Loving care revives Salt Lake's Gilgal Garden

It's almost time to peel off the gardening gloves, put away the rakes and shovels and say "good night" to Gilgal Garden.

For master gardeners like Beverly Sudbury, autumn always brings mixed emotions. After months of weeding, tilling, planting and dead-heading, Beverly is ready for a long break. But she also knows that she'll miss getting her fingernails dirty every Tuesday afternoon at one of Salt Lake City's most unusual little parks.

"It's always a big job, cleaning this place up in the fall," says the 81-year-old gardener, who volunteers with others from the Salt Lake Master Gardener Association to keep the garden at 749 E. 500 South spruced up. "But this is nothing compared to what this place looked like the first time I came here."

During a visit to the park several years ago with her late husband and gardening partner, Don Sudbury, Beverly was shocked to find that the half-acre sculpture garden — touted as one of the country's top three folk-art exhibits — was a jumbled mess.

Homeless people had set up camp in one overgrown patch, and stepping stones patiently inscribed with poems and scriptures by Gilgal creator Thomas Child were barely visible. "Weeds were everywhere," says Beverly. "You couldn't even see some of the sculptures. I looked at it and thought, 'Now how are we going to fix up this?' "

In the five years since Gilgal Garden was saved from being bulldozed for a condominium project, Beverly and her gardening friends have worked more than a few miracles. I recently joined them for a Free Lunch chat while they put the finishing touches on their latest Gilgal projects before putting the park to bed until spring.

"One reason I come here every Tuesday is because of these people," says Beverly, pointing to Traci Dahle, 42, and Jim Davis, 43, digging up roots and raking leaves in a bare section that will eventually be a forested grove. "The love and the friendship that I get from other master gardeners helps me keep going. There's a wonderful camaraderie here."

Drawn to the outdoors ever since she sneaked her dad's lawn edger out of the garage as a child, Traci has spent countless hours tilling in Gilgal and planting perennials donated by area nurseries.

"There's something rewarding about seeing this place slowly transformed," she says. "You look around and you can't believe that at one point, it was going to be torn down. This place is a treasure."

Jim, who works in maintenance at the Wonder Bread bakery next door, has always been intrigued by the park's 14 stone sculptures, meticulously crafted by Child, a brick mason who took care of the garden until his death in 1963.