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^ THE HEDGE GARDEN Gus Yearicks' Side Yard Has Pleased a Half-Million Visitors Since the late '40s

’ Ed Harnett FISHING CREEK - It’s not one ol the seven wonders of the world. Maybe not even in the top 20. The Hedge Garden here, has however, been ranked with topiary heavyweights such as^the. New York and Brooklyn Botanical Gardens, colonial Williamsburg, and Disney World. Its wonderful collection of leafy sculptures is not a rich man’s hobby. It’s not the product of an amusement conglomerate or platoons of gardeners. It’s the unique

yi/s T&'V' GIVING NEW meaning In Ihr term Clip, per Ship, Gus takes the shears to his first creation, begun more than a half-century ago.

far from the lure of the water. His father, William, was a Delaware River pilot, and captained the Gloucester ferry which once plied from New Jersey to points on the Pennsylvania side. Two brothers also were river pilots. GUS, FOR A god part of his working life, was a waterman. That included clamming and crewing on the schooners that once were a common means of transport. In early World War I days when America was produc : ing armaments for the battles in Europe, Gus worked for Bethleham Steel at its artillery shell testing grounds at nearbyHigbee Beach. He recalls that time principally because he was paid $1.75 a day, and on one occasion a round fell short and exploded 30 yards from the bunker which sheltered him and his fellow workers. Gus got away from the water, but not very far, in the 17 years he worked for the Harbison-Walker Refractories plant—familiar to locals is the magnesite plant—across from Cape May Point. He has been retired from the plant 21 years. Awaiting his 89th birthday August 28, Gus admits that he doesn't put in a really full day’s work any more. ON A TYPICAL summer morning, it's up at 5 a m. to water the fanciful shrubs which sprawl over his two acres. His own well supplies the water. It’s a good time of day for watering, or just for being up, Gus says, though the mosquitoes also find it a good time to

HE WILL BE 89 on Friday, and Gus Yearicks still has the tolerance and patience necessary to care for and improve (he topiary treat that makes him unique.

replenish their blood banks. All that watering is appreciated by the weeds, too. A morning's work, with the help of his wife, Josephine (she answers 'more readily to Josie) produces five barrowfuls of unwanted greenery for the compost heap. That leaves time in the afternoon for Gus to " jockey the riding mower over the lawn. Unless it’s the day for the once a week trimming—which keeps the elephant from turning into a wOoly mqmmoth, and the 15-ft. alligator from becoming the world’shiggest fuxzy green caterpillar. \ The vegetable garden which supplies the Yearicks with fresh produce may occupy'Gus, the rest of the day until ijuppertime. A disinterested observer ’might wonder what Gus could accomplish if he hadn’t slowed down. • SO MUCH FOR the work. There is, of course, the fun part: greeting the visitors who come to marvel at what Gus hath wrought. Based on the guest books, which fill a closet, Gus estimates that upwards of 500,000 have dropped in since the garden was opened to the public in 1947. If there’s anything that interests Gus and Josie more than teaching greenery to make like statues, it’s meeting people. And the Hedge Garden is a good’place for that. Josie, at 82 spry and outgoing as -itlje ebb tide, is usually the first one out to make visitors welcome. Most go away feeling mOre like . old friends than casual sightseers. They come from virtually every

statcand many foreign countries Many are repeaters. Guest bodlf] entries show one who came back after 30 years, another after 45 ': Accompanying the names are comments like "even more beautijjil than I remembered" and ’’.still haven't seen anything like it." NOT ALL THE visitors are an upalloyed delight. One woman spent-20 minutes outlining to Josie how charging admission would make the garden a big-paying operation. Departing, she slipped a dime into the donation box. "She didn’t know I had just emptied it," says Josie, "So I could tell." But, taking the charitable view, JOsie adds, "Maybe she was just trying to prove" her point that charging admission would be better ” And G.us, who started with asupply of several hundred glass eye? to equip his arboreal, animals, has given up replaceing them. They wefe too popular with souvenir collectors. GUS AND JOSIE, a transplanted Philadelphian who has fitted into the bucolic Cape life like a native, will celebrate their 11th anniversary in October. They live in a 136-year-old house in which the first Mrs. Yearick, Hannah Mcllvaine, was born. Gus has occupied it since 1932. The big, bright lining room, with its shiny wood burning stove in the center, is filled with handicraft items created by Josie at the Airport senior citizens’ center in the off-season. things havp changed a bit since Gus stal-ted school in 1901, walk-

creation of Gus Yearicks’ rich imagination, busy clippers, and infinite patience. Privet, which provides the raw material for most of Yearicks’ works, has a satisfactory growth rate, but takes a lot of training to transform itself into an ocean" liner or a baseball player. Gus—with adroit pruning, tying shoots together, weaving others—provides the training. Of course, that comes after growing the shoots, transplanting, watering, weeding—and waiting. That’s where the patience comes in. IT ALL STARTED 53 years ago when Gus shaped a promising privet clump into a proud clipper ship. Transplanted to get it farther from the edge of the properly, the green windjammer is still one of the prize exhibits. A 36-ft. replica of the Queen Mary was his next creation. It has been joined by a miniature convoy of other verdant vessels. The nautical theme of those early pieces was a natural outgrowth of family tradition. Gus was born in Dias Creek, and has never been

EACH YEAR THOUSANDS of people tour the Hedge Garden, replete with privet "statues" of ships, and animals, and baseball players, and...well, just about anything that the Yearicks’ imagination and time have allowed. The garden is on Fishing Creek ltd. between Breakwater and Ba vshore ltds.. Low er Tow nship.

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