Wellesley Village Church turning “heat island” into an oasis

June 2, 2018 by Deborah Brown Leave a Comment

Wellesley Village Church, Spring planting — Wellesley Village Church, where earlier this month enthusiastic volunteers led by the church’s Environmental Ministry helped plant trees and shrubs in the churchyard and cemetery. Photo credit: Paul Cramer

A wise king once said “To everything there is a season…” Earlier this month at Wellesley Village Church, volunteers led by the church’s Environmental Ministry took Solomon’s words to heart. On a seasonal spring day, 20 enthusiastic gardeners showed up with shovels and gloves to help plant trees and shrubs in the churchyard and cemetery in an effort to reduce the “heat island” effect of having a large yard with no canopy.

They didn’t do it alone. The United Church of Christ MassReLeaf program provided to Village Church $1,700 in Redbud trees, Cherry Dogwoods, and pink azaleas that were planted in the cemetery along Abbott Street in the cemetery along Church Street. Church volunteers pitched in to plant and do some maintenance to numerous existing small plants on the church property. Then, since the trees will need more than faith alone to grow, the Board of Properties helped out by providing watering bags for the trees, which will be tended until the plantings are well established.

It’s all part of a plan for the church’s Environmental Ministry and its Energy Task Force, which over the past several years have been evaluating ways that Village Church could be better stewards of the Earth. The result of that work has been a recommendation to adopt a goal of the church becoming a net zero user of energy, and to take the necessary steps over time to achieve that goal. To become a net zero user of energy, the church building and its operations would need to generate as much energy from renewable sources as it uses on an annual basis. Part of their action plan has been to take advantage of the beating sun by installing solar panels on the church’s roof. Part of it has been to pay attention to ways the beating sun might not advantage the church property, and thus the wider world, and remedy that by planting trees.

This isn’t the first time the MassReLeaf Ministry has partnered with Village Church to facilitate a tree-care project. The group, which has recently completed ten years of facilitating tree-care projects led by local religious organizations of any faith on public and access-qualified lands across Massachusetts, in 2015 gave funding and technical support to another project in town. During that project, parishioners left the pews and went out into the town to work on a tree, perennials and wild flower planting event. At the Wellesley/Newton Housing Authority sites at Morton Circle and Weston Road in Wellesley, seven trees, 44 perennials and several wildflower meadow test sites were planted on Housing Authority and Natural Resources Commission (NRC) land.

Village Church, which in 2014 was accepted for inclusion on the National Registry of Historic places, invites the public to tour the churchyard and enjoy the new plantings.

Pollinate New England Lecture at Wellesley Police station

June 1, 2018 by admin Leave a Comment

Pollinate New England is an initiative to raise awareness of the steep decline in the insects, birds, and other animals that pollinate our plants and crops, and to encourage people to use native plants in their gardens to create habitat for these critical species. Attend a local evening lecture on the plight of pollinators and the great garden plants native to your ecoregion that best support them. Free.

Tuesday, June 26, 6-8:30 p.m.

Location: Wellesley Police Department, 485 Washington Street, Wellesley, MA 02482

Register here. Program Code: PNE1011

Instructors: Mark Richardson and Annie White

Limit: 45

Co-sponsor: Wellesley Natural Resources Commission

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Wellesley has trees available for planting

May 30, 2018 by Deborah Brown Leave a Comment

The Natural Resources Commission is accepting requests from homeowners who would like to have a town tree planted on their property. Many types of trees are still available; they’re planted by the Department of Public Works and cared for by homeowners. The NRC and DPW plant roughly 300 trees and shrubs in town each year. Email the NRC to be considered for this program.

We’ve participated in this program, and the town graced our front yard with a beautiful, healthy river birch, a serious upgrade from the ugly, half-dead hazard it replaced. During a family birthday party, that hazard lived up to its name when it was struck by lightning so hard the house shook and the guests cowered. The strike showered the neighborhood with pine splinters. They came down as far as three streets away onto cars and rooftops and left the neighborhood perfumed with the scent of Christmas in August.

Spring at Brookside Community Gardens in Wellesley

May 18, 2018 by Deborah Brown Leave a Comment

Spring has taken its sweet time coming, but how sweet it is now that it’s finally arrived. I stopped by Brookside Community Gardens recently to see how some of the real gardeners of Wellesley were celebrating the return of sunshine and unfrozen, arable soil.

The 40 plots at Brookside cover a total of about 2.4 acres and are located on the south side of Oakland Street between Standish Rd. and Brookside Rd. in a residential area. Part of the property abuts the Wellesley Country Club, and Rosemary Town Forest is across the street. The Natural Resources Council serves as administrator for Brookside and for its more famous cousin, the Weston Road Community Gardens.

Here are some pics of all the prettiness:

This plot is blessed with full sun, and the soil has been lovingly tended by the gardener.

According to the Community Garden Rules and Regulations, gardeners must be residents or members of local non-profit organizations located in the Town of Wellesley. Irrigation is provided by municipal water. We contacted them via email to find out if there are any plots available, and if so what the yearly fee is, but haven’t heard back. We will update this post once the information becomes available.

If you are interested in gardening at Brookside, there’s always hope. The rules state that if there is no clear evidence of active gardening by June 1, the absentee Gardener will be contacted and given two weeks to respond. If no response is received, the plot will be considered abandoned. During my brief visit, there appeared to be more than a few plots just waiting to be weeded and worked.

Eve has been hard at work prepping her raised beds. She puts in tomatoes, green beans, lettuce, and more. “The rabbits are everywhere, and they’ll chew right through the fencing,” she said.

Help Sustainable Wellesley sustain the monarch butterfly population

May 12, 2018 by admin Leave a Comment

UPDATE, 5/13/18: A representative from Sustainable Wellesley says, “We just sold out and are Working on getting more. Anyone interested can email us at [email protected] to be put on our wait list.”

This is Sustainable Wellesley’s fifth year offering milkweed plants. Please help us help the Monarchs by purchasing and planting milkweeds! Order your variety of organic milkweeds today here. The Incarnata are very healthy and sturdy and should do really well. These will go fast, so order soon. Plants should be arriving in late May from growers associated with Monarch Watch.

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