East City Park War Memorial

Check out Chris's tale of Landscaping

Moscow Garden Club helps with perennial planting

Picture: The ladies of the Moscow Garden Club help Susan plant bulbs.

In November of 2009, the Moscow Garden Club helped plant bulbs around the "Doughboy Statue".  The Moscow Garden Club wanted to use the 'Quail' daffodils they received from the National Garden Club in a way that would embody the spirit of the Golden Days Project, a National Garden Club project.  In recognition of the Moscow Garden Club’s 60th anniversary and their on-going support of our military veterans, they contacted the local American Legion Dudley Loomis Post Number 6.  The garden club offered to plant the 60 'Quail' daffodils at the “Doughboy Statue”. 

The “Doughboy Statue” landscaping has a patriotic theme.  Four 10’ by 10’ gardens are located on each corner of the statue.  Paths between gardens allows easy access for those wanting to read the names of fallen soldiers inscribed on the statue’s base.  On three of the corner gardens, large gold stars are placed in a field of purple.  The fourth corner contains an alternating red and white striped flag pattern.  The 60 golden daffodils were placed in the points of the star patterns, 20 'Quail' daffodils per star along with other bulbs.   In addition to our daffodils, we spent the day planting over 1300 other bulbs including Tulips, Crocus, Dutch Iris, Anemones, Grape Hyacinths, and Hyacinths.  The landscaping and colors were designed by Susan Fluegel to honor past and present veterans.  The red and white striped pattern symbolized our nation’s flag; the purple reminds of the Purple Heart award recipients; and the five pointed gold stars represent the Gold Star Mothers who have lost someone special. 

The local American Legion, Dudley Loomis Post 6, and the Veterans’ of Foreign Wars plan Memorial Day and Veterans’ Day events around the “Doughboy Statue” every year.  Many retired veterans, including some from area nursing homes, attend these events.  This statue is prominently located in Moscow’s East City Park where many community events are held throughout the summer.  There is a large group of community members that show interest in the memorial and the landscaping around it by taking pictures or reflecting quietly on current service members and past veterans.

Chris's Landscaping Tale:

I was asked by my American Legion Adjutant, Mike, to landscape the WWI and II Memorial "Doughboy Statue" in East City Park, Moscow, Idaho.  There was only one catch, it needed to be done by Memorial Day, only one week away.  Mike put no pressure on me, but mentioned that the veterans would sure like a nice looking memorial in time for the Memorial Day Service. 

Picture: War Memorial before landscaping.

The neglected War Memorial was a sad sight.  It was surrounded by barren, mounded soil with plastic sticking out in random areas.  This was obviously a major project that needed some skillful coordination, so I decided on a plan of attack.

On Monday I received approval to landscape the War Memorial from the Moscow Parks Department who seemed downright enthusiastic about the idea. Looking at the site, it was easy to see why.  After some grunt work, we removed the excess soil, trash and plastic from around the memorial creating a good foundation for landscaping. Scott Gropp took pity on us and sped up the process by using a Bobcat to help move 4 to 5 yards of soil and sand from around the memorial.

Picture: Bill Fluegel and Chris remove old soil and trash from around the statue.

Monday night, after a long days work, Susan came up with a project diagram. This simple but bold patriotic design had three 5-pointed military stars in three of the corners and alternating red & white stripes in the remaining corner. Marigolds were used to form the gold stars for the Gold Star Mothers. Purple Petunia borders around the stars represented the Purple Hearts that were awarded.  The red & white stripes represent the US flag.   Grey Duck Garlic also completed an annual plant list to reassure the Parks Department that we weren’t introducing invasive plant species under the guise of landscaping.

On Tuesday, I went to Moscow Building Supply; Gropp Heating, Air & Electric; Grey Duck Garlic; and Spence True Value Hardware to request items for the project.  In the afternoon, I disposed waste from around the memorial at the landfill.  I also finished up the soil removal and leveling process in order to have a good foundation for the next steps in the landscaping project.

I thought that Wednesday would be a quiet day of shopping for flowers and supplies. However, Moscow Building Supply telephoned me with the news that bark was running low, and with a sunny three-day weekend coming up, I had better get my bark before it was gone. As a motivating technique this was pretty effective; I rushed in to fill up my old truck with bark. With a full bark load I headed to East City Park only to find that the Parks Department had trenched up the whole park for an irrigation system. The parks employees seemed confident that if I gathered enough speed I could jump the large trenches in my old dump truck.  Having no desire to end up as a contestant in ‘America’s Funniest Home Videos: Rednecks with Bigger Trucks than Brains Edition’, I decided to negotiate the maze of trenches instead.

After dumping five yards of bark at the memorial site, I gathered up the rest of the supplies and flats of flowers. That afternoon, Susan and I moved the bark away from the planting areas and hand dug the soil. Since the soil was an alternating mix of clay and sand, we prepared the areas by tilling in peat moss.

Picture: Bill and Mike help spread bark.

On Wednesday night, having no confidence in our ability to freehand a star at the site in front of numerous hardworking parks employees, Susan and I made a six-foot, 5-pointed military star out of cardboard to be used for the site layout on Friday.

Picture: Bill takes a break from digging as Susan and Mike plant marigolds.

Friday morning Susan and I laid out the plot using flags and brightly colored string.  To facilitate landscaping compliance, packs of annuals were placed in approximately the areas where they would be planted. That afternoon a handful of members of the American Legion showed up to help with the planting.  After inspiring confidence by telling us about their black thumbs, wives who normally did all the planting, and superhuman ability to kill even artificial flowers, the men got to work with military precision. After the annuals were planted, the veterans spread the bark and watered the site well. The bright annuals showed up really well against the darker bark.

Picture: the finished WWI and II Memorial.

At the Monday Memorial Service quite a few people complimented the improved look of the War Memorial. 

The low landscaping and bright colors helped set off the statute. The veterans also expressed pride in the new patriotic look.