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

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.

Selectmen Approve Contracts for Work at Waveny’s Parterre Garden

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.