Year Six

Our Team

Fiddlehead Festival 2025

Annual UMF Garden Seedling Sale!

Second Annual "Welcome" Bouquet Event

New Commons Project at UMF

Gardenfront Facelift

Our Team

This summer (May 2025), we had to say "see you later" to one of our student gardeners, Sophie Therrien, as she graduated and headed off to graduate school. Congratulations, Sophie. We will miss you and all of your hard work.
For the summer student garden position, we had Isabelle Veenstra (Class of 2027) join our team. She was a great addition, and we were delighted to work with her! Hayden Triance (Class of 2027) has since joined our crew for the 2025/2026 school year. We can't wait to see what he will bring to our environment! Emma Towers returned as a student gardener for the Summer of 2025 and the 2025-2026 school year. Yay!
Michelle Navarre and Rosemary Baker are continuing their work with us as Master Gardener Volunteers, part of the UMaine Cooperative Extension's Harvest for Hunger Program and the Master Gardener Volunteer program. Master Gardener training participants must complete 40 hours of volunteer service in a community garden, and our two gardeners chose UMF!
- Michelle Navarre works on the UMF campus with the Adult Completion Program.
- Rosemary Baker works locally in special education and earned her Master's degree from UMF in Special Education.
Additionally, we added Geology Professor Larry Tuttle, who worked alongside Gretchen Legler as Co-Garden Director until August. Larry has now earned the title of UMF Campus and Community Garden Lead Director!
We look forward to celebrating our 5 year garden anniversary this October 20th, 2025 at noon! Join us if you can!

Fiddlehead Festival 2025

We participated this summer in the Fiddlehead Festival with garden tours, onion planting, and tomato seeds in a cup. Check out more photos in Emma's Blog.

Annual UMF Garden Seedling Sale!

We sold just under 300 seedling plants this summer. Thank you to the community for coming out once again to support our small but mighty garden. All proceeds raised go directly back into funds for the garden, to keep it up and running continuously, year after year!

Second Annual "Welcome" Bouquet Event

Our garden team put on its Second Annual "Welcome" Bouquet Event for incoming first-year student on day one of orientation. The event proved to be a success, and we even topped our giveaways this year reaching over 70 students!

Thank you to Connor Fahey for including us in the busy orientation schedule, and to Rosie Baker, Larry Tuttle, Gretchen Legler, and Emma Towers for running the event. Lastly, thank you to EVERYONE who donated jars and blooms. Our event couldn't happen without your generosity!

New Commons Project at UMF

On Earth Day in 2016 students enrolled in Denise Boothby's class worked alongside John Bunker, the founder of Fedco Trees to plant heirloom apple trees on campus. These trees were a joint project with the Farmington Grange and the UMF Sustainable Campus Coalition. This New Commons Project ran from 2017 to 2022 at UMF. This year, we have decided to harvest these apples and incorporate them into our harvest hutch at the campus and community garden! Here's a link to learn more about the project: https://newcommonsproject.org/fedco/

Rosemary Baker, Master Gardener Volunteer, harvesting the apples.

Signage on Campus about the New Commons Project.

Apples, apples, apples!!

Gardenfront Facelift

-This fall (2025), the gardenfront was deserving of a much-needed facelift. So, we stained the trellis and planted climbing clematis plants. Soon, these vining plants will climb up the trellis, waiting to invite you through!