Landscaping | Gardens

In the 1990’s, a group of concerned neighbors planted the hill at Quesada and Broadbranch with azaleas. In the early 90s, Judy Goodman, a park’s neighbor, got together a small group of gardeners who raised money for plants and began rehabilitating the Quesada Street corner. Other plants were donated by neighbors and American Plant Food. Local boyscouts helped prepare the site and garden designer, Jane Berger, donated plans.

Before long FOLP was formed and began raising money to improve the park. The garden group became part of the organization and with the hard work of Bill Mullan, Merrill Hare, Page Kennedy, Suzanne Hurwitz, Nancy Slade, Molly McKitterick, Paul Rosenbaum and many “clean-up day” neighbors, the gardens were planted. Since then we have had a beautiful garden added at the Patterson Ave. steps by Debbie Shore in memory of her son Danny. Memorial trees have been planted for Robin Kreisberg and Christian Myler.

Recent efforts

Since the early 2000’s, the Casey Tree Foundation has planted trees for the future of the park. Our most difficult problem; getting water for the gardens, was finally solved when Jeff Stoiber convinced the Department of Parks and Recreation (DPR) to put in a water system which reaches the park perimeters. Maintenance and planting never end; our undying gratitude for endless hours of work goes to Merrill Hare and Bill Mullan who were both been nominated by the Chevy Chase Citizen’s Association and received the “Grass Roots Award” from the Federation of Civic Associations for their great contribution to our beautiful park.

For years our park gardens have been the beneficiaries of the generous contributions of our neighbors. Some come in the form of plants themselves, and some in money to pay for plantings, as well as strong people to do the heavy work. Our constant gardeners, Judy Goodman and Merrill Hare, work tirelessly to keep our park beautiful. (And Bill Mullan, who passed away in 2019.)

On April 25, 2015, during our Spring clean up day, Friends of Lafayette Park dedicated a beautiful plaque to our former gardening friend Bill Mullan.

Many people had seen Bill working on the spectacular gardens along Broad Branch Road across from his home.  Bill Mullan’s Obituary