PRESQUE ISLE, Maine — Dozens of friends, family and neighbors gathered near the Presque Isle Housing Authority’s community center on Saturday, June 15, to kick off the sixth summer of the Presque Isle Community Garden.
The garden, located near Birch Street, includes 28 vegetable beds and perennial flower gardens. Residents of the Presque Isle Housing Authority apartments and area community members are welcome to plant and maintain the garden beds of their choosing.
Ariel Cote, 11, (left, at head of table), Kim Caron, 11, (right), and Skyler Tibbetts, 8, paint fence pickets and signs for the Presque Isle Community Garden on Saturday, June 15.
(Staff photo/Melissa Lizotte)
Marcia Bailey became the new coordinator for the community garden this past March. As soon as the snow cleared away from the garden, she and neighborhood volunteers weeded and tilled the soil in preparation for the summer ahead.
Bailey, who lives in the Presque Isle Housing Authority neighborhood, has planted many garden beds of her own for the past three years.
Thanks to the garden, she has spent much more time outside, chatting with area residents and making new friends, than she did during previous summers. She said she and her fellow gardeners enjoy swapping ideas and tips.
Ann Bailey plants sunflowers at the Presque Isle Community Garden on Saturday, June 15. Community members gathered to celebrate the new season of summer planting, paint fence pickets and signs and help plant their portions of the garden.
(Staff photo/Melissa Lizotte)
“It’s nice to have a garden available for people who can’t have one of their own,” Marcia Bailey said. “We get to meet other people who also enjoy gardening and seeing everything grow.”
Throughout early afternoon on Saturday, children gathered outside to paint fence pickets and signs for the garden, courtesy of supplies provided by Wintergreen Arts Center volunteers.
For the past three years Wintergreen students and neighborhood children have painted the pickets and signs as a way to add even more beauty to the garden. This year they added more pickets to the sides of the garden fence in addition to the entrance.
Ann Bailey plants sunflowers at the Presque Isle Community Garden on Saturday, June 15. Community members gathered to celebrate the new season of summer planting, paint fence pickets and signs and help plant their portions of the garden.
(Staff photo/Melissa Lizotte)
Marcia Bailey’s sister, Ann Bailey, is a newcomer to the community garden but has not wasted any time in getting her beds planted with flowers, including sunflowers that she expects to possibly grow to five feet tall.
“I like getting out and meeting new people,” Ann Bailey said.
The Presque Isle Community Garden is sponsored by Presque Isle Housing Authority, Maine 4-H Foundation, Maine Master Gardener Development Board and Natural Resource Council of Maine. Presque Isle Housing Authority residents get one garden bed free while additional gardens for them as well as outside community members are $10 each.
