Greenscaping the ‘ugliest road in America’

A Lawrence landscaper, whose father began the family business, is being credited with transforming a stretch of Rockaway Turnpike from Taco Bell To McDonald’s that one reader called the “ugliest road in America,” into a beautiful greenscape.

Jonathan Kay of Cedarhurst saw a photograph in the Nov. 18-24 Herald and called Steven Addona of Steven Addona Landscaping in Lawrence. “I could tell it was Steve’s work,” he said about the picture. “I think you guys at the Herald said it best because he really did turn the ugliest road in America into the most beautiful.”

Kay hired Addona to landscape the front of his home and around his pool. “I think he’s a landscaping genius because he takes a blank palette and creates beautiful landscaping,” Kay said. “People spend so much money on their houses and they should spend money on landscaping because it brings out the beauty that they just spent.”

Ashkenazy Acquisition Corporation in New York City contacted Addona to plant the greenscape along the turnpike. One of the owners of the corporation who lives in Woodsburgh called Addona to see if he could landscape along the turnpike. “The turnpike used to be an eye soar,” Addona said. “But now it’s more inviting and attractive from what I believe has to do with the landscaping.”

John Watnick, the property manager for Ashkenazy Acquisition Corporation, said the shopping center looked run down so they approached Addona to make it more appealing.

“We’re trying to enhance the visual appeal of the shopping center,” Watnick said. “People now will stop me on the street and say the plants are beautiful and ask who did it.”

Addona was given creative control of the greenscape and in total he planted about 30,000 tulips on Rockaway Turnpike. Watnick called Addona the “best landscaper in the Five Towns” and like Kay, said you know when you see a landscape if it’s Addona’s work or not.

When he was 5-years-old, Addona began landscaping with his father who started the business in 1967 after he came over from Italy. The business has been Addona’s now for eight years.

Two years ago, Janice Roberts called Addona to do landscaping in her garden and every time she found a garden she liked, it turned out to be one of Addona’s creations. “When I called him to see if he could do my garden I asked him how he ran his business and he said he was doing it all by himself,” she said. “I was looking for a job so I decided to represent him and run his business because I feel he’s so talented and will be on television someday.”

Roberts was driving on Rockaway Turnpike one day and saw the landscaping Addona had done. “I was so impressed with the landscaping that I wasn’t paying attention and crashed my wheel into the curb,” she said. “I told him he owes me a tire.”