CAZENOVIA — The Creekside Gardeners are currently seeking additional volunteers to help further their mission of beautifying Cazenovia’s Creekside Park, a unique space located below the Cazenovia Public Library parking lot.
Situated along Chittenango Creek on Riverside Drive, the village park officially opened in Sept. 2019.
The project was made possible through a Central New York Community Foundation grant, which was secured by the Cazenovia Area Community Development Association (CACDA), and support from Project CAFÉ, Common Grounds, the Cazenovia Garden Club, the Friends of the Library, and a donation from the Ninos family.
“Since then, the Village of Cazenovia has been generous with their time and resources in helping with the park’s upkeep, and community volunteers have been working to keep the space looking great for the kids, families, and community members — runners, walkers, fishermen, dog walkers, and others — who use it,” said Creekside Gardeners volunteer Wendy Everard.
CACDA Executive Director Lauren Lines spearheaded the formation of the Creekside Gardeners last summer.
Lines explained that because CACDA helped the village secure the funding to install the park, the organization wanted to help make sure it was maintained.
“[The group] kind of evolved organically,” she said. “A few people approached me last year asking about it. That inspired me to ask a few people I thought would be interested. And then we posted on social media to reach out to the community.”
Everard, who was contacted by Lines last year, said she joined out of a desire to help beautify and care for Cazenovia’s public spaces.
“Personally, I got involved just out of a sense of civic pride and duty,” Everard said.
Since its formation, the team has dedicated many hours to planting flowers and trees, mulching, and weeding at the park.
“Our volunteer gardeners have had an enormous impact on the park,” said Village Mayor Kurt Wheeler. “It is intentionally a naturalistic space, but without their efforts, dominant and invasive species can run wild among the plantings. The park is beautiful, lush, and diverse thanks to their collective green thumb.”
Wheeler added that the village maintains the structures, stone dust paths, and adjacent parking area, but the detailed and time-consuming nature of the weeding and cultivating make it difficult for village workers to keep up.
“The village is incredibly grateful to the Creekside Gardeners,” he said.
This summer, the volunteers have been meeting at the park to work on Tuesday nights at 7 p.m.
“We have seven adults regularly participating and [we] have had five to six students join us periodically,” said Lines. “. . . Our volunteers have been great about bringing plants from their own gardens and asking friends and neighbors for perennials and ground covers to fill in. [The space is] evolving as we see what does well and where there are gaps.”
Any community member interested in volunteering to help beautify the park is invited to stop by on Tuesday evenings or any other time that is convenient.
High school students can receive community service hours for their work by bringing a community service form, which is available in the high school office, with them on Tuesdays and having an adult Creekside Gardeners member sign off on their hours.
Community members/families are also invited to “adopt” part of the garden as their own to maintain.
Any questions can be directed to Lines at [email protected].
To learn more about CACDA, visit cacda.net.
