Encouraging community gardening ~ providing expertise and financial support:
*Wojan’s Woods and Wolcott School’s Children’s Forest
*Community Pollinator Pathway Garden at Spice Bush Swamp Park
*Friendship Park
*Hall High School Student Pollinator Garden Planning and Implementation Project
*Hall High School watering system for Global Problem Solving Class initiative
*Auer 4H Farm ~ provided tools for children’s programs
The Civic Projects Team, in collaboration with UConn Master Gardeners, will be helping to tame the native pollinator gardens at the Charter Oak International Academy here in West Hartford. We are excited to begin our work in earnest most Thursdays from 12 pm – 2 pm. We will not meet on West Hartford Garden Club meeting days, holidays, or in bad weather. All are welcome! Please bring garden gloves, trowel, spade and leaf bags for debris. If you have pollinator plants to share, we would love to have them. Please plan to park on Flatbush Avenue behind the school, since school will be in session and the school parking lot will be full. Many thanks for your interest in this fun and worthwhile project!
2025 Restoration of the Friendship Park at the corner of Raymond Road and Park Road
The planting of 260 native perennial flowers, grasses, and sedges took place on August 23, 2024, at the entryway to the Wolcott Park Children’s Forest. We had a fun and productive morning in the cooler weather! Trees, shrubs, and a weed-suppressing native groundcover will be installed soon. At our request, the four invasive Callery Pear trees at the curb opposite the entryway to the forest have been removed, and Public Works Grounds Manager Justin Andrews is coordinating their replacement with native American Plum and Dogwood trees.
Director of WH Leisure Services Helen Rubino-Turco and Public Works Ground Manager Justin Andrews supported the project with town services and funding for purchases. The town’s Sustainability Commission had initially asked for the club’s help with this project and provided ongoing assistance. We are grateful to our community partners for their support of our club’s civic projects across town.
Planting Trees, Shrubs and Plants: On April 14, 2024, we helped plant trees, shrubs and plants at Wojan’s Woods, a West Hartford urban forest donated to our local land trust, Traprock Ridge Land Conservancy (TRLC). The West Hartford Garden Club has helped to remove invasive plants and has been an integral constituent in the selection of native plants, shrubs, and trees to repopulate the area. This effort to restore a natural balance for all creatures will result in a beautiful asset to the community. We have high schoolers who dug some holes for the trees. Another date will be scheduled later in the month – plantings that have been ordered are arriving in two installments. More information will be shared soon about additional planting date(s).
Invasive Plant Removal Party at Wolcott School’s Children’s Forest: Our club collaborated with many sustainability/ecology groups in town to clean up some completely overgrown areas of the Children’s Forest for Wolcott School’s outdoor classroom program. Thanks to WHGC members Karen Hartford, Madeleine Hexter, Christine Van Drasek, and Beth Ann Loveland Sennett for their help.