Tag Archives: Westport Community Garden

Back To The Garden

Posted on April 15, 2022 | 3 comments

Joni Mitchell was right. After a long winter — and 2 long years of COVID — we’ve got to get ourselves back to the garden.

And there’s no better place than the Westport Community Gardens.

There — just a few hoe-lengths away from Long Lots Elementary School — 100 or so gardeners grow fruit, vegetables, flowers, herbs and grasses, in a wonderful array of designs and configurations.

Some are families with young children. Some are folks in their 80s. Some are experienced gardeners; others know little, but learn from them. All form a helpful, happy — and very well-fed — community.

Gardens plots are available to town residents and town employees. A few remain to be allocated this year.

The gardens are deer-proof. Water is available.

Grow the tomatoes you’ve dreamed of — or any other fruits, vegetables and flowers you’ve wanted to try.

Families find a home at the Community Gardens. Supervised children are  welcome — and encouraged.

There’s even a bocce court.

Click here for more information; scroll down to “Join the Community.”

Hey: You are stardust. You are golden. You’ve got to get yourself back to the garden.

(Photos/Lou Weinberg)

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Posted in Environment, Westport life

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Grow-A-Row Sustains Bridgeport

Posted on August 18, 2020 | 4 comments

Earlier this year, it was estimated that 25% of all Bridgeport residents lacked reliable access to a sufficient amount of affordable, nutritious food.

And that was before the coronavirus.

The pandemic has made the food insecurity situation worse — both because more people are economically vulnerable, and fewer are able or willing to donate to food pantries and soup kitchens.

Sustainable Westport is riding to the rescue.

The townwide organization — which already promotes a Zero Food Waste Challenge, encouraging composting, food scrap recycling and redistribution to food insecure people — has ramped up their efforts.

They’ve partnered with Christ & Holy Trinity Church and Westport Community Garden.

The Garden’s Grow-a-Row initiative encourages Westporters to plant an extra row in their gardens, then donate a portion of their harvest to our food insecure neighbors in Bridgeport.

Westport Community Garden provides gardeners row markers to indicate a portion of their plot for donations.

There is already a collection bin at the garden, on Hyde Lane. Now everyone else can drop off produce in green bins inside Christ & Holy Trinity’s Branson Hall. It’s open from 8 a.m. to 8 p.m., 7 days a week.

Donated food is brought to the Center for Food Equity and Economic Development (the FEED Center). Student chefs convert the produce into delicious meals, for distribution in soup kitchens. Some of the produce also goes to the United Congregational Church in Bridgeport, for its Feel the Warmth supper.

Vito Pidalla is a graduate of Chef Raquel Rivera’s intensive culinary training program. Rivera, owner of a Pinch of Salt of Bridgeport, provides culinary training for low-income residents for food industry employment and entrepreneurial ventures.

Grow-a-Row is a collaborative effort between the Church’s Aileen Brill and the Community Garden’s Amy Unikewicz. Both organizations have a long history of providing food to the needy.

NEXT COURSE: Sustainable Westport sponsored a webinar on eating more with less. Click here to see.

A sampling of the food donations grown and collected at the Westport Community Garden through the Grow-A-Row initiative.

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Posted in Environment, Organizations, religion

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Photo Challenge #197

Posted on October 7, 2018 | 15 comments

“06880” readers really know their onions.

I thought last Sunday’s Photo Challenge was a tough one. It was Franco Fellah’s drone image of the Community Garden at Long Lots Elementary School — but it looked more like (as one person commented) his mother’s kitchen linoleum. (Click here to see.)

There was no way anyone could tell it was an aerial shot.

Or so I thought.

Rich Stein, Jonathan McClure, Diane Bosch, A. Darcy Sledge all identified it correctly — and all within minutes of posting.

Seth Goltzer chimed in soon.

So I’ll try to stump you again. This one is not easy.

Then again, I said that last week.

(Photo/Miggs Burroughs)

If you know where in Westport you’d see this, click “Comments” below.

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Posted in Environment, Photo Challenge

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Unsung Hero #62

Posted on August 22, 2018 | 15 comments

If you see a monarch butterfly around town — at the Community Garden next to Long Lots Elementary School, Wakeman Town Farm or anyplace else — you’ll marvel at its beauty and grace.

You should also thank Alice Ely.

Alice Ely

The Westporter is a garden coach. She gardens “with you, not for you,” her website says. “Whether you are just beginning, want to take your skills to the next level, branch out or troubleshoot, I’m happy to help.”

She is a master gardener and a compost maven. But she holds a special place in her heart for monarchs.

Alice’s inspiration, design and transplanting skills helped create the butterfly garden at the Community Garden, across from the compost area.

That garden is now a registered monarch way station. Filled with milkweed and pollinator plants, it is flourishing.

Inspired Community Garden members help plant, water and maintain it.

Alice was also a driving force behind the habitat at WTF, and 2 others on Cross Highway. Beyond providing monarchs with homes, she helps ensure them a pathway of habitats on their migratory routes.

There’s a lot more to that than just planting milkweed and “letting nature do its thing,” Alice notes. It’s painstaking work — but it pays off in gorgeous, environmentally crucial ways.

A monarch butterfly, at the Westport Community Garden.

Monarch butterflies — and the rest of nature that they nurture — can’t thank Alice Ely.

But “06880” readers can. Which is why she is this week’s Unsung Hero.

(Do you know an Unsung Hero? Send nominations to: dwoog@optonline.net)

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Posted in Environment, Organizations, Unsung Heroes

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Community Garden Visitor

Posted on September 4, 2015 | 4 comments

Dorothy Rolla was at the Community Garden yesterday, when she spotted a hawk perched on the pergola.

(Photo/Lou Rolla)

(Photo/Lou Rolla)

She and her husband Lou admired its beauty and majesty. Meanwhile, the hawk was searching for nesting rodents, and perhaps waiting to enjoy some fine Westport produce.

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Posted in Environment

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Eagle Scout Project Comes To “Fruition”

Posted on December 6, 2014 | 1 comment

Who wants to build a pergola at the Community Gardens?

That was the challenge offered to all Boy Scouts in town, by Ellen Greenberg.

Brendan Wisniewski was the first to respond. He wanted an Eagle Scout project that would benefit the community in a lasting way. This was perfect.

After meeting with Ellen, Lou Weinberg and Nick Mancini — all Community  Gardeners — Brendan conducted research online. He figured out the size, materials and structural integrity of the pergola, then created a detailed plan including time frame, help needed, cost and drawings.

Former Troop 39 scoutmaster Tony Giunta helped. Fellow scouts offered their assistance. Guided by Brendan’s father Mark (current Troop 39 scoutmaster) and his mother Jeanne (troop committee member), construction began.

Over 175 volunteer hours later, the pergola is finished. A few hurdles remain, but Brendan should soon join his brother John in the Eagle Scout ranks.

And Nick Mancini’s grape vines will have a home.

Brendan Wisniewski's pergola.

Brendan Wisniewski’s pergola.

(Hat tip to Johanna Rossi)

 

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Posted in Environment, Organizations, People, Teenagers

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How Does Your Garden Grow?

Posted on October 18, 2009 | 2 comments

Nothing is easy in Westport.

Dogs on the beach:  Controversy!

Lights on athletic fields:  Brouhaha!

And introducing now:  The Community Gardens War!

Tomorrow night (Monday), Garden members present a proposal to the Parks & Recreation Commission.  The plan:  expand the site, adjacent to Long Lots School.

Opposition is expected.  Some Long Lots parents worry about safety.  (Not from an errant hoe; more like garden-variety sex offenders.  Ho ho.)

Watch out for unwelcome guests!

Watch out for unwelcome guests!

Though unauthorized people are not allowed on school property when school is in session, the rule is somewhat relaxed for Community Gardeners:  If they want to till their plots during school hours, they must get a special Parks & Rec pass.  (After, of course, passing a background check.)

Most gardeners wait until school is out — and prime gardening season is summer, anyway — but what the hay hey.

Other concerns involve competition for parking spots at the site (gardeners vs. teachers and parents).   There are very few gardeners during the day (see above), so even with the expansion that might not be a major issue.

It could be worse:  Can you imagine the battles between spade-wielding Subaru drivers and iPhone-texting seniors and juniors if the Community Gardens were at Staples?

It's amazing how ugly a garden can be.

It's amazing how ugly a garden can be.

Some people object to the aesthetics of the garden itself.  It was built by the gardeners themselves.  It is not a designer-garden, as in many Westport backyards.

But again, things could be worse.  This is a garden, people — not the Quonset hut  squatting a quarter mile away off North Maple.

The action begins at 7:30 p.m. at Town Hall.  Let’s hope it stays civil.  The last thing we need is one side throwing tomatoes at the other.

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Posted in Environment, Westport life

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