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A New Garden Grows Behind the Branford Green

As drivers, pedestrians and cyclists travel along South Main Street behind the Branford green, a beautiful new garden, fitting of the champion False Cypress tree it frames, grabs the eye.

The new garden was recently installed to help highlight the state champion tree and to further enhance the back of the green, which is an often-overlooked part of the four-acre space in the heart of Branford.

"It's a continuation of the beautifying of the back part of the green," said David Minicozzi, Branford Green Committee chairman.  "A lot of people don't know about this part of the green, because it's on South Main Street. They're driving by fast, and just don't see it."

The False Cypress was thought to be a national champion tree, but recently was inventoried as a Connecticut Champion Tree by the state's Notable Tree Project, said Minicozzi. Established in 1985, the Notable Trees Project collects and distributes information about Connecticut's largest and most historic trees, both native and introduced. Learn more at http://oak.conncoll.edu:8080/notabletrees/

After years of being rather hidden among overgrowth, Branford's notable False Cypress tree now stands out in the newly-planted garden, which was designed and donated by Bill Van Wilgen of Van Wilgen's Garden Center in North Branford. Van Wilgen is a Branford resident.

The garden neighbors the Child Development Center (CDC) playground behind First Congregational Church, located between the green's intersecting roads of Taintor Drive and Blackstone Avenue. Space around the tree had been cleared of overgrowth by the town's Department of Public Works in 2016, said Minicozzi. The garden idea came about after the CDC playground was recently updated by First Church.

"A committee from First Congregational Church came to the Green Committee with their plans to renovate the playground; and they reconfigured the plans to allow for space around the tree," said Minicozzi.  "[First Selectman] Jamie Cosgrove came up with the idea of having this garden, and talked to Bill Van Wilgen."

The newly-cut garden bed includes accents of two large stones of Stony Creek granite and is planted with flowering white hydrangea, miniature roses, Nepeta (blue-flowering cat mint) and a few euonymus plants to provide variegated foliage, said Van Wilgen.

In July, Van Wilgen's Garden Center also designed and donated plantings for the refurbished Veterans Memorial Garden at the front of the Branford green. That garden, located at the base of the flag pole on Main Street, was a project of the Town with the Branford Garden Club, Branford's VFW and American Legion, Branford Public Works, Branford Parks & Recreation and Van Wilgen's (see the story here).

Now, the new False Cypress garden is enhancing another part of the town green. Together with the decorative black fencing outlining the CDC playground and its brightly colored equipment, this once-overlooked space behind First Congregational Church is enjoying a huge improvement, said David Colley, the Green Committee's First Congregational Church member.

"This was a jungle out here. Two years ago, you could not see the back of the church," said Colley. "Now, one compliments the other."

The Branford Green Committee is an advisory group of nine citizen volunteers appointed by the Board of Selectmen. Members represent several key organizations with connections to the town green, from those representing citizens (at-large) to those connected to churches on the green and community and business groups. Branford Parks and Recreation manages the care of the town green and gardens.

The back of the town green stretches from the surrounds of the Academy building at the corner of Montowese and South Main Street and runs to the triangular point of land where South Main and Main Street converge, just beyond Eades Street. In 2014, the town installed brick sidewalks along the back of the green as part of a Small Town Economic Assistance Program (STEAP) grant to improve and complete  pedestrian walkways.

With the new garden complete, the Branford Green Committee will next consider adding some shade trees along the grassy stretch between the False Cypress garden and an oak at the corner of South Main Street and Blackstone Avenue, said Minicozzi, adding the improvements to the CDC playground and the new False Cypress garden add to "a great trend" that's improving the back of the green.

"We're trying to make it a nice, continuous space," said Minicozzi.