well as limbs from another tree, spilled… ((Sara Brown for boston.com) )

(Sara Brown for boston.com)

Pieces of the fallen willow, as well as limbs from another tree, spilled into garden plots and blocked a path.

By Sara Brown, Town Correspondent

At the Fenway Victory Garden, Irene felled a large willow tree, with the tree trunk and limbs from another willow tree blocking one of the garden's paths.

"As you may know by now, we lost one of our great willows along Row A to Irene," said Mike Mennonno, president of the Fenway Garden Society, in an e-mail. "We are working closely with Parks to get the fallen tree removed and the area cleared and repaired.

Mennonno asked people to stay clear of the area, which includes a tangle of wires from path lighting, and asked members to try to clean their gardens and report any damage.

Monday morning, yellow caution tape surrounded the area, with the tree's trunk, limbs, and leaves creating a large pile of debris and falling into some victory garden plots.

The Victory Garden, established in 1942, is the nation's last remaining victory garden from World War II, and the gardens are an official Boston Historic Landmark.

Elsewhere in the Fens, broken trees and piles of foliage were visible.