Tree Canopy at Seaside Park, Bridgeport
In May 2022, the Fairfield Garden Club with support of the Woman’s Seamen’s Friend Society of Connecticut, planted 17 trees near the Perry Memorial Arch at Seaside Park, in Bridgeport, CT, Frederick Law Olmsted’s only marine park. These trees are largely native, pollinator friendly, wind, salt and water tolerant. The tree list includes: 7 Morton Circle/ London planetrees planted in an allée, 3 Celtis occidentalis/ common hackberry trees, 3 Nyssa sylvatica/tupelo trees, 3 quercus rubra/northern red oak trees and one Magnolia virginiana/ Sweetbay magnolia.
This gift to the city of Bridgeport is in honor of the 200th anniversary of the birth of Frederick Law Olmsted, the father of landscape design in America and the designer of Seaside Park.
Daffodils
The Fairfield Garden Club began planting daffodil bulbs around town in the fall of 2011. We have planted bulbs in the following locations: Brookside Park at the corner of Mill Plain Road and Brookside Road, Ludlow Park, Burr Homestead, Fairfield Public Library (Main Branch and Fairfield Woods Branch), Reeves Park in Southport across from Pequot Library and the Mill Plain Green.
The Greenwich Daffodil Society has for several years given The Fairfield Garden Club historic daffodil bulbs which have been planted at the town Library under the Fairfield Public Library sign on the Post Road.
Civic Committee’s Pocket Park Project at Fairfield Public Library
The Fairfield Garden Club, having celebrated its centennial in 2015, maintains its long tradition of involvement in civic projects. Over the years, the Club has been committed to conservation, education and beautification efforts for the benefit and enjoyment of all Fairfield residents.
The Fairfield Garden Club was instrumental in planting the original shrubs and flowers around the gazebo on Sherman Green, a beloved gathering place in the center of Fairfield. While the plantings continued to enhance their setting, they had matured over time and had begun to lose their original proportions. In 2015, the Civic Committee Chairs determined that the gazebo could benefit from an update on the plantings. In the spirit of conservation, an ideal solution was to relocate the healthy, but now mature, shrubs to a nearby space to create a Pocket Park on the west side of the Fairfield Public Library. Many people use this space as a walkway to reach the Post Road from the Library parking lot.
With substantial help from the Town’s Tree Warden, Jeff Minder, and a team from the Fairfield Department of Public Works, the plantings were relocated, and a new design was implemented for the gazebo.
This project continued for several years with the creation of a bluestone and gravel walkway. The Pocket Park includes two benches purchased with The Fairfield Garden Club’s civic funds. The benches are in the same style as those found in front of the Library on the Post Road and elsewhere around town.
Grasmere Eldercare Workshops
For the past fifteen years, The Fairfield Garden Club Civic Committee has hosted floral design workshops with seniors at the Grasmere by the Sea Adult Day Program to make seasonal arrangements. This is always one of The Fairfield Garden Club’s most loved projects and is rewarding and enjoyed by all who participate. The Fairfield Trader Joe’s generously donates the flowers so that seniors are able to take their floral design creations home and enjoy them.
Reeves Park
In September 2017 members of The Fairfield Garden Club joined in the Club’s newest community beautification garden design and bulb planting project at a location across from Pequot Library called Reeves Park. This lovely site bloomed for the first time in early spring of 2018 with blue crocus, white daffodils with subtle colored centers and blue muscari. It is a delight for all passers-by or a place to sit and reflect on wooden benches that have also been provided by The Fairfield Garden Club.
Floral Arrangements at Pequot Library Art Show
Each year The Fairfield Garden Club presents to Pequot Library a beautiful floral arrangement to enhance their Art Show. This year in October the Pequot Library Art Show will be in its twenty-second year. This is another example of how The Fairfield Garden Club reaches out with generosity of time and talent to enhance the success and enjoyment of community events and experiences.