Windham Community Garden ready for new season

The Windham Community Garden offers a great gardening
experience for all residents of the town and has 10- by 20-
foot garden beds for $35 for the season.
SUBMITTED PHOTO

By Masha Yurkevich

There is nothing better than picking and eating your own fresh produce. The crisp, green peas; the crunchy, refreshing cucumber; the tart and juicy tomato; nothing beats growing your own food and knowing where it came from, and the Windham Community Garden has been helping residents do just that since 2010.

Located on Route 202, down from the Public Safety building and next to the Windham Skate Park, the community garden offers a great gardening experience for all residents of the town of Windham. From artichokes and asparagus to flowers and kale, area residents can grow it all at the Windham Community Garden.

The garden is led by a committee of dedicated volunteers who play a role in making the garden a success. Committee members are always being sought and anyone with a passion for keeping the community garden a welcoming environment is encouraged to join.

Marge Govoni of Windham, co-chair of the Garden Council, said that committee members usually gather once every three months or so. She said that committee members also do work such as getting the garden ready in the spring, taking out the hoses and gardening tools, helping to keep the garden clean, tidy and organized and helping get the garden ready for the winter by putting materials away and closing it up for the winter.

“It takes a lot of work and commitment by everyone and I'm a small cog in a big wheel,” said Govoni. “We are always looking for additional people to be on the committee. People who share our interests in making the garden a welcoming place for everyone whose interested in knowing where their food is coming from because they grew it.”

Gardening in Maine has many benefits. It has spectacular scenery, fresh air and splendid sea food, but one unfortunate disadvantage is that the state’s many tall trees cover and shade yards, making it a challenge to grow anything, let alone a garden.

Govoni, too, said that she was faced with this dilemma. This is what led her to the desire to have a community garden in Windham.

“The land where the garden is presently belongs to the town and was only an empty field and I figured that I was not the only one with this problem, so I went to the Town Council meeting and asked permission to put a garden there,” said Govoni. “There was support from other residents and a council member and that was the beginning of what we have now.”

And, not much later, the Windham Community Garden was established in 2010 with about 10 beds and that figure has grown to 84 beds today.  

For gardeners, the community garden offers 10- by 20-foot garden beds for $35 a season. Its 4- by 8-foot raised beds are also available upon request for $20.

According to Govoni, not only do gardeners receive a garden bed, but they also have access to organic compost, tools, wheelbarrows, pesticides, and water at no additional cost.

“It's a wonderful experience! We will gladly help any gardener that has questions or needs advice”, said Govoni, “Gardening is hard work, but it is so rewarding and peaceful and everyone is so friendly that you can't wait to get back down there.”

Govoni said that the garden committee recently put up some birdhouses and a few picnic tables at the site, making it not only a welcoming place to come and garden, but also a great educational place for children and a great spot for a picnic, as long as you respect the property.

What many may not know about the Windham Community Garden is that the garden has scholarship beds available if someone is interested but cannot afford the bed rental fee, Govoni said. Information about this option is available at Windhamcommunitygarden.org.

“We contribute food to the Windham Food Pantry, and we have allocated a space for the Katahdin School to erect a greenhouse to grow produce,” said Govoni. “The gardeners periodically receive educational material about best practices and how to control insects that attack different crops.”

Gardeners are allowed to grow anything they like if it is not detrimental to the environment, but Govoni said that potatoes are not allowed to grow potatoes because they attract bugs that could harm other plants.

The Windham Community Garden is a not-for-profit organization and is dependent on fundraising and grants for financial support. For more details about the garden, visit Windhamcommunitygarden.org.<