MONONA, Wis. (AP) - One is known for his discipline, his meticulously staked tomato plants stretching above his head. The other takes a looser approach, his trademark raspberry plants reaching every which way.
Together, John Sheild, 84, and Len Riha, 87, have spent decades side by side gardening the prominent plot that fronts the San Damiano friary in Monona.
Over the years, many onlookers have mistaken them for priests. They are not.
They are nearby residents, and they maintain the garden as volunteers, giving away much of the produce to those in need or selling it to benefit charitable endeavors.
Riha has been doing so for 59 years, Sheild for 34 years.
As the gardening season comes to an end, uncertainty fills the air. The Catholic order of priests that owns the friary has said it may sell the property.
“Chances are, this is our last year,” Riha told the Wisconsin State Journal (https://bit.ly/1jkKsW3).
The nearly 10-acre site on Lake Monona housed semi-retired priests for decades, until this spring when the last one moved out. At that point, the Norbertines of St. Norbert Abbey in De Pere said they were having the parcel assessed for a potential sale. They have said nothing since.
In an email, Abbot Gary Neville, who leads the community of priests, did not address the parcel’s status but praised Riha and Sheild.
“They are true ministers to many,” he said.
Riha and Sheild said their relations with the priests have been nothing but cordial over the decades. They garden under “a gentlemen’s agreement,” with nothing on paper, Sheild said.
“We’d let the priests pick as much as they wanted,” Sheild said. “We’ve had people come off the street and say they’re hungry, and we give them whatever they want.”
The garden is a local landmark, viewed by thousands of motorists every day on Monona Drive.
“It’s just been one of those fixtures, one of those constants,” said Monona Mayor Bob Miller. “It’s always been this added little gem on what’s already an idyllic piece of property on the waterfront.”
Riha, who is retired from the Air Force and Madison’s Veterans Hospital, remembers breaking ground for the plot in 1957 along with others who had approached the priests about creating a garden. At the time, Riha, who is Catholic, was attending occasional prayer services at the friary.
Sheild, a retired United Church of Christ pastor, came aboard in the early 1980s. Other gardeners have come and gone, but he and Riha have been the constants.
On a recent morning, they began cleaning up the plot for winter.
Riha, who had a pacemaker put in this summer, discovered that his newly acquired walker could double as a garden tool. As he removed nylon cords from his pea plants, he draped them over a side of the walker.
“You do what you gotta do to keep going,” he said.
The plot has expanded over the years and now stretches 100 feet by 60 feet. They each have a side, though they cross over to help each other.
“He’s more particular,” Riha said. “I have more weeds.”
“Thank you for that compliment,” Sheild said. “You’re really the innovator here.”
Sheild credited his partner with introducing the labor-saving double-edged hoe into the mix. “He’s always trying different things,” Sheild said.
On Sundays, Sheild takes produce to Lake Edge United Church of Christ in Madison, where he served on the staff for 27 years and remains a member.
For a freewill offering, congregants can take produce, the proceeds benefiting a global hunger relief organization. Sheild and Riha take additional excess produce to a food pantry.
He and Riha figure they each spend 15 to 20 hours a week at the plot.
“It’s become kind of our second home,” Sheild said.
They have no special insight into what might happen to the land. If the parcel is still available next year, they plan to be back.
“St. Francis of Assisi was an avid gardener,” Sheild said. “Someone once asked him what he’d do if he knew he was going to die. He said he’d go right on hoeing his garden.”
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Information from: Wisconsin State Journal, https://www.madison.com/wsj
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