Visit Seekonk Meadows this Summer and Fall
Seekonk Meadows Offers Gardening Sessions
Seekonk Meadows is a nine acre meadowland of tall grasses and wildflowers. It has walking trails, picnic tables, benches and an amphitheater and stage for outdoor summer concerts and events.
Background and History
1963-1978 Served as Seekonk’s town dump
1978-2007 Landfill fenced in and overgrown
1977 Voted to be site of new library
1981 Library grand opening
1993 Ken Lagerquist, President of the Seekonk Library Trust from 1996 to 2006 and Sharon St. Hilaire, Director of the Seekonk Library from 1977 to 2011, envisioned creating a meadow on top of the abandoned landfill.
2000 Marc Mazzarelli, Landscape Architect, retained to design the meadows.
2008 Town of Seekonk contracted with an engineering firm and a construction company to begin the work of capping and securing the landfill.
2010 Capping complete.
2011 Department of Environmental Protection (DEP) issued necessary permits
2012 Seekonk Meadows Grand Opening
Capping means stirring up the landfill to release gasses, putting in gas emission pipes and covering the landfill with a membrane, 10” of gravel, 10” of loam and, finally, with a covering of grasses to prevent erosion. Capped landfills are usually left as grassy hills. Creating a meadowland and community gathering space is unique.
Because it is being developed on a former landfill, the DEP has strict regulations about how the land can (and can’t) be used. The DEP requires that the Meadows only be used for passive recreation. This means, among other things, no motorized vehicles or digging not authorized by Seekonk’s Department of Public Works.
Passive recreation activities are those that don’t endanger the capped landfill and include walking, running, wildlife observation, photography and snowshoeing.
The funding to create Seekonk Meadows has been raised entirely by private donations.
What’s Happening Now
The Meadows provide access to the Gammino Pond conservation area, a sixty-acre property that includes a five-acre pond and is managed by the town’s Conservation Commission.
The gardens are designed to require minimal maintenance, the amphitheater will be mowed for summer events and the Meadows are mowed once a year.
Plants in the Meadows
Plants on the former nine-acre landfill behind the Seekonk Public Library
CURRENTLY PLANTED
In the Meadows
Tall fescue grasses
Wildflower mix with perennials including coreopsis, echinacea (cone flower). perovskia (Russian sage), fountain grass, yarrow and false indigo.
Beside the library
Rhododendron, evergreen ewes, white pine, grasses, viburnum and crab apple tree
Two years ago the Seekonk Gardeners planted hybrid lilies
Last year we added chrysanthemums and annuals, herbs, flowers and vegetables provided by URI greenhouses
WILDLIFE in the Meadows -Deer, Fox, Canada Geese, Mallard Ducks, Mocking Bird, Blue Jay, Gold Finch, Cardinal, Chickadees
FUTURE PLANS FOR PLANTING
Perimeter of parking area
In notches of fencing, add knock out pink roses (shrub roses) and perennials such as perovskia (Russian sage), sedum, coreopsis and echinacea (cone flowers) for a long season of bloom and color
Garden by the Library
Maintain day lilies, grasses and put in new annuals
Around the Gazebo
Drought tolerant perennials including cone flowers, Russian sage, clethra and other native perennials.
SEEKONK MEADOWS GARDENING SESSIONS
3rd Tuesday of the month from4-6pm on the grounds of the Seekonk Library
August 19
September 16
October 21
Seekonk Meadows is a joint project of the Town of Seekonk, the Seekonk Library Trust, the Seekonk Board of Library Trustees, the Seekonk Land Conservation Trust, Friends of the Seekonk Library, the Conservation Commission and the Parks and Recreation Committee. It is managed by the Seekonk Meadows Management committee, a five member volunteer group established in July, 2008.
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