Admire Private Edens In Fairfield County Through The Garden Conservancy's Open Days Program

By SHANNON HICKS

Published: May 11, 2007 12:00 am

Admire Private Edens In Fairfield County Through

The Garden Conservancyâs Open Days Program

On Saturday, June 2, The Garden Conservancyâs Open Days Program will once again open the gates to seven private gardens in Fairfield County. Unless specified, the gardens will be open from 10 am until 4 pm.

Visitors may begin self-guided tours at any of the following locations: the garden of Nancy and Tom Grant, 4014 Redding Road in Fairfield; Stonybrooke, 29 Taconic Road in Greenwich; Garden of Ideas, 647 North Salem Road in Ridgefield; garden of Susan and Bruce Cohen, 7 Perkely Lane in Riverside (noon to 4 pm); Toscairn, 25 Hillside Road South in Weston (guided tours at 10 am and noon); the garden of Susan Lloyd, 59 Center Street in Westport; and âSeven Gardens, Three Frogs,â 80 Chestnut Hill Road in Wilton.

Highlights of these properties include a garden perched atop rugged, terraced rock outcroppings where Japanese maples and perennials thrive, a fountain grotto created from the old foundation walls of a derelict boathouse, poetic verse displayed along the paths of shade and sun gardens, and a wildflower meadow beside two ponds, which are fed by a system of brooks and dams.

Admission to each private garden is $5, Open Days are rain or shine, and no reservations are required.

Call 888-842-2442, or visit OpenDaysProgram.org for more information including directions to each location.

Additional 2007 Fairfield County Open Days include July 21, with two gardens in Redding and Weston; September 16, with two gardens in Greenwich and Riverside; and September 22, with one garden in Westport.

These Open Days gardens are also featured in the 2007 Open Days Directory, a soft-cover book that includes detailed driving directions and vivid descriptions written by their owners. The National Edition includes garden listings in 21 states and costs $20.45 including shipping. A regional guide, the East Edition, is available as well and costs $6.95.

Call the Garden Conservancy to order with a Visa or MasterCard, or send a check or money order to The Garden Conservancy, PO Box 219, Cold Spring NY 10516. Discount admission tickets are available as well through advanced mail order.

The Garden Conservancy introduced the Open Days Program in 1995 as a means of introducing the public to gardening, providing easy access to outstanding examples of design and horticultural practice, and proving that exceptional American gardens are still being created. The Open Days Program is Americaâs only national private garden-visiting program, and is made possible by the work of hundreds of volunteers nationwide.

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Its really easy to make assertions and cast doubts from behind a keyboard....a little too easy aparently. You might try conducting the actual research BEFORE doing it next time. If you do, you too will find that there's no need to imagine such a policy to improve public transparency and participation. Take a look at Ridgefield's P&Z meeting agendas on their website for starters. They are just one town that provide links to electronic copies of applications and other public documents, so that their commissioners and residents can easily access them and be well-informed, before meetings and public hearings occur and without making them drive to town hall (during business hours) to ask their land use staff to pull the files and make copies of them, saving everyone time (time is money), and gasoline, and missed work. Most applicants alrleady submit electronic copies, and for those who don't, it's a lot easier for a staffer to scan them once, than to have to make copies every time someone asks for them. And please don't misrepresent or slander those who advocate for smart, low impact & sustainable development policies and practices as 'anti-development'.

Calls For Policies To Create Greater Transparency

It’s important that we separate a genuine desire for transparency from what has become a pattern of disruption and obstruction masked as civic engagement. David Ackert’s latest complaint is not a new concern, but part of a sustained campaign of vexatious FOIA requests and inflammatory rhetoric that continues to cost this town hundreds of thousands in staff time and outside legal review—with little to no benefit for the broader community. The First Selectman’s February 2024 commitment was reasonable: to draft a policy that balances transparency with practicality and compliance with existing Freedom of Information laws. What’s unreasonable is the ongoing expectation that a town of our size can operate like a large city, livestreaming and archiving every meeting, while simultaneously enduring frivolous complaints that only serve to harass rather than improve. Let’s be clear: the issues described—meeting room size, screen visibility, etc.—are operational and solvable, but not constitutional crises. And it’s disingenuous to pretend that these challenges are proof of secret dealings or intentional violations. When every town meeting becomes a battleground for the same facebook NIMBY mob demanding more "access" while refusing to engage constructively, the result is not democracy—it’s dysfunction. At some point, we must ask ourselves: who is truly advocating for the town’s best interest, and who is weaponizing FOIA and public participation as tools of obstruction? Accountability matters, and that applies equally to those making the accusations.

To be clear, there are different types of open space designations in the State of CT. The "Open Space or Recreation" designation simply means that the open space is open to the public for passive recreational activities (e.g., Hiking, Fishing, Horseback Riding, etc.), as opposed to the types of open space that are closed to the public. I'm confident that our terrific Conservation Commission will fulfill their responsibilities associates with Open Space land, as outlined by the town Charter, including the recommendation of specific rules on what's allowed and what's not for the Board of Selectmen to approve. Also, make no mistake, the final language of the law is completely aligned with the resolution passed by a vote of 2-1 at the 10/7/24 BOS meeting. That resolution reads "....the Board of Selectmen will request that state legislators designate 6 Commerce Road as Town Open Space and request the economic development restriction be removed from the 6 Commerce Rd. deed....." Interestingly, on November 1st, the First Selectman wrote a letter to Mitch Bolinsky and Tony Hwang saying "....Following a resolution adopted by the Board of Selectmen on October 7th, and subsequently endorsed by the Legislative Countil on October 23rd, we seek to enact legislation that would remove the economic development stipulation from the deed of 6 Commerce Drive." Not only did he change the name from 6 Commerce Road to 6 Commerce Drive, but he also changed the request to suit his desire for the property instead of what was voted on, by omitting the part about designating it as open space! Thankfully, he attached the 10/7/24 BOS meeting minutes to his letter, where our state reps were able to reference the actual accurate resolution language, which again, matches the final language of Special Act 25-15. The only clarification needed, is why the First Selectman changed the wording of his Nov. 1st letter, from what the BOS approved on October 7th.

It’s Done: 6 Commerce Can Be Open Space

I am feeling like Mr. Ackert's quest/request for greater transparency of our town's governance is disingenuous. First off, I cannot imagine how a "town-wide policy to provide greater transparency" could possibly be worded, and I think that Mr. Capeci was just being polite in agreeing that we should have one. Secondly, Mr. Ackert is accusatory, as if he believes something nefarious is behind the lack of transparency, where it exists, while I do not believe this at all. Third: The time, effort, and upkeep to have absolutely every town meeting interactively live, recorded, and fully documented, would obviously NOT save the town money, and I doubt that other towns of our type "implemented these policies long ago." And lastly, after having witnessed the town meeting behaviors of the anti-development faction, I am certain that we should not facilitate their ability to sit at home and harangue the poor people who work so hard IN PERSON, to make our town a better place.

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Admire Private Edens In Fairfield County Through The Garden Conservancy's Open Days Program

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