New Canaan Train Station Makeover
The garden is a mixed planting with evergreen & deciduous shrubs, trees, perennials, ornamental grasses, sedges, and bulbs.
We waited a long time to plant the train station planting.
We waited, and waited, and waited. And then boom, it happened! After 2.5 years from design completion, the stars were aligned, and the site was ready to be planted. We had one week to source the plants, arrange deliveries and alert Traveling Trowels volunteers on standby to help with the planting. Last summer was the summer of weekend rain. And because of commuter parking, work could only be done on the weekends.
Because of tight space at the train station, plants were delivered to the garage at DPW and Mose’s crew were wonderful in helping with unloading the plants off the delivery trucks, loading them onto their trailers & trucks, and delivering them to the train station a few days later. We were worried about plants walking off the site overnight but fortunately, none did. The New Canaan police kindly patrolled the area that night. Over a rainy Friday and Saturday in mid-October last year, NCBL volunteers and DPW crew planted over 1000 trees, shrubs, and perennials. Last fall, we added some spring bulbs. This spring we planted the rest of the plants, mainly around the patio areas, where we left room for the mason to complete the patio.
There were many people involved in the project. Barbara Wilson, landscape architect, designed the patio and brick walkway in the fall of 2020. Ty Tan designed the planting in winter of 2021. Peter Lanni, Inc. built the patio, brick pathway, and prepared the planting beds. Vinni Fence did the railing for the patio.
When we first discussed the planting for the train station, we already had a year of maintenance experience from the mailbox garden. There were lots of weeds there and it can be difficult to identify what is a weed or plant when they are not in bloom. There are still lots of weeds there. Rob and Faith thought it would be manageable to focus more on shrubs and easier for volunteers to know what to weed if the planting is mainly shrubs. We compromised with block planting and matrix planting of perennials and grasses alongside the evergreen and deciduous shrubs. It is a public garden, and it needs to be presentable year-round. The evergreen shrubs provide some winter interest. Many folks commented on the Thunderhead Japanese black pine.
When you visit, you’ll notice in some areas, there is just a block of a single species of plant- that’s block planting. Matrix planting is more complex. The matrix is the greater mass and can be described as the underlying base layer of the planting, within which other taller structural plants can emerge. It can be a single species or a combination of species. The matrix planting is often associated with Piet Oudolf and the Dutch Perennial Movement. As you visit, can you identify the plants in the block planting and the plants in the matrix?
Two things are top of mind when choosing plants for long term success of a garden, the SOCIALBILITY of the plants and having SUCCESSION of blooms or interests. While native plants are
important, it is equally important to choose plants that are not overly aggressive or difficult to weed out. The mailbox planting has never fully recovered from the first year that we let a native plant/weed grow. At the train station, we noticed that there were a lot of bindweed, along with the usual suspects. My gut feeling is that there is more bindweed now than ever before because of soil disturbance while prepping the beds. Our weeding strategy is to cut the weeds instead of pulling them. Two reasons, 1) one can cut many times faster than pulling them (quantity over quality here) 2)pulling weeds causes soil disturbance and encourages more weed seeds to germinate, especially near the crowd of the plant. Time will tell.
Plant it and they will come. A couple of weeks ago I brought my brother ((who thinks plants are messy) and his partner who is an ecologist and works for the Audobon in FL. My brother pointed out a hummingbird on the red monarda and cardinal flower. He chimed, “I guess hummingbirds like the color red.” Pretty observance for a guy who’s not crazy about nature. And it’s pretty amazing that in a parking lot at a train station, one can encounter a hummingbird.
