Babylon Town botanical garden getting ready to finally bloom

Birds and butterflies across Long Island will now have a new place to set down their wings, as a Babylon Town park that has been in various stages of redevelopment for more than a decade enters its final phase.

Completion of the Carlls River Botanical Garden in Geiger Park, which straddles the Wyandanch/Deer Park border, is the last piece of a park revitalization that is part of the town’s "Wyandanch Rising" initiative.

The garden — which is free and the first on Long Island in more than 10 years — opened last summer and will now add a headhouse, or mainhouse, and two greenhouses as well as Japanese, wedding and butterfly gardens.

On May 12, the town board approved awarding a $183,000 contract to Cashin Associates PC of Hauppauge for engineering design and construction management of the buildings, plus $12,000 for a topographic survey.

"This is considered the final phase," said Deputy Town Supervisor Tony Martinez. "Once we have that, then we can complete the path and the remaining gardens."

The 3,000-square-foot headhouse will serve as a support building for the greenhouses and will have bathrooms, offices and classrooms. The building will be flanked by two 1,400-square-foot greenhouses for growing annuals like marigolds and geraniums, as well as tropical plants such as banana trees and cordylines. Town horticulturist Jenny Ulsheimer said the town will save thousands of dollars a year by growing its own plants for use throughout the town.

There will also be a bird sanctuary, consisting of three 500-foot sections, each with its own ecosystem to attract specific birds.

"We want to draw as many species of birds as possible into the area," said groundskeeper supervisor Danny Raccomandato, including warblers and red-winged blackbirds. Plans also include the creation of a bee apiary surrounded by a butterfly garden in the shape of butterfly wings.

Educational placards will be placed throughout, Ulsheimer said, so that visitors can learn about the birds as well as the stages of butterfly development.

"Education in the garden is so important to us because we really want people to realize how important the Carlls River watershed is to Long Island and how we’re preserving it by keeping that green space all around it," Ulsheimer said.

The town hopes to use the headhouse for an educational program whereby elementary school students would learn about topics as part of their curriculum, such as pollination or the cycle of plant life.

"It’s just a wonderful opportunity for these kids to see the plants and their true application, and then learn about them in the classroom as well," Ulsheimer said.

She said they hope to have another program for high school students where they would learn and work in the gardens.

"We want to let these kids know there’s other work out there, that you could become a landscaper," Raccomandato said. "We can show them what equipment to use, how to price out jobs, what fertilizer to use. . . and that could show them they could start their own business."

Martinez said a "guesstimate" of $2 million for the next phase has been earmarked in the town’s capital improvements budget. He said the buildings are expected to be completed next year, with the remaining gardens to be finished in 2023.

By Denise M. Bonilla

denise.bonilla@newsday.comdenisebonilla

Denise Bonilla has worked at Newsday since 2003 and covers the Town of Babylon, including the villages of Lindenhurst and Amityville.