I am Char Barnes, and I have been gardening at the same southwestern Connecticut house for more than twenty years. During that time it has gone from a neglected plot to a picturesque garden with paths and curved beds loaded with flowers. I have planted trees, shrubs, perennials, and annuals.
Everything on this site is based on my personal experience and opinion, and I have plenty of both.
The Binney Park Master Plan (BPMP) was created with good intentions, but it was created by a firm that did not seem to understand the character of Binney Park nor what we love about it. The most frustrating thing about the plan is that it is difficult to understand exactly how the proposed changes will affect our experiences. Understanding what a planting plot will look like is very difficult and the vague prose does not help. Its goals are not clearly stated and it does not have any drawings (perspective or elevations) to let us know what it will look like.
I feel that any master plan should describe exactly how the plan achieves its goals. Two of our most important goals are to keep what we love about the park and to add new features that are realistic - which includes being realistically maintainable.
the BPMP has two main features that go against these goals: a high maintenance “garden” that will that the town cannot maintain, and a wall of trees that will close off the park to passers by.