The Board of Selectmen at its most recent meeting approved a pair of contracts in connection with the redesign of a formal garden at Waveny.
The $33,035 for plant materials, labor and irrigation work at the parterre garden—just east of the balcony out back of Waveny House—is to be funded by two nonprofit organizations, the New Canaan Garden Club and Waveny Park Conservancy.
Part of the Waveny Parterre Garden plan from the New Canaan Garden Club (Ellen Zumbach Designs)
First Selectman Kevin Moynihan and Selectmen Kit Devereaux and Nick Williams voted 3-0 to approve a $25,055 with South Salem, N.Y.-based Copia Home and Garden for labor and plant materials and $7,980 with Stamford-based Summer Rain for labor and materials to install irrigation.
According to Parks Superintendent John Howe, $20,000 is coming from the Garden Club with the balance, and a 15 percent reserve for overruns, from the Conservancy.
“This is an example of our best public-private partnerships,” Moynihan said during the meeting, held Jan. 23 at Town Hall.
Williams underscored that Copia is including the labor for the job at no charge.
The town will help insofar as it provides a dumpster for debris to be hauled away.
The Garden Club’s plan calls for new boxwoods in existing beds, addition of benches and plantings in the garden itself as well as trees and shrubs above its “north wall.”
The Town Council in December approved the redesign by a 7-3 vote. The plan to redesign the parterre garden made headlines in November, when some voiced opposition to it, saying New Canaan should restore and preserve the original parterre garden plan as laid out by the Olmsted Brothers firm. The Parks & Recreation Commission voted 6-0 in favor of the Garden Club’s plan.