Chapters in Connecticut

Join Arboretum Horticulturist, Anna Fialkoff, on a short walk around the Native Plant Demonstration Garden to learn about the showcased trees, shrubs and herbaceous plants and how you can incorporate them in your own home landscape. Anna will provide insights from their work-in-progress gardens, how they are tackling preparation and planting of each area, and will highlight many species that will be available at the upcoming plant sale this September.   In conjunction with the plant sale, this program is held in partnership with the  Connecticut College Arboretum.

Meet at 33 Gallows Lane, New London. Parking is available on site.

Free and open to the public.  Space is limited, registration requested. 

In 1962, Spicebush Swamp Park was West Hartford’s first park to be set aside as a natural area for nature study and walking, and as a 33-acre outdoor classroom for schools to use. Later, in 1968, McGovern Pond was created in the park by excavating an area of approximately one acre.  The West Hartford Garden Club's Civic Project Committee has made the restoration and preservation of Spicebush Swamp Park its key long-term ecological project. In 2020, the garden club upgraded a rundown garden near the park sign with native pollinator plantings. During 2020 and 2021, that work continued. Beginning in 2022, an area further inside the property was restored through the removal of invasive plants and installation of a bird sanctuary garden designed with native trees, shrubs, and herbaceous perennials, all with the help of Master Gardeners and volunteers from local Sierra Club and other community and municipal groups. A group has continued to meet for about 2 hours most weeks throughout the year at Spicebush, and periodically on weekend dates, to identify and tag remnant native plants, remove invasive plants, manage the pollinator and bird sanctuary gardens, install new native plantings, and set priorities for the future. A new wet meadow, funded in part by a Hartford Audubon Society grant, will be installed this fall. We hope to install interpretive educational signage and to improve plant labeling. The terrain is uneven in places, the area is subject to flooding, the invasives are formidable, and it is heavy work. However, we enjoy the birds, the insects, the native flora, and the beauty of this natural setting.  The walk will be led by Beth Ann Loveland Sennett.  

A small parking lot is located just north of the intersection of Mountain Road with Farmington Avenue.  

Free and open to the public.  Registration is requested to aid planning.

Questions?  Contact Beth Ann Loveland Sennett by text (860-729-4150) or email ([email protected])

Kim Eierman is the founder of EcoBeneficial LLC, an eco landscape design company. She is also a teacher at the New York Botanical Garden, the Brooklyn Botanic Garden, the Native Plant Center, and the Massachusetts Horticultural Society.

In addition, she is the author of the book “The Pollinator Victory Garden-Win the War on Pollinator Decline with Ecological Gardening; Attract and Support Bees, Beetles, Butterflies, Bats and Other Pollinators”

Ms. Eierman is an engaging and knowledgeable speaker. She loves questions, so bring them on!

She will have her book for sale and is happy to sign it for you. 

It is sure to be an informative and lively evening. 

SAVE THE DATE - DAY 1 of our annual plant sale pre-order pickup and walk-in sale.   Pickup times are tentative and subject to change.  More information coming soon.  

Contact [email protected] if there are specific native plants you are interested in purchasing this year. 

SAVE THE DATE - DAY 2 of our annual plant sale pre-order pickup and walk-in sale.  Pickup times are tentative and subject to change.  More information coming soon.  

Contact [email protected] if there are specific native plants you are interested in purchasing this year.