By Philip Sean Curran, Staff Writer
When state Sen. Kip Bateman isn’t voting on government business affecting the lives of millions of people, the Republican lawmaker likes to escape from the phone calls and problems of the world to work in his vegetable garden., “I like to play in the dirt, I really do. I find it very therapeutic,” he said Thursday after attending a press conference at historic Morven, where he had read a joint Senate and Assembly resolution declaring the first Friday in June “New Jersey Public Gardens and Arboretum Day.”, He and Assemblymen Jack Ciattarelli and Andrew Zwicker, who also represent the 16th district, were responsible for a measure that recognizes popular destinations around the state. Public gardens draw not only garden lovers but photographers and bird watchers, said Lesley Parness, a founder of Garden State Gardens, a nonprofit started 10 years ago to promote public gardens around New Jersey., “We really wanted to have a way to market and publicize our public gardens, because really there’s not enough budget to market them individually, so we’re really marketing them together,” said Jim Avens, also a founder of the organization who is the horticulture manager for the Somerset County Park Commission., Membership in the consortium consists of 25 gardens in 12 counties, from Morven and Marquand Park in Princeton to the Frelinghuysen Arboretum, in Morris County, that draws nearly 500,000 people per year., “Many of our visitors come daily or weekly to walk and hike there,” said Judy Snow, president of the Friends of the Frelinghuysen Arboretum. “For an urban area, it’s still quite large. And there are hiking trails in there as well as the gardens.”, Samantha Richardson, president of Garden State Gardens, said the member gardens attracted more than one million visitors last year, including Sen. Bateman, whom she called a “long-time supporter of New Jersey’s public gardens.”
