The Conservation Committee informs and educates Club members on conservation needs and activities of our town, state and nation, and educates individual members on conservation principles and practices.
2017-2018 Conservation Chairs: Kim Gregory, Nina King
Choose native plants in your yard or container garden to create a habitat for birds, butterflies and bees. Native plants provide shelter and essential food, and also help improve local watersheds and mitigate climate change.
Learn more about native plants for birds from CT Audubon or search the Audubon plant database.
Learn more about butterflies and butterfly gardening through the Xerces Society.
List of butterfly nectar and larval food sources from Natureworks Garden Center.
Three easy steps to help bees and butterflies from the Xerces Society.
Conservation Committee Annual Report (2017)
THE GREENWICH AUDUBON
The Conservation Committee met with Andy Chapin in October 2016 to clean up our Pollinator Plot and collect seeds, then in December 2016 we met to create mini greenhouses from milk jugs where we planted these native pollinator seeds. On March 6 and 10 of 2017 we met with Andy and Aubrey from Audubon @greenwich land trust green house to continue our milk jug pollinator seedling project! We transplanted our pollinator seedlings from our milk jugs into their growing crates. May 11 was spring cleaning our pollinator plot and transplanting our milk jug seedlings.
GREENWICH COMMUNITY GARDENS
We met in September 2016 to clean up our Pollinator Plot and discuss plans for Head Start students to use the garden with us. In October 2016 we had children join us in the garden for a harvest celebration then in April 2017 we started planting and visiting the garden on a weekly basis.
GREENWICH LAND TRUST
We met with Steve in October 2016 for tour of greenhouse and some planting then on April 22 @9 for greenwich land trust earth day planting project. May 9 Greenwich Land Trust SEED workshop, we discussed what level of seed saving expertise is required for each crop, and the general timeline for planting and collecting seed. Participants brought 1-3 seed varieties that they planted out in GLT greenhouse or picked from GLT current vegetable seed selection. We discussed wild-plant seed saving as well, with a focus on preserving local genetics from native plants on the Greenwich Land Trust preserves. Gardeners will be sharing seed in the fall through the Seed Savers Exchange and the new Grassroots Seed Network (with the possibility of working with Will Bonsall’s Scatterseed Project) GLT had some space in the GLT garden for us.
We had four pollinator potlucks this year starting October 2016 then January 2017 was our first movie night with BAG IT where we formed a task force to ban bags in our town.
APRIL 26 Pollinator Potluck: Native Plants & Coastal Resilience with Judy Preston on how native plant gardens can preserve and protect water sources, hedge against climate change, provide critical urban wildlife habitat and even improve our mental health! Hortulus co chaired this event that was hosted by the Audubon and supported by Happiness Is, The Study Fine Wine & Spirits, Green Fingers, Greenwich Land Trust, Save the Sound, Greenwich Community Gardens, North Street Pharmacy, Garden Education Center and McArdles provided a blueberry bush for raffle
May 7 Bees and Wasps of Connecticut! Dr. Parker Gambino present a slide show about these fascinating and important insects and part of his collection on display and available for examination. After the talk, a guided walk around Greenwich Point to observe these insects in action and learn more about their habits. Beth Boyer, the “bee lady,” on hand with fun and easy bee activities for younger visitors. Co-sponsors: Bruce Museum, Greenwich Garden Club Conservation Committee and Happiness Is.
May 17 Pollinator Potluck: Water Conservation in a Time of Drought with Denise Savageau, Town of Greenwich Conservation Director, and Twig Holland, Aquarion Water Company program coordinator will present the current status of water conservation efforts and how planting native species in our gardens benefits this effort.
We are working with garden education center to do another pollinator potluck with them next year and raise some additional funds to supplement what we gave them to purchase their new bee colony…maybe we can add pollinator plot next to their hive! In January 2018 Dan Barber, The Third Plate, will be our featured speaker then in April 2018 we will focus on staying safe in time of lyme while gardening and enjoying nature.