Bangor may not seem like a place to grow a “food paradise,” but Travis Gagnon’s experience proves otherwise.
He’s interested in self-sufficiency, and limited space at his apartment hasn’t stopped him from raising an explosion of crops along the walkway to his ground floor apartment, from watermelons to wheat. Gagnon isn’t alone; many people in Bangor and Brewer are producing food and supporting pollinators in small spaces.
Though city growing presents some unique obstacles — such as soil that may be poor, limited light and small yards — Bangor-area growers are overcoming them and even finding things they prefer about growing in an urban environment.
Twelve such gardeners are opening their yards to the public and will be on hand to answer questions on Saturday, Aug. 2 for an annual urban garden tour organized by Food AND Medicine, a Brewer-based organization working to address the root causes of poverty.
The tour aims to show how anyone can start growing their own food no matter where they live, according to organizers. The Bangor Daily News asked participating gardeners how they grow in the city, what they’ve learned and what they enjoy.
Travis Gagnon, Moosehead Boulevard
Gardening runs in the family for Gagnon, a Bangor man who has been passionate about growing food since his childhood in Fort Kent, where his father kept raised garden beds. The younger Gagnon found a way to grow plants wherever he lived as an adult, and next year, his young daughter will have her own raised bed to care for.
“I like to self-sustain … if I had my own house, I would have chickens, I’d try to collect rainwater, I’d build underground greenhouses. I have so many ideas,” he said. “Eventually, I’ll get there, but every year I just keep on adding to this and coming up with more ideas.”
A cook at Jeff’s Catering in Brewer by day, with a summer gig of voluntarily caring for a nearby school garden, Gagnon said he loves working with and serving food.
His garden is the largest it’s ever been this year. Squash, watermelon and pumpkin plants in homemade planters line the sidewalk approaching raised beds covered by an archway trellis.
Those beds are packed with onions, lettuce, carrots, peppers, cucumbers, beans, and radishes, along with herbs chosen to repel pests. Gagnon has studied “companion planting,” or growing certain types of crops closer together, to make the most of the space. It’s at least doubled his yields.
Individual beds hold corn, peas, strawberries, tomatoes, brussels sprouts, potatoes, raspberries, flowers and a patch of wheat he hopes to make into flour.
To save on buying supplies and provide more nutrients, Gagnon fills new beds he builds with cardboard, woody material and food scraps before topping with soil. He plans each season for months, taking notes throughout and drafting up designs on a whiteboard.
Gagnon recommends new gardeners also think about how they’ll store their harvests. Herbs are easy to hang and dry, but other crops need more careful storage. This year, he’s trying out a homemade storage tower built from milk crates to keep potatoes and squash over the winter; last year, he tried storing carrots in layers of sand.
“It’s been a labor of love, for sure,” said Gagnon, who is full of enthusiasm and growing tips. “I’ve always loved doing this.”
Martha Wildman and Judy Ficke, Hammond Street
Bangor neighbors Martha Wildman, left, and Judy Fricke have created a collaborative flower and vegetable garden between their two back yards. “It is a lovely getaway here, and you don’t feel the need to go someplace else,” said Fricke, who enjoys the garden so much she rarely travels. “…We have beautiful things to look at, and projects to do, and we like being at home.” Credit: Elizabeth Walztoni / BDN
Wildman emphasized that if you’re going to start a garden, it’s important to love doing it. She’s been building an oasis of flowers in her back yard for 33 years, and for almost half that time has had a friend and gardening partner in her neighbor, Judy Ficke.
The two didn’t know each other when Ficke and her husband toured the house next door, but connected immediately. They share plants and produce and help each other with projects. They have removed a fence that once divided their properties to create a blended garden with connecting paths.
Wildman’s side was once an expanse of grass. Bit by bit, she removed it and planted flowers, using what she could afford from family and friends and then adding varieties from local greenhouses. Now, something is always in bloom throughout the growing season.
Ficke is mainly a vegetable gardener who had to dig out a yard full of burdock to grow produce. The physical work has become challenging, so this winter Ficke, a former carpenter, built what she calls her “scrapyard garden”: raised beds from repurposed fencing and logs from arborvitae they had cut down. In it, she’s growing carrots, beets, squash, beans and more.
City soil can be challenging, but time and patience has worked out for them. The two also recommend being careful not to plant perennials too close together, researching how big plants will get, pruning aggressively and paying attention to the amount of light different parts of a yard receive — which is generally outside of an urban gardener’s control, as buildings and trees on neighboring properties can more easily block sunlight than in suburban or rural areas.
Both women said having their gardens in the city is a respite from busy Hammond Street and a place where they love to spend their time.
“It’s been perfect,” said Ficke. “I feel very, very lucky.”
“That’s how I feel,” Wildman said. “Very lucky.”
Carol Whidden and John Leonard, Cedar Street
Carol Whidden and John Leonard have created a pollinator garden in their front yard near downtown Bangor, added a vegetable garden in back and filled the side yards with native plants. The gardens also attracted their neighbors, who asked the couple to plant in some of their yard too. Credit: Elizabeth Walztoni / BDN
Whidden and Leonard moved to Bangor three years ago from a 60-acre property in Prospect Harbor, where they had kept a large vegetable garden. As they aged, the land became too much to manage; sizing down into a city lot was an adjustment.
They built an 8-by-16-foot raised bed in the backyard to grow eggplant, garlic, beans and other crops. Out front and in the side yards, they focused on native plants and species that would help pollinators and become mostly self-maintaining once established. It’s been so effective that neighbors have even asked the couple to plant in their yards.
“The grass lawns we have here are virtually deserts,” Leonard said.
Their own front yard was all grass, which the couple eliminated by covering it in inches of wood chips from nearby tree work. Now, it’s healthy soil full of pollinator-friendly plants such as bee balm, sneezeweed and wild indigo.
In the side yard, male and female kiwi plants grow up latticed trellises and woolly thyme spreads as ground cover; large elderberries shade the path on the other side of the house.
Whidden and Leonard chose plants that won’t grow too large and take over their limited space. Light is also limited by neighboring buildings for them, too.
Growing in the city is easier in some ways: there are no bears and fewer mosquitoes or blackflies.
Wherever you do it, gardening is a continual learning process, they said. Both have been observing and adjusting as their gardens mature, seeing where plants thrive and finding out what different species need.
“It’s not ‘learned,’ it’s ‘learning,’” Leonard said. “We never stop.”
Randy Hatch, Palm Street
For Randy Hatch, gardening is more enjoyable in Bangor than it was when she lived on five acres in Eliot. She doesn’t have to worry about deer, the city water supply is reliable and the public works department offers residents compost and wood chips.
“I like in-town gardening,” said Hatch, who has been growing food for more than 50 years. “I think it’s just so much easier than my previous experience.”
Like Whidden and Leonard, Hatch decided to narrow down her growing focus when she moved to the city in 2013. The double lot was almost empty at the time save for some evergreens. To deal with grass and make the “terrible” soil usable, she covered it with cardboard and organic matter, and cuts down on watering and weeding by keeping plants well-mulched.
Hatch grows flowers and a wide range of berries; she once had vegetables too, but gave them up and is reducing her gardening space in the second lot so that she can enjoy her summers more.
Martha Wildman has been building a garden in her Bangor yard for 33 years, transforming it from bare grass to a sweeping design where something is always in bloom throughout the season. City growing has unique challenges, she said: light conditions are out of her control as neighbors remove or plant trees, space is limited and soil can be poor — but patience is rewarded. Credit: Elizabeth Walztoni / BDN
“I try to go as low-maintenance as possible, because gardens can consume so much time,” she said.
To do that, Hatch looks at what thrives and adjusts accordingly. She keeps up with gardening for the exercise, the time spent outdoors, the colors and the enjoyable challenge of figuring out what changes to make — even if Bangor does make it easy.
A full schedule and more information about the Bangor-Brewer Urban Garden Tour is available at foodandmedicine.org.