About Us

Biddeford Community Gardens strives to empower community members to work with nature and cultivate welcoming urban green spaces, promotes agricultural and educational opportunities, and provides sustainable access to fresh, nutritious, locally-sourced food.

Our vision is for our gardens to provide food security for all Biddeford residents – to feed our city from the ground up!

Our History

Biddeford’s community garden efforts began in 2012 with a small 6-bed children’s garden in the Pierson’s Lane Children’s Playground. Educational programs were offered to neighborhood children through Joyful Harvest, a local after school program, and the York County Master Gardener Volunteer program, where the kids learned gardening basics and how to grow veggies and care for their garden.

In 2013, through a Community Development Block Grant, the City of Biddeford built a small six-bed garden in Williams Court Park. The raised beds were offered first come first served to low income residents through the Partners for a Hunger Free York County initiative. The garden was managed by Holly Culloton, a newly certified York County Master Gardener Volunteer.

Jump forward to 2017 and Tracy Chaplin, a new Master Gardener Volunteer, and Holly Culloton working together in the Pierson’s Lane Children’s Garden, began exploring the idea of a larger community garden. They found a vacant lot in the same neighborhood on Biddeford Housing Authority property at the St. Andre’s Senior Housing complex, and were given the green light to build a new garden. The Mission Hill Community Garden – our flagship garden – came to life. With the help of our city’s Public Works Department and many volunteers, we cleared and leveled the lot and built 41 raised beds. The first season was a resounding success with all of the raised beds rented – several of which went to seniors living in the complex.

In 2018, Biddeford Community Gardens was established as a grassroots organization with Heart of Biddeford as our fiscal sponsor.

Over the next couple of years, we added 17 raised beds to our Williams Court garden, and 8 more raised beds at Pierson’s Lane.

In 2020, BCG partnered with United Way to build six new raised beds for the seniors at St. Andre’s Senior Housing. UW supplied the wood, soil, seeds and seedlings, along with many volunteers who helped with the build. The beds were enthusiastically adopted by six of the residents.

In 2021, with the help and generosity of the City of Biddeford Public Works Department, Biddeford Saco Rotary Club, and many other volunteers, we designed and built our largest garden to date at Rotary Park, which greatly increased our growing capacity, with 30 large raised beds, a fenced-in inground growing space, and small orchard.

In 2022, Biddeford Community Gardens changed its format from a traditional rent-a-plot system where each member tends to their own individual plot, to a communal system where gardeners work together and share in the harvest. In the true spirit of community, all gardeners participate in tending to the garden they are affiliated with, which distributes the workload and fosters overall healthier gardens as they stay properly watered and weeded and the produce is harvested and distributed in a timely manner – when it’s right for the picking.

In 2023, through a grant from York County Cares, we started a small temporary pop-up garden at a local hotel to serve the needs of over 300 asylum seekers.

For the last two years, through a commitment to the National Wildlife Federation’s Mayors’ Monarch Pledge, Biddeford Community Gardens has hosted its eco-friendly Spring Pollinator Festival at Rotary Park, gathering social and environmental organizations, musicians, and cultural cooks to a day of fun activities, educational offerings, and lively family-friendly music.

With the help of York County Master Gardener Volunteers, Biddeford Community Gardens offers garden education in the community by partnering with schools and community service organizations. Our partner organizations include Biddeford High School’s Alternative Pathway Center and its Center of Technology’s Farming & Agriculture class, and Biddeford Middle School’s after school Gardening Club, Service Works, Youth Build Maine, and Cornerstones.

In 2023, BCG donated approximately 1,300 pounds of fresh veggies to Biddeford Food Pantry, Bon Appetit Meal Program, and Youth Full Maine.

We look forward to expanding into more areas of Biddeford, with the goal of having a garden in each of our seven city wards by 2027.