Government
New Canaan ‘Community Garden’ Proposed for Kiwanis Park
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Led by residents who live in the neighborhood, a group of locals is seeking permission to create a “community garden” for New Canaan in a largely disused area of Kiwanis Park. An expanse of grass in the northeastern part of the Old Norwalk Road park could lend itself to an approximately 6,000-square-foot garden that town residents could use to grow mostly vegetables as well as fruit and flowers, New Canaan’s Lisa Creighton told members of the Parks & Recreation Commission at their Nov. 13 meeting. “The garden itself will increase the appeal and usage of Kiwanis Park,” Creighton said at the appointed body’s regular meeting, held at Lapham Community Center and via videoconference. During a presentation to the Commission, Creighton listed some of the expected benefits of the garden, including community beautification, social connection, educational opportunities, food security and sustainability.
Creighton, who’d been involved with community gardens in Washington, D.C. in the past said that in her experience such gardens “build social cohesion,” bringing together people who normally wouldn’t interact.
She added that a community garden such as what’s envisioned for Kiwanis lends itself to wide “peer-to-peer education” where adults learn from each other “about the stewardship of land, planting and seedlings.”
Though the organic plants grown in a community garden are designed to serve those who have secured plots, there often is excess, Creighton said.