Healthy Lincoln County has repurposed some of their front lawn on Main Street in Damariscotta for two raised garden beds.

“With so much of our work focused on nutrition and food security, it was a no-brainer. We decided we needed to walk the walk and make use of the great space we have,” said Kate Martin, director of Healthy Lincoln County.

The community health organization built the “Giving Garden” to grow vegetables and herbs, choosing plants that most people would be familiar with, such as tomatoes, cucumbers, carrots, and spinach. Once plants are ready for harvest, anyone in the community is welcome to help themselves, whether they stop by on purpose, or just happen to be walking by. Any leftover food will be distributed to locations in the community by the Lincoln County Gleaners.

“Our hope is that other Main Street businesses and organizations in Lincoln County are inspired to consider whether they can re-purpose some space to create an edible street front,” Martin said.

Healthy Lincoln County would like to thank several people and businesses for their generous support in supplies, time, and resources to help build these garden beds, including Hammond Lumber, University of Maine Cooperative Extension, Hagar Enterprises, Inc., Tim “Scotty” Robinson, Mobius Inc., Paul Tenan, Abraham Guilford, and Brown’s Farm.