It’s the end of the season in the Common Good Garden, and volunteers are tidying up beds and pulling the last of the weeds. When a light rain turns into a downpour, someone suggests taking shelter in the nearby hoop house. One volunteer, still bent over weeding with droplets collecting on her jacket, looks up and says, “What rain?” Everyone laughs. Gardeners are intrepid.
This season was a great success. Volunteers in the Common Good Garden (CGG) donated 1,993 pounds of fresh, organic produce to Mid Coast Hunger Prevention Program (MCHPP). Nearly double last year’s total! That harvest of green beans, carrots, onions, garlic, scallions, cucumbers, and peppers had an estimated market value of over $11,000, all grown to feed our community.
Before reaching MCHPP, vegetables are cleaned, sorted, and packed by volunteers to meet “grocery store” standards. The best-looking produce goes directly to MCHPP’s pantry program, while lumpy carrots and twisted green beans head to the MCHPP kitchen, where they’re cooked into meals, ensuring nothing goes to waste.
A volunteer-led project of the Tom Settlemire Community Garden, the Common Good Garden supports BTLT’s mission to foster a vibrant local food system. By connecting the community to the garden, volunteers help ensure access to healthy, fresh, local food for many fellow neighbors and families.
Working alongside BTLT’s Agricultural Programs Manager, volunteers plan the season and make decisions together lead by curiosity. This year, some gardeners experimented with planting in clusters, while others stuck to the traditional grid method. While there are plenty of guidelines around best practices for gardening; new research, years of experience, and curiosity all shape the methods used in the Common Good Garden!
Intergenerational exchange is another hallmark of the Common Good Garden. This season, 3-year-old Esme and 16-year-old Owen worked alongside Judith and Claudia, both in their 80s. Questions were asked, wisdom was shared, and everyone learned something new. The garden grows relationships as much as it grows vegetables.
And the conversations go beyond plants. Volunteers talk books, local news, and pop culture. They laugh at funny-shaped carrots, pass around a praying mantis, and ask each other to identify flowers and weeds. It’s this sense of community that drew Martine Grenier-Burtis, a PhD student at the University of New Hampshire, to research how connections form in garden spaces.
On the final chilly October morning, volunteers gather to clean tools and talk about next year, what seeds to save, what crops to try, and winter plans. Though the garden will soon rest under frost, the bonds formed in the soil will last.
Nearly 2,000 pounds of food were grown and shared this year, but the Common Good Garden is about so much more. It’s about laughter, learning, experimentation, and care. When asked their favorite part of volunteering, everyone answers the same: the people.
We hope that you will join us next season. All are welcome in the Common Good Garden, no gardening experience is necessary! You will learn plenty, get to contribute to feeding our community, and make some friends along the way.
