The Bannerman Island Trust has been offering regular tours of Pollepel Island for the past 15 years, but in 2007 a group of volunteers began sprucing up the island with its beautiful gardens.
Each Wednesday, from April to October, a group of about 15 people depart from the small beach located at Donahue Memorial Park in Cornwall-on-Hudson. Last week the dedicated horticulturists were loading up, into boats, two carloads full of plants donated by Adams.
The two boats typically leave at 9 a.m. with one group returning around 1:30 and the other at 3 p.m. Barbara Gottlock, a member of the Bannerman Island Trust Board of Trustees, as well as volunteer coordinator, said it takes quite a bit of work to get the island ready for tours and then maintain it throughout the summer and early fall.
“I think it’s great,” Gottlock said of the effort. “I live in New Windsor and I can see the island from my house. That’s how I got involved with it. Just to see how it’s progressed from when I first started going out there, it was green mostly, except in the spring when we had lilacs and forsythias out there. Just to see the change and how beautiful the grounds look with the plantings, it’s an absolutely amazing transformation in my eyes.”
To begin, the volunteers trim back the hedges and keep them under control. After the winter, they make sure the trails are raked and clear of leaves so the public can walk without any danger. Then it’s a matter of planting the annuals in the multiple gardens scattered around the island.
There’s also a vegetable garden which contains potatoes, kale, tomatoes, cucumbers and peppers. Once the vegetables are ripe, the volunteers pick them and either bring them home or give them to others. They also manage the wild raspberries, blackberries, and blueberries which grow there.
Although Bannerman Island is part of the New York State Parks system, it’s the volunteers who maintain it and the people who participate in the tours who help keep the island active.
