When we ask community members how they want to use the future healing garden as a place of healing, one of the top responses we get is sitting and listening to the sounds of nature
In addition to Denicola Park having a retired Winchester machine gun test firing range, the property also has a deep depression in the ground on the Leeder Hill side which we suspect to be a glacial kettle – the nearby area includes many at Six Lakes and Hamden Land Trust properties. The area is too steep to want to incorporate trails in that space, so transforming it into a woodland space designed for our feathered friends makes so much sense.
Thanks to Audubon Connecticut and funds they receive through US Fish and Wildlife, EGH has been able to acquire over 150 native plants which birds will enjoy as food sources and habitat. The donation also included a bunch of tools to help get the project completed. We received shovels, rakes, even a wheelbarrow! Big thanks to Audubon CT and US Fish and Wildlife for making this project possible!!!
To prep the site for our planting project we have been hard at work with QU volunteers doing two trash clean ups and starting the groundwork on building an access trail into the park from the Leeder Hill side. From there local boy scouts have been hard at work on an Eagle Scout project creating a small loop trail, building and installing 4 benches, and constructing an informational sign at the new entrance to the park on the Leeder Hill side. Parallel to that work we have been meeting with local botonists and landscape architects to ensure the planting strategy is best for the birds we are hoping will enjoy the space in the future.
Once the Scout project, which is led by Ketan Camenga, is completed we plan to do a special post on our website highlighting all of the work that they did and hope to host an event when the Urban Oasis project is completed with some of the Scouts in attendance! Stay tuned for that.
Ketan Camenga, pictured center in the photo with other Boy Scouts in Troop 610
While we work on the broader healing garden initiative, which will bring more formal trails and parking to the Leeder Hill side of Denicola Park, the initial Urban Oasis project will be planted this summer and ready for sitting in nature fall 2026. As the healing garden construction starts down the road it will give our new plants plenty of time to develop and grow into their new homes.
Images from two QU volunteer days focusing on the bird habitat area clean up:
Images from the Boy Scout Eagle Scout project work days:
