Rainbow Park is a calm, beautiful retreat for the New Haven community. This summer the volunteers worked on maintaining the space, weeding, watering, and clearing out some overgrow plants. We were able to take the overgrown hostas from Rainbow Park to another greenspace site, so they did not go to waste. It was a great summer for this group and neighbors from all around came out to thank the group for their work and tell the group leader, Jane, how thankful they are for the space.
We had a small but wonderful kick-off meeting this morning. Mike, a long term volunteer, and Jonathon, a local undergrad joined Pat, who has been organizing for years. Pat brought a delicious assortment of fresh baked muffins, watermelon, and fresh lemonade to start us off as we talked about why we were there and found intersections and commonalities between us. Mike helpfully pruned back some of the wintergreen that was beginning to overgrow onto the sidewalk, and we all spent a long time fighting off the tendrils of the invading five-leaf akebia which had intertwined itself with the holly bushes. We weeded extensively, concentrating on the right side where we intend to plant next week, and use a half yard of mulch. Jonathon and I were able to offload all the mulch together—it was quite an ambitious day! We ended up running out of time, so saved the perennials to plant next week. We were very happy to meet Jonathon and Mike, and their contributions were vital to keeping Rainbow Park alive. Thanks for a great kick off!
Maintenance
06/03/2017
At our second meeting, Chris came by the site to look at the potential placement of a rainbarrel, which turned out not to be a good fit for the area. However, we did find a water line by the entrance to the park, and hope that we can get the parks department on board with using it to get a source of water into the park, which will help with maintenance, which is done exclusively by volunteers.
Planning
05/26/2017
At our initial meeting, Pat and I toured the park, picked up trash and pulled some weeds, and discussed the park's long term sustainability. One of the biggest obstacles facing the park is that it is in an area with many people who rent for a short period of time and so do not always have the time to become committed to a local park. One of our main focuses moving forward will be to figure out how to get more volunteers, particularly those that are interested in becoming involved in the long term.
