Bus Tour ​“Reveals” Flourishing Community Gardens

A sparkling white coach bus from New Haven Land Trust’s ​“Habitat, Harvest, and Happy Hour Benefit Bus Tour” ambled down Newhallville streets. At the head of the bus, Stacy Spell, a former New Haven homicide detective with microphone in hand, described how some of the streets and corners were once breeding grounds for crime, consumed in drugs and violence.

The occasion was a Sunday evening tour of the bounty sprouting from streets like those all over town thanks to grassroots work supported by the Land Trust, a not-for-profit organization that ​“promotes the appreciation and preservation of natural resources in New Haven for the benefit and education of the community.” The Trust has a Land Conservation Program of almost 80 acres, a community gardening program of 50 garden sites that are leased from the city, and an educational program addressing environmental, nature, land and gardening concerns.

The busload of around 50 urban tourists originated at Westville’s Stone Hearth Restaurant. Riders listened to Spell, now president of the West River Neighborhood Association and a Land Trust board member, describe how community gardens have become gathering places, oases of peace, hope, and good nutrition for Newhallville neighbors. The gardens’ bounty is distributed through informal channels providing an array of healthful vegetables, often augmenting the grocery lists of those with strained budgets and limited options.

Newhallvillle’s two Starr Street gardens were the first stop on what would be a truncated tour, owing to darkening skies and periodic rain. At each planned stop, the tour was greeted by local volunteer-managers who described their work and respective missions.

Starr Street’s community gardens, along with other 49 additional gardens throughout New Haven, are underwritten by the Trust, which provides topsoil, compost, wood chips (mulch), seeds and young plants according to Rachel Ziesk, the Land Trust’s part-time certified master gardener. She provides guidance and expertise to gardeners. 

Providing the tour with historic information and updates about some of the sites managed by the Land Trust was its president, John Richard Logan. Logan talked about some of the sites the tour would not be visiting, like the Long Wharf Nature Preserve and the Pond Lily Preserve at the junction of Routes 63 and 69 near Woodbridge. The site once housed a mill dating back to the eighteenth century. A dam presently located there will be partially removed and a fish ladder designed for spawning river herring (or alewife) relocated. Despite ambitious plans to restore the natural habitat, the project remains stalled due to a lack of money.

Tour stops included the Quinnipiac Meadows/Eugene B. Fargeorge Preserve, a 35-acre site of tidal wetlands, coastal forests and grasslands on the Quinnipiac River. The preserve offers two looping trails with trail maps located at the site, a bird blind and views of the salt marsh and river. Site manager Stewart Hutchings, who describes himself as a land ​“steward,” gave a short talk noting the abundance of wildlife at the site. ​“About the only creatures I have not seen here are bears,” he said. For a listing of all New Haven Land Trust Preserves and additional information, click here:

Between tour destinations, Land Trust personnel regaled the tour group with trivia questions such as: ​“What is the name for a highly productive part of the river where fresh and salt water meet?” If you were the first to answer ​“estuary,” you would have taken home one of the many prizes ranging from miniature garden gnomes to some freshly-picked veggies from one of the community gardens.

At a tour of ​“Garden in the Park,” a vegetable and butterfly garden located in Fairmont Park in Fair Haven Heights, the tour was met by coordinator and community garden pioneer Sylvia Dorsey. With volunteer Leslie Crescenzi, Dorsey had prepared a tasty spread of Shiso tea, raspberry and mint herb water, herb crackers and eggplant dip.

Another feast awaited the group back at the tour’s final destination, Westville’s Stone Hearth Restaurant, which hosted a cocktail party and celebration featuring fresh seasonal appetizers, including some made with produce from Land Trust gardens.

The evening’s agenda included a presentation of the New Haven Land Trust’s Environmental Business Award to outdoor outfitters Trailblazer, for the locally owned store’s ​“longstanding commitment to preserving and protecting the environment, including its support of osprey nesting platforms at the Land Trust preserves.”

Many of New Haven’s incredible natural resources, that in some cases seem hidden in plain sight, owe their existence to the stewardship of New Haven Land Trust. Present and future generations are the beneficiaries of this organizations work; the ​“Habitat, Harvest and Happy Hour Benefit and Bus Tour” was another opportunity to celebrate and educate.