Watertown Community Gardens

Thanks to George Proakis for signing the Mayor's Monarch Pledge! taking action to help save the monarch butterfly, an iconic species whose eastern populations have declined by 90% and western populations by 99% in recent years. Watertown is committing to create habitat for the monarch butterfly and pollinators, and to educate residents about how they can make a difference at home and in their community. We join George in helping to create habitat for butterflies and other pollinators and educating residents about the importance of planting and maintaining these habitats around in public gardens around Watertown

Please join us on Wednesday, March 29th at 7pm at the Friends of Bees monthly Zoom meeting for a presentation on transforming your bump-out or planting strip (between sidewalk and street) into a pollinator garden. Melinda Dennis, a Watertown resident and member of Friends of Bees and Watertown Community Gardens (WCG), will share her beginner’s experience planting a 200 square foot bump-out with perennial flowers for attracting pollinators. 

Ellen Menounos, a Watertown resident and Environmental Planner for the city of Newton, will join us to offer her expertise in native perennials. The Watertown Department of Public Works encourages these plantings and offers useful guidelines to follow, which will be highlighted during the talk. 

This webinar is part of WCG’s mission to encourage gardening in Watertown with native plants to support our local biodiversity, including bees, birds, and other pollinators.  Planting with native plants also improves our soil, air, health, and our area’s natural beauty.

Date: March 29th 7- 8:30pm

ZOOM LINK 

Are you interested to learn more about gardening to support pollinators in Watertown?  

Do you want to get your hands dirty, even if you don’t have a yard of your own?  

Would you like to support wild birds, butterflies, bees, the Charles River watershed, or build climate change resilience?

Volunteers with Watertown Community Gardens invite you to join our gardeners this spring as we maintain several public pollinator gardens throughout the city.  WCG’s community connections committee has partnered with the Department of Public Works and a local pollinator awareness group, Friends of Bees, to install several native plant gardens throughout the city since 2021.

We are seeking volunteers from the community to help us do seasonal maintenance while learning hands-on about ecological landscaping practices and the biodiversity they support.  No gardening experience is required!  

Detailed instructions will be emailed to volunteers, so registration is required.  

Please click this link to sign up:    Events

• Sunday April 23, 1-3pm: DPW Garden & Knowles Delta Garden Maintenance

• Thursday May 4 Wednesday May 3, 4-6pm: Senior Center Garden Maintenance

• Thursday May 18, 4-6pm: Boylston St Bump Outs Garden Maintenance

• Sunday May 21, 1-3pm: Filippello Park Garden Maintenance & Plant Swap

And if you are interested in planning future gardening or educational events, consider joining us at our upcoming committee meetings on Zoom:

• Thursday March 16, 7-8:30pm

• Thursday April 27, 7-8:30pm

• Thursday June 1, 7-8:30pm

here's a photo of our plantings at Knowles Delta in January 2023, many of the new plantings are becoming established already and the "creeping phlox" is coming back now that it's been weeded