Community Corner

Ever Wonder About the Gardens in Front of Town Hall?

Ellen Desjardins planted them years ago, and tends them still

One day, years ago by now, Ellen Desjardins had just had it. The strip of dirt in the curbing outside of Town Hall was just too ugly for words. She couldn't stand it.

So she went home, dug some perennials up from her garden, brought them to town hall and planted them.

“I never even asked a question,” she says.

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Over the years, she has planted peonies and daisies, irises and lilies of the valley, hens and chickens, coreopsis and balloon flowers, dusty miller and grasses and plants whose names she can’t remember.

She weeds, she waters when it’s necessary, she fills in the garden when it’s needed. She does what must be done to maintain the plants. Recently, before an evening meeting in town hall, Desjardins was working in front of the building, tearing out a voracious weed.

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She was furious. The state had planted this weed along Connecticut highways years ago, Desjardins says, and it has spread everywhere. (You’ve all seen this stuff, viney, with thin leaves and purple flowers and a propensity for growing that is just enormous.)

Helping her are Shawn East, 19, and Aaron Myers, 21. They are digging and pulling and raking, piling up weeds here, rescuing daffodils there, helping Desjardins.

Myers says he enjoys volunteering, simple as that.

East says, “I’m very community-minded.”

And the fact is, it’s hard to say no to Desjardins. Her energy and enthusiasm are infectious. Her drive is daunting.

Desjardins is almost 73, she says, with some pride. A breast cancer survivor, she is fit and strong, walking quickly and with purpose.

Her husband died 10 years ago, she says, and she runs a boarding kennel at her home on Raymond Hill Road, and does lots of gardening there, too.

She is determined to show me some issues at the senior center, and we stride down the hill, quickly and with purpose.

She gestures to a strip of the road along the side of the senior center. Leaves and twigs and bark and sand have collected there, and the strip of detritus makes her nuts.

Under a gazebo-like structure attached to the senior center, some tables and chairs sit, covered with stuff that’s fallen off the wisteria vines that cover the structure. The bark and leaf mold and junk is everywhere. No one would ever want to sit there. This irritates her. Her accented voice grows stronger as she points out the problems.

Gardens in the front of the building are weedy and dry and unkempt, and this, too, spins her into a fury.

“Look at this mess!” she says. “Wouldn’t you be ashamed?”

And, “If some of these seniors would work as hard as I do, they’d be in good shape.” Their aches and pains would be gone, she insists.

Department of Public Works Director Donald Bourdeau says Desjardins is right, the sweeping hasn’t been done yet, but it is on the schedule. With the economy as it is, and the DPW staff being down a couple workers, the department has its hands full keeping the lawns mowed and the streets smooth. But sweeping is on the schedule, he says, and that strip by the senior center will be cleaned soon, he promises.

Kathie Doherty-Peck, director of the senior center, says much the same thing. Groups are coming to work on the gardens, but those projects haven’t started yet. They’re on the schedule, she says.

The seating area outside the senior center, underneath the arbor, seems to be an issue with just about everyone. Bourdeau says the seniors don’t use it, because it’s too hot to sit there in the summer, and too shady and cool to sit there in the spring and fall. Desjardins insists that if it’s cleaned up and attractive, people would use it.

Doherty-Peck and Bourdeau suggest that if any groups or individuals are looking for community projects, they could do an adopt-a-garden type of project at the senior center. Eagle Scouts, Girl Scouts, or any group or individual that’s looking to help should contact Doherty-Peck at the senior center.

Mayor Joe Jaskiewicz is a fan of Desjardins. She keeps the gardens by Town Hall looking beautiful, he says. Even in the hottest weather, she’s out there, tending the plants, pulling weeds, doing what needs to be done. He says he’s had to tell her, many times, to go in while it’s so hot, and come back when it’s cooler.

Desjardins “does a great job for us,”  he says, “God bless her for everything she does.”


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