Lebel & Harriman are paying it forward, in a big way, to mark their 40th anniversary. Michele Romano stopped by the garden with a generous gift to help us grow. >> MORE
Penny, Bert, Michele, and Elizabeth
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Our good friends in the Hillcrest neighborhood are holding their annual charity craft fair and bake sale - and proceeds help Project GRACE keep our neighbors warm, grow community gardens with fresh veggies for the pantry, and help our neighbors when they have a temporary setback or need a little help to make ends meet. Come out to the Hillcrest Community Center (108 HIllcrest Ave, just off Route One) on Saturday, Nov. 3rd, and you'll be sure to get in the holiday spirit!  St Nicholas Community Garden Growing Season
12th June 2018 to 25th September 2018 (shorter by 6 weeks than 2018 season which ran 5/21/17 to 10/10/17) 406 Pounds (7% more than last season) Biggest Crops by Pounds 25% 103 lbs TOMATOES 13% 54 lbs LETTUCE, CHARD, KALE, GREENS 13 % 51 lbs BEANS 13% 51 lbs CUCUMBERS 4% 15 lbs EGGPLANTS Other crops included: beets, radishes, carrots, peppers, herbs and a variety of greens. It's the end of the growing season, and we're getting ready to put our garden to bed. Join us SUNDAY, NOVEMBER 11th at 11:00. Many hands make light work...Tasks include cleaning up plants, laying the tarp, putting tools away. We've moved the date due to wet weather. Fingers crossed, this date will work! 
Highland Avenue Greenhouse & Farm Market is hosting their 7th annual Pumpkin Festival on Saturday, October 13th. The festival is fast becoming one of Scarborough's favorite Fall traditions. With games, refreshments, pony rides and much more - the festival is family-friendly fun for all ages. This year, proceeds from the event will benefit Project GRACE, and the nonprofit group will use the gift to support the Scarborough Community Garden! We hope you'll come out and see us, bring the kids!!  Our good friends at ACE Hardware have donated and delivered three more barrels for gardening at the Blue Point Church. Thank you! This doubles the growing possibilities at this site. We are grateful for the gift.   The "Food for Thought & Action" group, hosted by the Scarborough Food Pantry, Scarborough School Nutrition, and Project GRACE, is ready to reconvene. We are eager to hear how things are going and your ideas for what else we can tackle together to halt hunger in our community. We'll be convening in a few weeks, and hope you'll attend. Please save the date: Wednesday, May 16th (2:30-5:00) St. Maximilian-Kolbe Church 150 Black Point Road (map) 
We'll be at the health and wellness fair at the Scarborough High School on Thursday, March 29th - we'll be highlighting our work to bring fresh, healthy veggies to our neighbors. Doors open at 6pm, and it's free to attend. Hope to see you there! Scarborough Public Schools and the Scarborough Police Department are co-hosting "Raising Healthy Teens (and people in general)" and Community Health & Wellness Fair. >>View PDF Flier  More than 1,000 pounds of donated fresh produce was distributed by the Scarborough Food Pantry from May to October 2017. The produce was grown by gardeners from St Nick's, Hillcrest Retirement Community, and Idexx as well as home gardeners. About 40% of the produce weighed and recorded in the pantry's log book for the 2017 season came from the St. Nick's garden. 380 pounds of fresh, delicious, organic greens, veggies, and herbs were grown by the Community Garden at St. Nick's during the 2017 growing season. This is about 20% fewer pounds than last season, partly because we did not grow any zucchinis and squashes (those are troublesome crops and they are provided in abundance by other gardeners, so we chose to plant more peppers, eggplants, greens instead. Similarly we cut back on the number of tomato plants. We had a rough Spring, and our June harvest totals were lower compared to last season because we had to replant some crops.)
70% of the produce harvested by St. Nick's gardeners came in during August (110 lbs) and September (145 lbs). But for the 2017 season, the St. Nick's garden was also one of the first gardens bringing early fresh greens and herbs, with the first harvest coming in mid-May. The St. Nick's garden continued producing through the end of October. The quality of our produce is very high. We use organic methods, pick with care, and deliver our produce within minutes of harvest to the pantry. Pantry patrons frequently comment on how delicious our produce is as well. Monthly Totals Delivered to the Scarborough Food Pantry: MAY: St Nick's 4.5 lbs (total all gardens 4.5 lbs) JUNE: St Nick's 41.9 lbs (total all gardens 59.9 lbs) JULY: St Nick's 43.3 lbs (total all gardens 90.38 lbs) AUGUST: St Nick's 110.38 lbs (total all gardens 535.42 lbs) SEPTEMBER: St Nick's 145 lbs (total all gardens 231.20 lbs) OCTOBER: St Nick's 35.1 lbs (total all gardens 92.32 lbs) TOTAL MAY-OCT 2017: St Nick's 380 lbs (all gardens 1006 lbs) Join us for the 3rd Annual Harvest Fest, Saturday, October 14th (10-2), at St. Nicholas, 350 US Route 1, Scarborough. Come see the garden, pick up some handmade crafts, get treats from the bake sale table, and enjoy a bratwurst from the grill or some cider. Take home fall mums and native Maine produce. Raffles, crafts, games, live music, and more!
July Total so far: 42 1/2 pounds
WEDNESDAY: 7/19/17 Radishes: 1 lb Beets: 2 lbs Garlic Scapes: 1/2 pound (6 oz) TUESDAY: 7/18/17 Parsley: 2 lbs Radishes: 3 oz Peas: 1 lb 2 oz Beets: 4 1/2 lbs Sw Chard: 3 3/4 lb Lettuce: 1 lb Kale: 3 lbs Chives: 1 lb WEEK SEVEN (July 11 & 13)
WEEK SIX (July 4th) - no harvest
JUNE TOTAL: 48 pounds WEEK FIVE (June 27 & 29)
WEEK FOUR (June 20 & 21)
WEEK THREE (June 13 & 15)
MAY TOTAL: 4.5 pounds WEEKS ONE & TWO (May 21 & 29)
Happiness is time spent in the garden, and we're especially happy to welcome volunteers from the Scarborough Garden Club who are helping us harvest every week. Thank you! (Pictured here are Penny & Pat, with 20 pounds of garden bounty!) 
And so starts the 2017 planting season! Gardeners from St.Nick's put in the first of our cold crops: green lettuce. About 100 romaine and green lettuce seedlings were planted, and a dozen or so parsley plants, too. Also lots of marigolds to keep smaller garden pests like mice and voles away and cosmos to attract pollinators.  |
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