Around Town

Journey to ‘England or France’ at Updated Parterre Garden [CORRECTION]

By |

After months of planning and “yard work,” a newly designed formal garden at Waveny House is in place and residents say they’re enjoying it. Those visiting the town park can now use additional benches as they walk through new plantings, boxwoods and shrubbery along the northern wall of the “parterre garden,” just east of the balcony behind the mansion. “Sitting on the back patio of Waveny and looking down at the parterre, you are transported to England or France,” said New Canaan Garden Club First Vice President Manda Riggs. New Canaan resident Cassidy Little visited the garden on a recent afternoon and is looking to use it as a backdrop for a photography project. “I’m very familiar with Waveny, I run through its trails almost every day in the fall,” she said.

Government

Selectmen Approve $34,700 Contract for Outdoor Wall Repairs at Waveny House

By |

Town officials on Tuesday approved a $34,700 contract with a Warren, Conn.-based company to repair stone walls around Waveny House. The Board of Selectmen voted 2-0 to approve the contract with Meduri Masonry, a company that Public Works Director tiger Mann said “has done some very good work for using the past on various projects throughout town.”

“This is for wall repairs in and around the house itself,” Mann told the selectmen at their meeting, held at Town Hall. “These will be comprised of the one existing wall that is adjacent to the parterre garden that is being replaced right now, and the wall to the north of it has actually collapsed over time.”

First Selectman Kevin Moynihan and Selectman Kit Devereaux voted in favor of the contract, which includes $30,200 plus $4,500 in contingency. Selectman Nick Williams was absent. “This is a town-funded project, this is not a partnership with the [Waveny Park] Conservancy, and the funds are currently available,” Mann said.

Around Town

Selectmen Approve Contracts for Work at Waveny’s Parterre Garden

By |

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. 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.

Government

Despite Calls To Slow Down, Town Council by 7-3 Vote Approves Redesign of ‘Parterre Garden’ at Waveny

By |

Thanking the volunteers who conceived of the plan and vowed to fund it—and despite opposition from some professional landscape architects—New Canaan’s legislative body on Wednesday night voted in favor of a redesign of a prominent garden at Waveny. The Town Council—New Canaan’s land use authority—at its special meeting voted 7-3 in favor of what some have called a “substantial redesign” of the parterre or “upper garden” at the beloved town park, though a national organization and prominent local landscape architect cautioned against a hasty approval. During an emotionally charged meeting at Town Hall, councilmen expressed regret that the two parties holding different opinions on what is best for the garden—the New Canaan Garden Club on one side with the redesign, and Keith Simpson Associates and a Washington, D.C.-based coalition on the other, advocating for a historic restoration—could not find a middle ground. Councilman Joe Paladino said he would like to see an “expanded dialogue” between the two sides—calling the Garden Club “an agency with decades and decades” of service to the town, and Simpson himself “an individual with hundreds and hundreds of hours that have benefitted our town.”

Yet a respectful exchange of ideas did not appear to be forthcoming, and the Town Council after some discussion approved the Garden Club’s plan. Those voting in favor included Chairman John Engel, Vice Chairmen Sven Englund and Rich Townsend, Steve Karl, Christa Kenin, Cristina A. Ross and Liz Donovan.

Around Town

New Canaan Garden Club, Beautification League Join Forces To Create Wreaths for Downtown

By |

Ty Tan, a professional landscape designer from West Norwalk, joined the New Canaan Beautification League about 18 months ago, after attending one of its free monthly programs.

This week, she is serving as the league’s coordinator on joint effort with the New Canaan Garden Club to beautify and prepare the town for the holidays. The two nonprofit organizations for more than a half-century have marshaled their considerable forces together to create huge wreaths and other holiday decorations that adorn Town Hall, the Post Office, New Canaan Library, Train Station, God’s Acre bandstand and New Canaan Nature Center as well as Meals-on-Wheels trays. “I think it really makes the town small and beautiful and unique and more personal, as opposed to going to other towns that do not feel personal,” Tan said on Tuesday afternoon as League and Club members placed finished wreaths on the back of pickup trucks for transporting to their destinations. “It really adds that small town touch.”

The New Canaan Department of Public Works assists in the efforts, hanging the wreaths and supplementing the raw materials that League and Club members gather from their own gardens with those the town workers get from public properties. Maryjane Markey, a 25-year town resident who had been a League member and has been a member of the Garden Club for 17 years—this year, chairing the Club’s Holiday Greens Committee—said she was “amazed” on arriving in New Canaan “that our town looked so gorgeous” during the holidays.