Corell said the site of the park had been abandoned with overgrown weeds and shrubs for about a year and a half after the town had to chop down two roughly 60-foot ash trees that were killed by insects. He said he worked with Tree Warden Jeffrey Minder and Oliver Nurseries, a local plant nursery that designed the space after developing the idea with one of the owners of the nearby Harry’s Wine and Liquor Market.
Reference: Ctinsider.com
Fairfield hopes its first year-round pollinator park can be model for others
FAIRFIELD — A patch of land that was once a graveyard to a pair of fallen ash trees has since transformed into the town’s first year-round pollinator garden.
A mix of trees and perennial plants fill the garden space surrounding a clearing with benches and paving, where town officials recently gathered to celebrate the park’s completion.
The park, which opened earlier this year behind the Starbucks on Post Road, is home to an array of plant species that will be in bloom for the entire year once the town plants 3,000 bulbs ranging from tulips to daffodils to crocuses, said Tom Corell, the chair of Fairfield’s tree planting program.
“This is not just any park,” Corell said in a town release. “This is an example of collaborating with the community to turn a neglected area into prime space along the downtown corridor into a desirable park that visitors can walk through on wide sidewalks, sit on comfortable benches and enjoy the numerous new trees, shrubs, perennials and thousands of flowering bulbs.”
“I said to the tree warden, ‘Why don’t we make this into something special, something that would dazzle people and just make them want to walk through there rather than stay on the sidewalk outside the Post Road?'” Corell said in an interview.
The project received part of a $10,545 pool of donations made to the Tucker Fund, a nonprofit supporting nature and open space that a local mother created in memory of her late son who loved the outdoors, with matching funds from Sustainable CT, a grassroots sustainability organization. The total project costs $30,000, according to the Tucker Fund’s fundraising page. A slice of the donations will also go toward the second phase of a revitalization project at Jennings Beach, according to the website.
The garden features five shade trees consisting of two chestnut oaks, two patriot elms, and an American sycamore in addition to 69 ornamental trees and 100 perennial plants, according to the town release. Corell said the town can replicate their work elsewhere in Fairfield and support pollinators, which conservationists, gardeners and land trust members have worked to protect across the state.
Corell said the amount of space and sunlight at the park made it an optimal location to grow an assortment of plants that could bloom during all months of the year. He said most of the plants are native or pollinator plants, and a group of six or eight American holly trees at the park will eventually stand 20 to 30 feet, bearing red fruit in the fall and flowers in the spring. With an outdoor space filled with natural fauna, Corell hopes the sociological effects will be as powerful as the environmental benefits.
“This brings a calm place where you can sit out there and have a cup of coffee or have lunch or whatever, you can be there with friends,” he said.
Patrick Monteleone, one of four owners of Harry’s Wine and Liquor Market, said he planted a tree at the site of the park a few blocks away in memory of former owner Saul Pollock, a member of the family’s second of three generations to run the wine and liquor business.
Monteleone said he approached Corell with the idea of planting a tree in Pollock’s honor, and Corell turned his hopes into fruition from there.
“In my mind I dedicate this park to Saul,” Monteleone said. “That’s not what the big picture of it is, but in my own heart, I feel like there’s a very lasting memory for who I think is an important family to our town.”