CARIBOU, Maine — What was once an unattractive sight at 23 Pleasant Street, is now a blossoming garden for community members to partake in. Landlords Kevin and Kate McCartney purchased the property and had it demolished a little less than a year ago, and are thankful they did so.
In the time since, the McCartneys, along with two tenants, took the initiative to start a community garden.
“We really wanted to have a garden and a place for the kids to play in the neighborhood, and we were hoping it would become kind of a focal point for just informal interactions and maybe growing some things,” Melanie Mace, a tenant at 24 Pleasant Street, said.
Jeffrey Johnston, another tenant, has lived there for the past seven years. He is happy to contribute his time and craftsmanship by building birdhouses and flower beds.
“I’ve enjoyed it. It’s just a great place to go and relax and plant and enjoy myself and I meet a lot of people,” Johnston said.
While Johnston dove right into the well-being of the garden, and Mace continually looks for projects to do with her daughter Helen Racherla to contribute to the garden, they’d like to see some new faces and activity.
“We had talked about trying to do a little bit of programming this year,” Mace said. “We wanted to have a neighborhood kid’s fairy house building day. I would love to see something like that happen and a couple of events over the course of the year.”
Kevin McCartney hopes that the originality of the garden will pique the interest of kids around the neighborhood. While most towns have gardens and parks for families, this garden proves to be original in its welcoming and creative nature.
“Kids need activities. They are yearning for something else, and I think they see this area as a place that doesn’t have enough to do, and things like this can enrich these experiences and build an identity to this rural area,” Kevin McCartney said.
Currently, the garden consists of hand-crafted flower beds, benches, birdhouses and a variety of plants including watermelon, raspberries, lilacs, pear trees, plum trees, apple trees, rose bushes, rhubarb and many more. While this may seem like a lot, Johnston encourages others to bring anything they wish to plant.
“It would be great if a class would just come over and plant things with the kids,” Johnston said. “We welcome anyone that wants to come and plant.”
Even if you prefer not to plant, donations to the garden are gladly accepted, as well as any suggestions.
“What a lot of people do is bring stuff in and just drop it off and Jeff puts it in the ground,” Kevin McCartney said. “I go over there every once in a while and pull weeds and I can see evidence of other people who have done the same.”
The success of the garden is thanks to many small efforts coming together to create an evergreen masterpiece. The McCartneys stress that the demolition of the previous 23 Pleasant Street property is not about them, it is about the well-being of their tenants across the street and about coming together to create something new and healthy for the community.
“The bigger picture is that it can be overwhelming sometimes with problem houses in neighborhoods and what not, but there is always something you can do. We saw a problem and something we could do about it,” Kate McCartney said.
With summer just beginning and plenty of space for new plants and new ideas, members of the community are encouraged to visit the garden and plant something of their choice at their convenience.
