The Presque Isle Community Garden is taking advantage of grants and local support to invest in raised garden beds and other improvements.
Located at the Presque Isle Housing Authority neighborhood on Birch Street and going into its third year, the community garden has a number of plans in the works, said garden director Christa Galipeau.
The garden recently received $5,000 from a grant by the Aroostook District Coordinating Council for Public Health, which will be used to convert all the garden’s plots to raised beds and to include two elevated garden beds and two garden towers. The elevated beds and towers are designed for senior citizens and people living in wheelchairs.
“We are eager to create a beautiful gardening space that will be available to everyone in the community,” Galipeau said. “We invite everyone to come and enjoy the garden as a gardener, a volunteer, or just to come sit in the garden and enjoy it.”
Along with the raised beds, the garden is also installing news benches and an expanded rain barrel and water collection system, and renovating the garden fences with the help of volunteers from the Wintergreen Arts Center.
Youngsters in Wintergreen’s after-school community arts program will be helping paint fence pickets for the garden, and the new fence will be dedicated at the garden’s Spring Fling event on Saturday, June 10.
The garden will also be hosting group gardening sessions every Thursday from 6 to 8 p.m. starting May 11.
Galipeau, who started the garden in 2014, said she and the other organizers are aiming to get more local families and individuals “involved in gardening as a way to improve their overall health.”
“The activity of gardening has been proven to provide both physical and mental health benefits as well as the benefit of being able to produce healthy fresh food,” Galipeau said. “Gardening is a wonderful activity for everyone and this project increases access for those who may have physical or financial challenges that may have limited their ability to participate in the past.”
The improvements and renovations at the garden will be getting underway this spring. The Spring Fling event June 10 will host a group planting and other activities at the garden, located at the Housing Authority’s Community Center at 38 Birch Street.
