We have some very exciting news to share! Coming up on this warm season (what all Mainers are wishing for right now), PRFC will be launching a new pilot project called Garden in a Box. We recently received funding from the Quimby Family Foundation to make this dream-project a reality! Garden in a Box is a project that provides a full container gardening experience for about 20 people. This means that our Gardeners will attend a series of workshops (that the public is welcome & encouraged to attend as well), they will receive a free 15-gallon cloth gardening container for their plants, they will get to choose from a variety of seedling options, and they'll be visited by Garden Coaches (Master Gardeners) who will help them grow their own food!
We have a team of community member project planners who are working to make Garden in a Box the best that it can be! In some cases, our planners are folks who also want to be Gardeners, and this is amazing because their input provides insight from both sides; one side being the planning side (logistics that PRFC and the University of Maine Cooperative Extension is coordinating) and the other side being the thoughts and opinions of people who will be receiving the gardens. We're excited about this project because we are able to accommodate a diverse group of people by using containers to grow food; the project can accommodate homebound seniors, people who have little to no experience growing food, people who may have tried but not succeeded, people with limited lawn/outdoor space, and more. We would like this project to be fun, creative, rewarding, inclusive, and educational! Growing food can be very simple with a little help, and it helps improve food security, health and nutrition, and even helps mitigate climate change! There is nothing quite like picking your first ripe tomato off of a plant that you nourished since it was a tiny seedling, or snapping that first bean off the plant!
Our first workshop, which will be focused on general container gardening questions, plant suitability, and introducing the Garden in a Box project, will be held on Thursday, March 5th from 4-5:30 at the Thompson Free Library in Dover-Foxcroft. You may spot some flyers around town about the event, and we hope that you'll come, whether you're a gardener in this particular project or just interested in learning more!