Biddeford Community Greenhouse

Aug 4, 2024 | Articles, Garden News

Biddeford Community Gardens is excited to be partnering with Youth Full Maine this year to raise money for a 30’x48’ Rimol Nor’easter Greenhouse which will be built near our Rotary Park Community Garden. The greenhouse will be used for starting seedlings in the spring, growing winter greens year round for our three local food service organizations: Youth Full Maine, Biddeford Food Pantry, and Bon Appetit Community Meal Program, and providing a classroom setting for horticulture programming for our local schools. The anticipated budget for the greenhouse, installation, and sitework will be $40,000.

Help Biddeford Community Gardens continue to grow and thrive year round with the addition of a greenhouse! Payment options: Check made payable to Heart of Biddeford (our fiscal sponsor) with a notation for Biddeford Community Gardens. Or donate here through Go Fund Me.

Thank you! – The BCG Garden Team

Thank You Patriot Subaru!

Jun 15, 2024 | Articles, Garden News

Patriot Subaru associates had a nice visit out to the @Biddeford Community Gardens – specifically the Rotary Park location, where we were able to present their team with a donation of $1550 earned from our June “12 Weeks of Giving” program. The BCG has blossomed into 4 community gardens, with 130 raised beds, that are tended to by local volunteers. The food grown is shared, with the majority going to local charitable groups such as the Biddeford Food Pantry, Bon Appetit Meal Program and Youth Full Maine. Excellent! After a humble start in 2012 with 6 beds, it grew into a program that would be officially sponsored by the “Heart of Biddeford”501c3 organization, with additional assistance provided by the City Of Biddeford Public Works and the Biddeford- Saco Rotary. Our Patriot team really enjoyed the visit and the story behind it all. Neighbors helping neighbors is what we love to support with our 12 Weeks program, and we were happy to hear that our donation will help the building of a new greenhouse. Thank you BCG for all you do! Heart of Biddeford #LovePromise #CommunityGarden #FoodBank

BCG Presents…Cultivation Conversations

Feb 15, 2024 | Articles

Hello friends and gardeners! Welcome to the Biddeford Community Garden’s 2024 blog series.  Here, you can read about the ways BCG is working to bring our mission statement to life and how you can get involved in these efforts! Featured topics include our community collaborations, upcoming events and workshops to attend, gardening tips, a focused installment on gardening’s impact on mental health, and much more! 

At Biddeford Community Gardens, we are devoted to building and sustaining a vibrant, healthy, and equitable community through the creation of safe green spaces where residents can grow food in a supportive and educational environment.

The main focus of our work is to address food insecurity within our Biddeford neighborhoods. By collaborating with organizations like the Biddeford Food Pantry, Youth Full Maine, and the Bon Appetit Meal Program, community gardening is an opportunity to positively impact your neighbors. We encourage volunteers and donations of all kinds!

Education and inclusivity are important in our approach to community gardening and with the help of our Garden Team, supported agricultural opportunities can bring together our diverse populations. Not only does gardening restore weakened relationships with the Earth, it encourages awareness and understanding of those that share our place here in Maine. By including Biddeford’s City government, schools, and Nonprofits within gardening projects we hope to create a stronger localized food system that persists well into the future!

Along with this blog, our Biddeford Community website offers a number of resources to help you navigate our garden network. For new and returning readers, I encourage you to explore the site and learn all about BCG! For now, here is some general information found on our site:

Our current garden network consists of 4 main locations:
Mission Hill Community Garden– 39 Sullivan Street
Pierson’s Lane Children’s Garden– 61 Bacon Street
Rotary Park Community Garden– 550 Main Street
William’s Court Community Garden– at the intersection of South St. and Green St.
For more info on these gardens, click here. 

Interested in getting involved, learn how to join BCG.

Want to support Biddeford Community Garden’s mission? Consider making a donation.

About the the Author: Hello Biddeford community! My name is Faye Veilleux, I am BCG’s new student intern! I am a senior enrolled at the University of New England studying Applied Social and Cultural Studies, minoring in Environmental Studies and Philosophy. One of my roles will be to host this Blog so the Biddeford community can stay updated on the progress of our organization and when involvement opportunities arise! As another part of this blog series, I will be focusing discussion on the relationship between mental health and gardening. These posts will also include activities and resources you can use to better understand how the environment impacts your well-being. Just a few words about myself..I grew up in Southeastern Massachusetts and on the coast of Southern Rhode Island. While gardening was not an influential aspect of my upbringing or my community’s food culture, being in the presence of nature played a large part in my appreciation for all that it provides-both mentally and physically. As I continued schooling, I felt that the environment should always be a focus of my studies and eventually shape my career path. As a college student my educational and professional aspirations revolve around the study of food systems, the social complexities that come with American citizenship, and ways that our natural environments and food sourcing practices shape the health of our communities. I am excited to share with you my experiences with Biddeford Community Gardens and the ways this organization is not only educating about gardening practices but strengthening Biddeford through the promotion of new perspectives about food, the environment, community, and health!



 



Square Foot Gardening

Jan 15, 2021 | Articles

Spring planting will soon be at hand…no, really it will!! You want to grow so many
things…lettuce, and tomatoes, and cucumbers, and beans, and peas, and broccoli, and peppers,
and onions, and kale, and parsley. Oh yeah, PEAS! Must have peas! How will you fit that in your
8’x3’ BCG bed? Will your tomatoes take over and shadow out everything else? Will your lettuce
be calling for help from under the zucchini? Could be.

Enter Square Foot Gardening! This system was developed for maximizing your productivity in a
small raised garden. At its very basic level it is a system that divides your bed into 1’x1’ squares
(for a total of 24 in your 8’x3’ bed) and assigns a number of plants per square foot to each
different crop plant you want to plant. It helps to know just how much you can put in a small
garden so as not to overcrowd it so here are the guidelines for each plant:
Keep these guidelines in mind when you are planning what you want to grow so that you get
the most out of your garden this year. There are good resources on the internet for learning

more about square foot gardening, such as https://gardenerspath.com/how-to/design/guide-to-square-foot-gardening/.
Looking forward to a productive garden year!

Saco Bay News Article Summer 2020

Saco Bay News Article Summer 2020

Jul 19, 2020 | Articles

By Publisher/Writer Liz Gotthelf of Saco Bay News

BIDDEFORD — The Williams Court Park community garden is an urban oasis on the corner of Williams and South streets.

A sunflower basks in the sun, standing tall next to lush tomato and squash. Look around and you’ll also see carrots, lettuce broccoli, spinach, basil and even orange thyme.

“Everything is thriving,” said Kirste Simmons, a volunteer who helps oversee the garden. Simmons, who lives a few blocks away from the park, is a frequent visitor to the garden, and enjoys lending her time to help pull weeds, water plants or whatever else is needed.

Williams Court Park on the corner of Williams and South streets, in a downtown residential area with many multi-units.

The garden has attracted interest in the neighborhood, not just from people like Simmons, who enjoy gardening, but to others who find the place a peaceful spot to sit and enjoy the outdoors, and to those who are delighted to accept a gift of a fresh vegetable. Simmons said that neighbors of the park keep a watchful eye over the garden when volunteers aren’t around.

The Williams Court Park garden is part of the Biddeford Community Garden program. With the help of dedicated volunteers and local sponsors, the effort has created a children’s garden at Pierson’s Lane Playground and a garden at Sullivan Street in addition to the garden at Williams Court park.

The Williams Court garden was created in 2012 with the help of federal funds through the Community Development Block Grant program. It began with eight raised beds that can be used for free by community members.

The Williams Court garden is growing – in more ways than one. An adaptive raised bed has been installed that’s at a more accessible level for people in wheelchairs or for those who can’t bend over to reach the lower beds. Another eight garden beds are in the works and there are plans for fruit trees and bushes.

“We call it our victory garden,” said Biddeford Community Garden Coordinator Holly Culloton. Vegetables harvested from the new beds will be distributed to members of the neighborhood.

“We’ll plant a few different veggies, but a whole lot of them,” said Culloton, so that there will be plenty to share.

The Biddeford Community Garden effort has also sponsored educational programs like children’s cooking classes, and Culloton said she would some day like to see community gardens in every ward in the city.

Publisher/Writer Liz Gotthelf can be reached at newsdesk@sacobaynews.com

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