Dennis Riordan reports on the progress of Menunkatuck's Audubon in Action Grant
Menunkatuck applied for and was awarded a $8,130 grant to start a native plant nursery in New Haven. Our partner in the project is the Community Placemaking and Engagement Network (CPEN) which works with young people to engage them in the productive use of public spaces and vacant lots. The project was to be located in Newhallville, an underserved neighborhood of New Haven. We were planning to start working the week after COVID-19 shut down Connecticut. Needless to say, we put everything on pause.
As spring progressed and New Haven became somewhat less of a center of infection in Connecticut, we decided to start a scaled back version of the project. On Saturday May 16, with social distancing and masks in place, Doreen Abubakar (of CPEN), two young people, Khalif and Randall, and I prepared a strip of a community garden on Stevens St in the Hill neighborhood of New Haven. We laid out some landscape cloth and installed a border. We then potted 120 native perennial plugs and watered them. The plants were rather sad looking, but they were alive and I had hope that they would rebound.
Doreen and I then thought that we should give a go at planting some native perennial seeds in starter trays. On Sunday, May 24, the four of us met at the garden and sowed seeds in about 400 cells in the starter trays. That went so well that we decided to plant some bareroot shrubs. I ordered 125 native shrubs, larger pots, and a bale of potting mix. On Saturday, June 6, we potted them and added them to our row of perennials.
When we checked the plants on Saturday, June 13, the potted plugs had recovered and were looking and growing well, a few of the seeds had sprouted, and the shrubs had begun to leaf out from the buds that had been there when we potted them. So far, so good.
Our crew has grown to four teens with a brother and sister, Luis and Yami, from Stevens St joining. After checking the plants on the 13th, we trimmed some invasive plants that had grown in the community garden and then, joined by Menunkatuck board member Robin Ladouceur, we went to the West River Memorial Park Urban Oasis for a look at what native plants look like in place. Following lunch the teens pulled some mugwort from an area that will become a butterfly garden later this summer. On Saturday, June 20, we returned to West River for more invasive plant removal. Board members Carl Harvey and Judy Knowles joined us.
Photos: Robin Ladouceur, Dennis Riordan, Doreen Abubakar