New London Extension Community Gardens
The UConn Extension Community Gardens at the Norwich Extension Center are a long-term project aimed at transforming the grounds into a sustainable landscape teaching facility. Featuring a Native Plant Nature Trail and Wildflower Meadow, the gardens highlight the importance of native species, which help conserve water, support wildlife, protect soil, and minimize the need for chemical treatments. UConn Extension Master Gardener volunteers maintain the space by removing invasive plants and adding new native species each year. Visitors can explore a variety of Connecticut plants like viburnum, witch hazel, and sumac, and learn how native gardening can promote ecological balance and reduce maintenance in their own landscapes.
Walking Trail
Native Plant Woodland Walking Trail
This area is planted with Connecticut native trees, shrubs and wildflowers. The site incorporates several conditions: the upper slope is drier, the lower slope is wetter, especially toward the wooded area in back. Parts of the garden are quite shaded, and the entire area slopes to the east and does not receive the hot, western sun of the afternoon. This makes it a good location for many of our native species which evolved in or near the edges of deciduous forest.
Pollinator Garden
The pollinator gardens are located on the right side of the driveway to the extension center measuring approximately 2 x 12 feet, enclosed in a cement raised bad. Once in bloom the garden features lavender, enchinacea, penstemon, coreopsis, monarda, columbines and others designed to attract our native bees, butterflies and birds.
Rain Gardens
There is a rain garden is in front of the Extension building, capturing runoff from the roof.
What is a Rain Garden?
Rain gardens are shallow depressions in the landscape that typically include plants, shrubs and a mulch layer or ground cover. In addition to providing increased groundwater recharge, they are expected to provide pollutant treatment. Rain gardens can be used in residential settings to accept runoff from a roof or other impervious surface. In a commercial setting, bioretention areas are similar to rain gardens, but are often larger, and have an engineered design.
Every time it rains, water runs off impervious surfaces such as roofs, driveways, roads and parking lots, collecting pollutants along the way. This runoff has been cited by the United States Environmental Protection Agency as a major source of pollution to our nation's waterways. By building a rain garden at your home, you can reduce the amount of pollutants that leave your yard and enter nearby lakes, streams and ponds.
Design Your Own Rain Garden
UConn CLEAR (Center for Land Use Education and Research) created a Rain Garden App. This app is a free tool which provides a step by step guide for how to properly install a rain garden featuring video tutorials, tips and tricks, and various tools to assist you along the way. There is also a companion website that has similar information. Learn more on the Rain Garden website.
Coastal Garden
This garden is located at the entrance to the lower level parking lot. Renovated in 2022, the garden was overgrown with mugwort (Artemisia vulgaris) and sapling Norway maple (Acer platanoides). Saplings were removed and the mugwort weeded and solarized, which left the sweetfern (Comptonia) barely surviving on the hillside. Additional plantings were made of bayberry (Myrica Pennsylvania) and native rose (Rosa rugosa). The bed is now thriving as the are the Comptonia demonstrating plants suited to the harsh winds that hit our coastline gardens.
Compost Bin
Approximately 25% of a typical household’s waste can be recycled right in our own backyards. This significantly reduces the amount of solid waste being incinerated or landfilled and promotes sustainable living and resource conservation at individual and community levels. The compost bin provides an opportunity to apply compositing techniques for our gardens. It also provides an educational opportunity to learn about backyard and small-scale composting and to assist participants in passing this knowledge on to others.