Oak trees dressed in red autumn leaves on Tuesday, October 15, sat on the Newtown Municipal Center lawn. Rows of potted plants, as many as 500, lined up in the trees’ shade, also waiting to set their roots in the ground.

Members and volunteers with Protect Our Pollinators (POP) set a “major garden” project in place last week in the large courtyard outside the Newtown Municipal Center on the First Street side. The garden serves as a memorial to former longtime Land Use employee Tammy Hazen, who died in December 2015. The new planting, which has various beds throughout the entire courtyard, is also part of POP’s Newtown Pollinator Pathway initiative, beneficial to the pollinating insects and wildlife. This site will add to a growing number of other pollinator habitats on and near the Fairfield Hills campus.

The concept was to “create a peaceful setting that reflects the variety of plants important to pollinators, including trees, shrubs, perennials, and grasses. It promises to be a wonderful memorial garden and a great example of our community spirit as well as the support our town gives to its community volunteers,” according to a POP press release. “This setting will give pleasure to residents for years to come, as well as provide a resource for our beleaguered pollinators and songbirds.”

While Parks and Recreation personnel used machinery to prep garden beds and move the larger trees and bushes, the many volunteers placed and planted small shrubs, perennials, and spring bulbs.

The planting included white oaks, basswoods, and hackberry, 50 shrubs — winterberry, viburnum, sweetspire, rhododendron, and more — 335 various perennials, and a number of ferns, grasses, and bulbs.

On October 15, POP members Mary Wilson; Sarah Middeleer, who designed the garden; and master gardener Joan Cominski were among volunteers placing and planting the beds.

The garden had “been a concept since Tammy died,” Ms Wilson said, and POP members were able to align it with their pollinator effort.

Funding for this project was provided by two generous (anonymous) patrons, as well as donations from individual residents. More than $8,500 worth of gardening and plants and materials went into this project, Ms Wilson said

Plants came from Earth Tones of Woodbury, Planter’s Choice of Newtown, Native of Fairfield, and TLC of Monroe.

Remembering Tammy

Deputy Director of Planning, Land Use, and Emergency Management Rob Sibley said, “I first met Tammy during an interview for the Land Use Agency when we were at 31 Pecks Lane. A first impression, beyond being a capable professional, was the genuine nature of her personality. Tammy exuded warmth and friendliness; her demeanor was consistent this way, even during her struggles with cancer.”

He said, “Tammy’s life had its ups and downs just like all of ours. Tammy had a way of making even the cloudiest of days sunny. Being a co-worker with Tammy showed me day-to-day what she held as a truth in her life: be compassionate, live each day to the fullest, and look beyond your own needs to those of others. I hope that I can carry on some of what Tammy lived in each day of her life.”

Parks and Recreation Director Amy Mangold said, “Tammy was one of the sweetest women I’ve known.”

Learn more about POP at propollinators.org, the organization’s website, which states, “Protect Our Pollinators is a nonprofit organization devoted to public education and to the conservation of pollinators and their habitats.”