Goffe Street Park

Volunteer Leader(s):

Nadine Horton

Neighborhood: Dixwell

Type of Site: Park Friends

Address: Goffe St. & County St., New Haven, CT, 06511

Intern(s):

Jasmine Gormley (2024)

Annli Nakayama (2023)

Photo Gallery

2024 Greenspace Report

You are always sure to find something fun to do at Goffe Street Park in the summertime, whether it’s a game of basketball, a place to cool off on the Splashpad, or some time on the swing set. This is a very high-use Greenspace, and in its second summer season with URI, we focused on keeping the park clean and the plants in the Children’s Gardens healthy. Each workday began with some trash pickup and usually ended with lots of tiny helping hands in the garden as neighborhood children arrived at the park. We added some plants and mulch to the garden beds, and even the park’s smallest visitors learned about weeding, planting, and stewardship each week.

2024 Accomplishments

2 shrubs planted (2 Spirea)
2 perennials planted (1 Coreopsis, 1 Zebra Grass)
5 events
13 volunteers
50 volunteer hours

Annual Reports

Greenspace Log

07/26/2023

The first FOGSP Planting Party was a great success! Though no new adult volunteers attended, many children — a few who had seen the flyers we had distributed, a few who were invited by their friends just moments before, and a few who were intrigued by our bags of planting snacks — came to help plant in the large tree bed. With mini-shovels, hand trowels, too-big gardening gloves, and watering cans filled at the splash pad, over 15 children helped plant 22 perennials in the bed! With ages ranging from 3 to 11, every child found something to do. Several older boys helped guide the littler ones and, once they learned how to plant from Nadine and Taneha, they started teaching the others, too. The gravel in the tree bed soil made it tricky and the heat of the sun added to the challenge, but with hard work and determination all 22 plants made it in! We enjoyed popsicles and treats in the shade as we admired the start of the Goffe Street Park Playground Children's Garden!

Planting

07/19/2023

Nadine and Taneha started the workday with trash pickup as usual. We watered and weeded the tree beds and discussed plans for the planting party — only one week away! We distributed flyers to the neighbors on County Street and Nadine publicized the event to the Friends of Goffe Street Park email list. We also spoke to parents in the park whose children were playing in the playground, encouraging them to join us in stewarding the playground for, and with, the children. Lastly, we installed several rocks in the large tree bed to outline the garden's cut-through path.

Maintenance

07/12/2023

This week, we began preparing for our big Planting Party event on the 26th. We started with trash pickup as usual, then moved toward planting three larger shrubs — ninebark — and three smaller flowering coreopsis plants in the small tree bed. We then weeded and watered both tree beds, with the help of some neighborhood children with squirt-guns!