About Us

MELISSA HENREY is owner and principal of Kinglet Gardens. Melissa received practical training at two renowned botanical gardens, The New York Botanical Garden and Wave Hill. She holds a certificate in Plant ID from NYBG, a B.F.A in Fine Arts and Photography from the SVA and has done extensive Post-Bac coursework in the E3B (Environmental Biology, Ecology and Evolutionary Studies) program at Columbia University. She has held positions as a contemporary art gallery administrator, artist’s studio manager, archivist and research assistant. Ms. Henrey is a NOFA accredited Organic Land Care Professional.

Melissa co-founded the Garden Education Center’s Sprouts & Seedlings Pre-k outdoor enrichment program and worked as an outreach science educator for the Bruce Museum. She currently serves as a member of the Montgomery Pinetum Coalition, Montgomery Historic Conservatory Restoration Committee, Cos Cob, CT and the Education Committee for CT NOFA.

While Kinglet Gardens began in 2009, Melissa has been in practice professionally since 2003. She has been a gardener for as long as she can remember.

What is Ecological Horticulture?

Ecological Horticulture incorporates mutually beneficial/benign stewardship practices that preserve the integrity and health of the environment and the living things that work and live in it.

Horticulture is the science and art of growing plants. We embrace both!

Our Mission

Our mission is to practice and teach the highest standards of organic, ecological gardening and land stewardship. Kinglet Gardens offers consultation, design, installation and maintenance services as well as educational programs in the tri-state area.

We work with homeowners, public and private land managers, schools and non-profits.

We offer a range of workshops for individuals, in addition to CT and NYS K-12 standards-based school programs and teacher training.

As a dynamic organization, we work carefully with clients to identify a package of services and support that meet their needs, budget and abilities perfectly. We do not offer “off the rack” solutions.

Our Collaborators

LISETTE HENREY currently serves as a Science Education Consultant for Kinglet Gardens and is Guest Curator at the Bruce Museum, Greenwich, CT. She has held positions as State Director of Education for Audubon in Connecticut and Associate Curator of Education at the Bruce Museum. Her experiences includes school curriculum, program development and teacher training. Ms. Henrey has also worked in science textbook publishing, produced audio-visual science materials for McGraw Hill publishing company, and served as a partner in Community Video Productions. She is also a member of Greenwich’s Conservation Commission, serves on the Long Island Sound Councils and Assembly, the Boards of Calf Island Conservancy and the Science Education Center of Greenwich, and holds a volunteer position in Invertebrate Paleontology at Yale Peabody Museum. She received her B.A. Honors and M.A. degrees in Zoology from Oxford University.

PATRICIA MCKEAN retired in 2008 after 44 years of classroom teaching. She taught in three Greenwich schools: Greenwich Academy, Greenwich Country Day School and Convent of the Sacred Heart. A past-president of the Science Education Center, Greenwich, she has arranged special Science Activity Exchange workshops at Sacred Heart’s Observatory. Mrs. McKean has presented teacher and student workshops nationally and internationally. She received the 1991 Connecticut Christa McAuliffe Fellowship and she specializes in teaching science through children’s literature. Her website is www.cshgreenwich.org listed under academics. She works with Kinglet Gardens in the development of our curriculum-based children’s and teacher training programs. She is a graduate of Dartmouth University.