Westport may soon “pave paradise, and put up a parking lot.”
Or a school. Or athletic fields.
Lou Weinberg is chair of the Westport Community Gardens. For over 20 years the land just south of Long Lots Elementary School has been a soothing, lush home away from home for hundreds of Westporters.
From folks in their 80s to families with little children, they grow fruit, vegetables, flowers, herbs and grasses, in a wide array of designs and colors.
Bees pollinate. Birds feed. Youngsters learn about the environment. Intergenerational friendships bloom in a common space with a pergola, picnic table, grape vines, bocce court and Adirondack chairs, It truly is a “community” garden.
Westport Community Gardens — a bird’s-eye view.
Along the perimeter, Weinberg has helped create the Long Lots Preserve. Three of its 4 phases are complete, thanks to $40,000 in contributions from residents, and grants.
Invasive plants have been eradicated, replaced by a New England forest filled with mature oak trees and native plants.
It’s one more way to preserve, nurture and appreciate nature, in a town that has lost far too much of it.
Long Lots Preserve.
But on Monday morning, Weinberg says, he learned that the Long Lots School Building Committee — charged with renovating or replacing the 70-year-old elementary school — has come up with 3 options.
All, he says, involve eliminating the Westport Community Gardens and Long Lots Preserve.
“06880” reached out yesterday morning to Building Committee chair Jay Keenan. A request for comment had not been received by 9 p.m. last night.
However, committee member Don O’Day — chair of the previous committee that renovated Coleytown Middle School — says, “We are a long way from paving paradise and putting up a parking lot,”
The committee’s next meeting was scheduled for tomorrow (Thursday). Due to the fireworks, it’s been rescheduled for Friday (June 30, 10 a.m., Town Hall Room 309).
There will be public comment and/or questions regarding the entire project, then a work session with the design team for project updates, and a review of “feasibility study options.”
If time allows, there may be a chance for public comment and/or questions after the work session ends.
A community gathering, at the Westport Community Gardens.
Weinberg says, “One of the options, as I understand it, is to build the new school on the Gardens and Preserve, while students continue to attend the current school.
“Another option is to build the new school on the athletic fields on the other side of the current school, and cover the Community Gardens and Preserve with athletic fields to replace the ones they would be losing.”
Weinberg is not anti-school, or anti-fields. However, he hopes to find a solution that does not involve losing “a community asset that we have all built over the past 20 years, and which will continue to be here long after we are gone.
“The Gardens serve over 100 residents every year, at very little cost to the town. The Gardens are in oasis away from the hustle and bustle of suburban life. The Gardens and Preserve practice extremely effective environmental stewardship of the land. Isn’t that what we are trying to teach our kids?
“Athletic fields are replaceable. A community garden built with love, blood, sweat and tears is not.”
“The Gardens and Preserve are an incredible educational opportunity for the schools. I never thought that we would have to defend a town asset that we’ve been building for 20 years.”
Taking a quick break, at the Community Gardens.
The Community Gardens and Preserve have long been supported by selectmen, the Departments of Parks & Recreation and Public Works, and the public schools.
Kowalsky Brothers, Belta’s Farm, Gault, Daybreak Nurseries, A&J Market and Gilbertie’s Herb Gardens, Robbie Guimond, AJ Penna and Bartlett Tree Experts all pitched in. The Green Village Initiative, Wholesome Wave Foundation and New England Grassroots Environmental Fund provided money.
Weinberg hopes he can show the building committee exactly what the Community Gardens and Preserve are, and do. He also offers a tour to any resident who asks. His email is WestportCommunityGarden@gmail.com.
(For an earlier “06880” story on the Westport Community Gardens, click here. For the Community Gardens website, click here. For the Long Lots Preserve website, click here.)
(Education and the environment are just 2 of “06880”‘s regular beats. Please click here to support our work. Thank you!)
Gardeners donated surplus food to needy families, through the Grow-a-Row initiative.
A visitor to the Westport Community Gardens.
I liked Don’s reference to Joni Mitchell and Big Yellow Taxi. If possible, I hope the garden and preserve can be maintained; could contribute to LLS learnings too.
RALLY AROUND YHE GARDEN! One of your Very Best columns Dan!!!!
RALLY ‘ROUND THE GARDEN PEOPLE! Great article Dan! WHAT WOULD PAUL AND JOANNE DO?
http://www.change.org/savethewcg
The community garden is a unique town amenity that serves over 100 families and provides a place for a diverse group of Westporters to get outside and get in touch with nature. It would be a shame to see the pace this paradise to put up a parking lot.
Is today April 1st? This certainly sounds like one of your jokes Dan. No way this happens….I hope. Sign the petition above! This would be a huge loss for our community.
It’s unthinkable that this Westport gem, built, tended and treasured by town residents for close to 20 years could be razed. I’ve linked the petition to save the garden above.
Losing Westport Community Gardens would be tragic and shortsighted on the part of the Town officials making that decision. A community garden, as Dan pointed out, brings about generational bonding, a greater appreciation of nature, more thought to the food we consume, and a hands on and up close demonstration of the impact we have on our environment. Surely there is a solution out there that doesn’t impact WCG.
Please use this link to sign the petition to save the garden
https://www.change.org/p/save-the-westport-community-gardens-and-preserve/psf/promote_or_share
Help us protect our precious Community Gardens and Preserve!
https://www.change.org/p/save-the-westport-community-gardens-and-preserve/psf/promote_or_share
It’s simply not an option to lose this community garden.
It serves all of Westport by defining the culture and what is valued. It’s more then the 100 people (and thier children) who garden there. The produce feeds, educates, and builds community. Isn’t that a better school then the building that would sit in it’s place?
The WCG is one of the gems of Westport, right up there with Compo Beach. Longshore, Levitt Pavilion and the library. It is a true community that unites Westport residents and their families together despite these polarizing times. The WCG MUST be saved.
I have been gardening in the Westport Community Garden for 10 years. It truly is a special community. I have learned so much about how to grow vegetables and flowers from the community members. Everyone is very happy to share their knowledge and also share their failures. Gardening is a trial and error process. I have hauled in countless pounds of dirt, as have every other gardener, to put more nutriants into the soil. We all mulch around our gardens to make everything look beautiful. We work very hard to make everything about this garden special.
The Community Garden also provides a plot for the Westport Garden Club to use for planting for the annual Westport Garden Club Plant Sale held every year in the beginning of May. We buy “plugs” ie. very small plants, and nuture them for a year. The plants are then dug up, put in pots and sold at the plant sale the following year. Many of the wheelbarrows that are on the field at the plant sale also come from the Community Garden. There are several garden club members who are also members of WCG, including me!
My children and now my grandchildren have watched me plant and nuture the plants over the years. Everyone has learned how important it is to provide a hospitable environment for the pollinators so that we can continue to grow delicous vegetable and beautiful flowers.
I am hoping that the LLS Building Committe members will understand just how important this oasis is protected from whatever the future is for the Long Lots School. Please come to visit the gardens to see just how special they are. And please sign the petition to keep our precious garden exactly where it is. https://www.change.org/p/save-the-westport-community-gardens-and-preserve?utm_source=share_petition&utm_medium=custom_url&recruited_by_id=5f698170-4041-11e5-b972-33d72374695c
We are brand new members of the community garden, and it’s a gem right here in the heart of Westport. My 3 adolescent children love coming over to help with weeding, planting, watering and just finding a place in the shade to enjoy lunch and listen to the birds singing or to play bocce. It’s a little piece of paradise for all ages and it would be tragic to lose it to a parking lot.
It is incredibly misguided to even suggest that removing the community garden is an option.
Let common sense prevail. Protect the Westport Community Gardens and Long Lots Preserve.
(And let’s remember that about twenty-five years ago, the prior community gardens were removed for the expansion of soccer fields. Let’s stand by the community gardeners, for a change.)
It would be tragic to loose such a wonderful place. The people and sense of community there is such a wonderful thing. The space itself is an example of what’s slowly eroding away in Westport there are less and less charming and community vibe spaces making way for development of one kind or another. While working in the garden I see lots of kids and adults walking through the preserve and enjoying nature there are so few places in town to do that! We had some killdeer born in one of the plots this year and it was a celebrated event at the garden that provided everyone a lesson on these birds and how to respect their habitats. There is a lot of growth that takes place in the garden besides flowers and vegetables…it grows friendships and community and fosters responsibility for the earth we call home.
The Community Gardens, and the Long Lots Preserve that surrounds it, is one of the great assets of this town, to some people it’s well-known, to others maybe just a hidden gem.
This is exactly the kind of asset that is so valuable to making Westport what it is, in an era when we are more and more aware of the criticality of protecting our local environment, and the huge downstream costs of ignoring the environment.
There have to be other options available that don’t destroy the gardens.
https://www.change.org/p/save-the-westport-community-gardens-and-preserve/psf/promote_or_share
The Westport Community Garden is a gem. It is a place of peace, relaxation, great social interaction and a gardening learning center. It is my sincere wish that the Town finds a way to preserve the garden and all the beautiful work that Lou Weinberg and all others have contributed to create this oasis.
What a beautiful place. I appreciate Don O’Day’s comment about not putting up the proverbial parking lot here…..let’s keep parking where it belongs 🙂
Ref. the next meeting on the LLS Building Committee is Friday, June 30, 10am room 309 at the LLS. I encourage everyone to attend and voice their concerns.
Also, I fully agree with all the comments stated. This is truly a Westport gem and something we all should cherish. I have participated in community garden for the past 5 years. I can tell you the Westport Community Garden exemplifies what community is. Everyone who is involved is truly passionate about gardening and more importantly about building community. Let’s all hope for a positive outcome on this.
Thanks, Joe. Just a note: The Friday 10 am meeting of the Long Lots Building Subcommittee is in Room 309 of Town Hall, not Long Lots.
The Community Gardens and Long Lot Preserve are so precious. Replacing the garden with a parking lot will ruin the environment and it will take another 20 years to build such a place. Please consider that the gardens and the preserve can contribute to LLS’s education too.
Please support the Westport Community Gardens, meeting at Town Hall this Friday at 10:00 am, thank you!!!
I mirror Joe’s comment and the ones above. I joined the WCG a few years ago after too many years of deer eating my anticipated stock of garden-grown tomatoes. This lovely place serves so many needs and was our go-to slice of heaven for so many during the pandemic. The garden comes to life not only from what’s growing within but with the lively sense of community. Isn’t that what this whole project is about?
Let’s move from zero-sum to win-win solutions.
Just seems odd that the Town would consider creating parking lot in a green space used by so many while at the same time rushing to create a green space that is likely to be used by so few at the edge of an already insufficient parking lot in Harding Plaza.
Very inciteful Sam but unfortunately governmental bodies especially committees make these kinds of myopic, counterproductive and destructive decisions every chance they get. I keep falling into baseball logic “throw the bums out.”
I find it very ironic that this comes to light the week after the proclaimed pollinator week in Westport!
This is on our town website: https://www.westportct.gov/government/departments-a-z/conservation-department/pollinator-education
When will we learn?
Our insect and birds are in drastic declines! Lou and everyone’s hard work and contribution to removing the invasives and planting native trees and flowers is crucial to help their survivals. Most crops require pollination. Bee pollination is responsible for 1 out of three bites of food we eat and we have over 400 species of native bees in Ct, (so not just the européen bees) that require precisely that habitat.
This is SOOO shortsighted. Westport should cherish and enhance this green lung in our town, as well as showcase this environmental educational tool.
The Garden and Preserve are not places to be destroyed, but rather celebrated as a model of environmental stewardship and a town at its very best. Gardeners span from young families to elderly and the genuine sense of community is something to which all organizations should aspire. Not only can you grow things(!), gardeners can connect with others by joining work days where dozens show up to help with group projects, volunteering for a role, taking part in the annual Bocce tournament or attending the season opening and closing parties – complete with music, a food truck and face painting. Imagine the benefits for our older neighbors who have have downsized into condos and are not permitted to plant flowers or have gardens. WCG is a huge benefit to those trying to age in place in Westport where they can be guaranteed human interaction and a sense of purpose every time they walk through the gates. Not to mention that the mental health benefits of gardening and spending time in nature are real and significant.
The Long Lots Preserve is in existence thanks to the indefatigable Lou Weinberg. He had a vision of what could be and somehow made it into reality using sheer willpower and infectious enthusiasm. Eradication of invasives and replanting of natives have turned the perimeter of the garden into an oasis of buzzing bees and chirping birds.
Sound too good to be true? It is not! Every morning I am in the garden I pinch myself because it is truly a magical place. I encourage anyone who is has not visited (Long Lots Building Committee, I am looking at you!) to take Lou up on his offer for a tour. I guarantee you come away agreeing that destroying the Westport Community Garden and Long Lots Preserve should not be an option.
The Community Gardens are a wonderful and precious asset to the town. In fact, I’d argue that their mere presence and serenity would be of greater value to developing minds than half the stuff being taught in schools these days. Lou is a treasure, and if these kids could be more, not less, exposed to the gardens and Lou’s passion for the soil, plants, wildlife, natural environment and the community he has nurtured for so long, they might learn something deeper about life than they, or the Long Lots School Building Committee, were expecting.
Thank you for shining a light on this situation, Dan. As a member of the our Community Gardens since my family moved to Westport in 2012, and as the founder of the Grow-A-Row Westport effort, I’d like to echo the previous commenters on the value of this unique site to the people and the Town of Westport.
The Westport Community Gardens and adjacent Long Lots Preserve are 100% volunteer-run organizations which offer tremendous value at very little cost to the Town. The Community Gardens and Preserve are environmentally and ecologically beneficial spaces, which also provide healthy, outdoor activity opportunities to families and residents of all ages and levels of ability. The neighbors that I’ve come to know through the Community Gardens are generous, engaged, and share an appreciation for our Town and for the beauty and wonder of nature. The commitment and hard work that have made this place so special has been a monumental undertaking by hundreds of volunteers over the past twenty years, and I encourage all Westporters to reach out to visit and experience it for yourselves.
I began the Grow-A-Row Westport program at the Community Gardens in the Spring of 2020, during the early wave of the Pandemic as an effort to give back in appreciation for having this sanctuary space. Over the past four summers, my fellow gardeners and I have planted, tended, harvested and collected several hundred grocery bags of donations filled with locally-grown, seasonal, fresh produce and herbs. Donations collected at the Community Gardens have gone to organizations in neighboring Bridgeport, CT—primarily the Center for Food Equity and Economic Development (FEED)—to support food-insecure communities right here in Fairfield County.
Personally, when I open the gate and see the beauty of this place it fills my heart with joy. Weeding and tending my plot provides outdoor therapy in the dirt after a long day working at the computer. Opening the Grow-A-Row cooler to discover bags overflowing with donated lettuces, carrots, and zucchini to help nourish our neighbors in-need actually strengthens my faith in humanity. In short, this place matters A LOT to so many. I hope that it will continue to flourish for a long time to come.
The community garden is a living, breathing colorful oasis and home to many little creatures & their delightful songs and sounds. A walk past it or through it invites anyone back to simpler, slower times lost or forgotten in this hectic, modern and often soulless world. One loses their self and worries once connected to nature and all its healing powers. With high levels of depression and anxiety, children today especially need the restorative power of nature – its rhythms, scents, & sights more than ever to enliven the mind without tiring it. We are on stimulus overload and perhaps one of the best lessons we can teach children is that the cure is being unplugged in nature. Our little garden is that seed that is planted in their minds once introduced to the wondrous world of nature. I wish those planning the demolition of a twenty year creation could slow down, zoom out and recognize this lovely, living treasure is the balm for today’s ails and preserve it for the health of our community.
Karen, lovely. I’m going to get stoned now. So inspirational.
Namaste
Will the redistricting plan being proposed for the schools mean a reduction in the Long Lots student population? If so, can the school be made smaller? A shrunken footprint? Less parking? For starters, questions to ask the Long Lots School Building Committee.
I’ve lived in Westport since August 2011. One of my friends in town invited me to join the Gardens as a great place to meet people and enjoy an oasis/ sanctuary away from the working day.
I started my journey in 2012 and have never looked back.
Through my trials and tribulations I have truly enjoyed this wonderful space- it doesn’t matter whether you have a million dollars or just a few dollars to spare. The Gardens accepts everyone who is willing to put in the hard work and respect for fellow gardeners. I have see all age groups weeding and enjoying nature’s gifts and I have seen so many multi-generations bonding there.
The character of an individual is not when they are at a high, but when he or she hits bottom. I have seen my fellow gardeners react as a group to try to unite and show the community that the Gardens is a special place that needs to be nurtured, not bulldozed. Now many in the community may say that this is overkill and premature, but until it’s set in stone that the Gardens are safe, we will be vigilant.
Hopefully, greater minds will come together to arrive at a solution to build a school that will serve the community well and also maintain a preserve and Gardens that have been nurtured for 20 years to provide so much joy to all who have either gardened there or experienced the wonders of nature.
Westport is our home and for all who live here to enjoy. The fabric of a community takes years to build, but without continued nourishment can lead to decay.
It is unthinkable that the Community Gardens and its preserve would be destroyed after all that has gone into it!! I think it is one of the most unique and treasured parts of Westport, with incalculable benefits to children and adults alike.
I’m a frequent guest of the Westport Community Gardens, and every time I visit I’m in awe of what a very special place these gardeners have created. Every plot is a chance for a Westport gardener to create a space of their own, and they do! The rows of plots are filled with larger than life sunflowers, beds of strawberries, butternut squash that spend a whole summer growing to reach their peak in the fall, showy peonies and dahlias, all buzzing with life and the results of hundreds of hours of love and care.
Even more impressive than the plants is the sense of community. No one is a stranger here. The Westport Community Gardens has brought residents from all ages and backgrounds together to share their passion for gardening. In the growing season these gardeners are there every day, tending to their plants, discussing how to thwart aphids, dividing strawberries to share with their neighbors, playing games of bocce, or taking a break in the shade to watch the wrens flying in and out of their birdhouses.
The WCG has been growing and thriving for the last 20 years, and I really hope we can continue to be a part of it for another 20. It’s a magical place, a place I hope I can take my future children to one day. I would want them to visit their master gardener grandparents here, run between plots filled with flowers taller than they are, learn to play bocce with the always willing gardeners, and eat their grandpa’s fresh strawberries straight from the patch.
This garden has meant so much to my family and the town of Westport, I really hope the committee can find a solution for the school that won’t erase this garden and all of the memories we have yet to make in it.
“A society is defined not only by what it creates, but by what it refuses to destroy.”
– John Sawhill
John Crittenden Sawhill was president and CEO of The Nature Conservancy and the 12th President of New York University.