By Martha Brant

Lexi Helming is trying to pick squash before, as she says, “they are the size of my leg.” She has joined three others on an overcast Wednesday morning in July to harvest vegetables at the Harpswell Community Garden. Helming, 40, is part of a new generation of gardeners boosting the energy at the garden. As a “replant” in Maine, Helming has brought home savvy in project management—her day job—as operations lead for the community garden. “I can’t fix a lot of what is going on in the world, but I can grow some carrots,” she says.

And a lot more besides. Twenty-five individual plots display the beautiful chaos of broccoli, Swiss chard, beans, peas, cucumbers, onions and even lovage (celery’s intense cousin). A shared plot of garlic is almost ready to be harvested—carefully so that the bulbs’ papery skin stays intact. The elderberry tree is riotous. “We have a tremendous crop this year,” says Mary Ruchinskas, who was trying to shoo birds away by tying shiny silver ribbons to the branches. She joined the garden soon after it began in 2011, when the Town of Harpswell dedicated 4,000 square feet at Mitchell Field.

The Harpswell Heritage Land Trust (HHLT) has been the garden’s perennial supporter ever since. An anonymous donor created HHLT’s Community and School Garden Fund with the idea that being good stewards of the land isn’t only about preserving it. “Preserve the most ecological land,” the donor says, but “let locals enjoy land that doesn’t have high ecological use.” The concept of “ambassadorial lands” explains the fund’s rationale. This conservation ethos encourages not just conservation, but recreation. So protect vernal pools, but also allow things like ice skating rinks where suitable the donor believes. Both imbue people with a love of nature. In Harpswell, gardening seemed like an ideal proof of concept.

The Garden Fund has given out more than $100,000 since its creation in 2005. Grants have gone toward everything from a green house and pollinator garden at the Harpswell Community School to scores of container gardens for Harpswell Aging at Home (HAH) —so gardening can come to older residents. Primarily, the fund supports annual operating costs at the community garden as well as bigger needs such as a solar well pump and ride-on mowers. “I’m thrilled,” the donor says. “People are actively getting their hands dirty.”

The four gardeners that Wednesday morning are eager to dig in the dirt. They’ve come to gather produce from the recently renamed Giving Garden—14 collective plots allotted to growing veggies to donate. Susie Hanley, an artist who designs all the garden signs, stoops over to inspect some summer squash. “Does this look okay?” she asks Emily Bell-Hoerth, who is on loan for the summer from the Bowdoin Organic Garden. A Garden Fund grant this season supported compost, fence repair, equipment maintenance as well as Bell-Hoerth, a part-time seasonal hire who contributes sweat and expertise. She walks the garden advising on what looks ripe and how to look out for mosaic leaf virus all while carrying her baby in a blue backpack.

Everyone agrees the part-time position has helped production. In August, the Community Garden donated 479 pounds of produce to HAH and Mid Coast Hunger Prevention Program (MCHPP). Veggies needing refrigeration generally go to MCHPP and less-perishable produce goes to HAH’s three sharing tables around Harpswell. Helming is tailoring what they grow to what is well-received or vanishes from HAH’s unstaffed tables. Kale doesn’t always move. The garden is on track to donate its average of 1500 pounds this season, which ends in October. “The contribution that the Land Trust is making to food security is really, really important,” says Jane Covey, one of the founders of the Harpswell Community Garden and a master gardener herself.

Master gardening touches abound at the sunny patch overlooking Middle Bay. Tomatoes and basil are interplanted and bordered by bright yellow marigolds to ward off pests. But getting to this point has been a long row. “Mitchell Field was great in terms of sunshine, but not in terms of soil and water,” Covey recalls. Her corps of volunteers were among the first to test for PFAS chemicals on the old Navy fuel depot site. Today they have a good well and amended soil. But while water and dirt are key, people are the most important ingredient in making the garden thrive. “Most people I know in Harpswell I met here,” Ruchinskas says. Since she lives in a rocky part of Harpswell, the garden has been a “godsend” for growing vegetables—and friendship.

The Garden Fund donor would love to see another community garden in eastern Harpswell, but Covey is happy to pass that spade to others. There is still plenty to do at Mitchell Field. There is even another parcel of land that could be planted. Hanley has ideas for art classes on site and a mural on the garden shed. She touts the monthly open garden days for those not up for a plot but still interested in learning. “I want the community to come into the garden. It is a public space,” she says. It has certainly been a banner year for public education. This summer saw more organized presentations such as on the art of growing tomatoes in Maine and on hügelkultur—a German method of building raised beds that make their own rich soil. Campers ages six to eleven from HHLT’s Nature Camp descended on the garden in late July and early August to help harvest assorted veggies including a massive haul of garlic. Volunteer appreciation day featured a class on cooking with herbs (picked from a refurbished herb garden of course). And, in September, there was a class scheduled on pickling—yet another sign of an abundant season for both the Harpswell Community Garden and the Community and School Garden Fund.

For more information about applying to HHLT’s Community and School Garden Fund, reach out to Brandon Hall. The next round of applications will be available in early 2027.