Enjoy the beauty! Dave Vissoe, the leader of the Kettle Pond Garden project at the US Fish and Wildlife Kettle Pond Visitor Center in Charlestown, will guide you around this garden composed entirely of locally sourced native plants. Eighty five percent of the plants, shrubs, grasses and vines came from the Rhode Native™ initiative, a program of the Rhode Island Natural History Survey. Under the guidance of botanist Hope Leeson, local seeds from a large variety of species native to Rhode Island were collected and propagated for use in restoration, public and private landscapes. The remaining fifteen percent of the plants came from our ecoregion (Ecoregion 59 Northeast Coastal Zone).
The original garden project, under the auspices of US Fish and Wildlife Service and University of Rhode Island Master Gardeners was expanded by a grant from RIWPS last year and now includes a rain garden.
The summer growing season offers a wide variety of bloom along with the pollinators they attract. Learn about the challenges and benefits of this locally sourced and grown garden. URI Master Gardeners will be working on in the garden so you will have also have the opportunity to speak with them.
If you wish and your time allows, you can follow Dave back to his house in South Kingstown where between 1000 and 1500 plants, representing about 34 different species are being propagated from the seeds of plants from this garden.
This walk is free and open to the public but limited to 25. To participate, complete the required registration below.
Also scroll down for driving directions.