Community gardens spring to life in Greater Portland

After a long and lonely winter, gardeners are getting outside to tend their beds, and there are more of them than ever thanks to the pandemic.

By Rob Wolfe
Press Herald
Apr 18, 2021

Excerpt:

Gardeners in the Portland area opened their shutters and pulled on their work gloves Sunday, as warming weather made way for growth after one of the loneliest winters in recent memory.

At the North Street Community Garden on Munjoy Hill in Portland, D.J. Nelson prepared his beds for a mix of beets, eggplants, lettuce, tomatoes and sundry herbs. He pulled weeds from the earth and spread a mixture of coffee grounds from home and compost from a local retailer.

“It’s especially good to get out after this winter,” he said, thrusting and rotating a spiked aerator.

In the past year, gardening gained new enthusiasts around the globe as a way to get outside during the COVID-19 pandemic, according to the Financial Times, which cited market research indicating it was respondents’ second favorite lockdown activity – behind TV. Last spring, the U.S. Census’s trade and retail sales report indicated that garden supply sales were up 8.6 percent over the same period in spring 2019.

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