Community Gardens harvest a tribute to the late Tony Lenzo

Tony Lenzo loved to plant and watch the Lynbrook Community Gardens grow. He loved harvest time, when the garden was overgrown with long, green zucchini (“gogoots,” in Lenzo parlance, pronounced with a thick Sicilian accent), purple-black eggplant, squash, red and green peppers, tomatoes, basil, okra, cucumbers and Lenzo’s favorite — sweet, ripe figs from his precious fig tree, which reminded him of Sicily, his birthplace.

Lenzo could often be found at the garden, at the end of Wright Street, clearing rocks, hoeing, watering and tending to his fruits, vegetables and flowers, as well as those of dozens of his neighbors. But this year’s harvest was more poignant that others, because Lenzo died on June 23, of a septic infection. He was 84.

“They brought his funeral procession past the garden so he could see if for one last time,” said his widow, Ann. “He loved this garden.”

Lenzo was one of the founders of the garden, in 1994. Just off busy Merrick Road, the village-owned parcel of land runs along the north side of the Long Island Rail Road tracks. It has 40 plots, each 20 by 5 feet, where, for a small fee, residents who lack either the space or the gardening know-how to grow things on their own can tend one of the available spaces, and have access to a shed where a hose and gardening tools are stored.

In 2009, the community named the plot the Tony Lenzo Community Gardens. “When I saw my name on the sign that morning, I wondered why they put up my name — there are other people involved,” Lenzo told the Herald that year. “But from what I understand, one of [the other residents] told the mayor to put my name up there since I’ve been cleaning up there since the beginning. I was very surprised.”

The other garden committee members are John Dombrowski, Bill McAlpin, David Molina and Fred Yosca.

A retired sewing machine operator, Lenzo was born in Sicily, and came to the U.S. when he was 20. “It was 1947, the year of the big blizzard,” Ann recalled. “He had never seen snow in his life!” Ann and Tony were married in Ozone Park in 1954. He went to school to learn how to be a tailor, and for most of his career he sewed high-quality trousers and tuxedoes. The couple moved to Lynbrook in the late 1960s and had two daughters, Antoinette and Marianne.