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Stockton Springs is joining a growing number of Maine towns that offer community gardens for residents who may have a hard time finding fresh vegetables, or don’t have enough space on their own properties to grow that produce themselves.
The town is now using about 20 percent of the roughly $70,000 it has received through a state resilience program to start the garden. Volunteers have so far installed seven raised beds, and they hope to add another 14 or so in the coming years.
Among the immediate next steps are installing a fence around the garden, which is located near the little league field at Harris Road and Route 1, and seeking donations of soil, seeds and tools. They’ll also be filling the new raised beds and aim to have seedlings start coming up in the next week or two.
Linda Meadows, who chairs the town’s resilience committee, expects it will take three years for the garden to reach full development and become a workable community staple.
There are now at least 60 other community gardens operating across Maine. While they are heavily concentrated in the southern part of the state, there are also several spaced out along the coast, including in some other midcoast communities. Towns and cities have embraced them as a way to boost local food production while also giving residents a way to form social networks and improve their mental and physical health.
The Stockton Springs garden is modeled after other community gardens in the area, including Wales Park Community Garden in Belfast and others in the towns of Hancock and Milbridge, according to Meadows. Organizers have enlisted educators from the Waldo County office of the University of Maine Cooperative Extension to help get it off the ground.
“We’re looking around at other gardens [to see] how they’ve done things,” Meadows said. “We’re trying to learn from what others have done right, and then make it fit for Stockton Springs.”
In its first season, organizers expect most of the garden’s produce will be made available for members of the community to take from the “Give & Take” site at the town office that’s organized through the Waldo County Bounty initiative. Among the offerings will be tomatoes, cucumbers, squash, broccoli, lettuce, kale, peas and beans, as well as herbs such as cilantro, basil, parsley, rosemary and mint.
But eventually, residents will also be able to reserve their own space at the garden for raising produce.
“It will be a benefit; it’s more fresh, local produce for the community,” said Interim Town Manager John Bellino. He noted that Stockton Springs does not have a local supermarket, so residents are now forced to travel to places such as Belfast and Bucksport to get fresh vegetables.
Organizers of the garden are now seeking donations of hoes, rakes, shovels, spades, and gloves, or any other gardening supplies members of the public may have lying around, said Meadows.
She said the garden is part of the community’s larger effort to prepare itself for more extreme weather.
“Part of resilience — really, when you look at resilient communities — it’s not all about structural things,” Meadows said. “You’re not going to stop storms and things happening, necessarily, but if people band together, then we help each other get through things better. To me, this is about growing the bonds between people, and growing community within Stockton Springs.”
