A Splash of Color
BUTLER TWP — It was spring break in a little piece of the township Saturday.
The occasion was the annual planting of the community flower garden at the intersection of Routes 8 and 422.
Since 2004, the roadside garden — divided into three sections of varying flowers — has sprung up beginning on Memorial Day weekend.
Motorists look forward to seeing the colorful display of flowers over discarded beer cans, fast food containers and cigarette butts along the road.
“It's a spot in town that people enjoy looking at,” said Pat Montag, the garden steward, who has been a fixture of the planting since its inception.
“It makes people happy.”
At least 30 volunteers started the day about 6:45 a.m. For three hours or so, they crouched, bent and knelt to get the garden in shape.
The roadside plot was created through an initiative by the state Department of Conservation and Natural Resources and is overseen by the Western Pennsylvania Conservancy.
The Butler Garden Club, Butler Intermediate League, and the Junior Women's Club of Butler tend to the garden through the summer.
“Each of the clubs takes six-week periods to water and maintain it,” Montag said.
The Routes 8 and 422 plot was prepped by employees at Eisler Landscaping, which also provided the mulch. The flowers are locally grown at Gumto's Greenhouse.
Montag said the conservancy paid for the flowers and pays the water bills to keep them growing.
This year's garden was dedicated in the memory of Julie Dandoy of Butler, a longtime elementary and special education teacher for the Butler School District who died March 22. She was 63.
A certified master gardener through the Penn State Extension and member of the Butler Garden Club, Dandoy was a driving force behind the Route 8 and 422 roadside garden.
“She was always my co-chair,” Montag said. “But she did so much more.”
She was a member of the Shade Tree Commission in Butler, and the brainchild for the planters up and down the sidewalks of the city's Main Street and at the West New Castle Street Plaza.
That was just some of what Dandoy did to beautify communities through flowers.
“Julie was such a kind and giving person,” said Mickey Stewart of Butler, Dandoy's best friend.
A Butler Garden Club member herself, Stewart has been part of the Routes 8 and 422 garden for at least 10 years.
“I came here with Julie all the time,” she said. “It's hard her not being here today. It's just a big gap: turning to talk to her and she's not here.”
