College of the Atlantic
IN-7: Community Garden

The College of the Atlantic Community Garden comprises two-to-three dozen garden beds, compost area, tool shed, and apple orchard on a fenced-in half acre at the north end of campus. The garden allows nearby residents who don’t have land an opportunity to grow their own food, it builds community by sharing common ground with other people, and it is a lab used by COA students and faculty members.

Garden users grow multiple varieties of vegetables, including quash, goldie cucumbers, lettuces, chard, carrots, corn, beets, spinach, peas, beans, tomatoes, mammoth pumpkins, and etc.

COA’s Summer Field Studies for Children benefits from the use of the community garden, since the kids take care of and harvest plants that COA students planted earlier in the year. Botanical classes utilize the garden space, trying different seeds out in the Maine climate for research purposes. The garden also supplies COA’s development office with fresh-cut flowers for events like the Summer Institute.