Growing Literacy: 2024 Winter Garden Workshop Series 

Please join us for our annual Winter Garden Workshop series: Growing Literacy. This year we are proud to host five workshops through collaboration with Brunswick-Topsham Land Trust, Growing to Give and Curtis Memorial Library.  Bring your curiosity, questions, and join us! 

Every winter, the Brunswick-Topsham Land Trust offers this series of workshops to engage with the community, support the Tom Settlemire Community Garden, and offer skill-building exercises for gardeners of all abilities. These workshops are a wonderful opportunity to learn from master gardeners and experts on a variety of gardening subjects. This year we are excited to host six workshops in collaboration with Brunswick-Topsham Land Trust, Growing to Give and Curtis Memorial Library. Two of these workshops will be held online via zoom, and four will be in-person at Curtis Memorial Library. Bring your curiosity, questions, and join us! 

The Brunswick-Topsham Land Trust  (BTLT) conserves and stewards vital natural areas, supports a vibrant food system, and connects people with the natural world through inclusive education and recreation programs in the Brunswick region. Our goal is to protect our natural resources, cultivate care for the natural world, and in so doing foster resilient connected communities for now and for generations to come. 

Curtis Memorial Library is a public library of Brunswick and Harpswell, Maine. Curtis Memorial Library strives to enrich the quality of life in this region by building community, advocating for reading, championing social justice and digital equity, and promoting sustainability. 

Growing to Give grows organic produce to support those in the community struggling with food insecurity while modeling, educating, and advocating for climate-friendly farming practices. Working with a robust network of volunteers and community partners, Growing to Give has grown and donated over 80,000 lbs of produce since its inception in 2017. 

• January 21: Acorn abundance (and what to do with them) 

• January 28: Not just the Honeybee: Native Pollinators & Native Plants in Your Garden 

• February 4: Invasive Jumping Worms 101: A Community Conversation 

• February 11: Processing Elderberries  

• March 3: DIY Resilient Yard 

• March 23: Kids in the Garden 

Did you know there are more than 270 species of native bees in Maine? That’s a lot more than just honeybees and bumblebees! Pollinators play a critical role in our ecosystem, and we all have the opportunity to make more pollinator-friendly habitats, right in our own gardens. Emily Baisden from the Wild Seed Project to learn about the diversity of native pollinators we can find in our backyards and the plants we can grow to encourage this diversity. Ellen Maling, Barbara Murphy, and Joan Carney will join as a panel of pollinator enthusiasts from the Tom Settlemire Community Garden to share their efforts to create habitats for native pollinators at the Community Garden and how you can get involved! 

Emily Baisden is the Seed Program Manager at the Wild Seed Project. Prior to joining the Wild Seed Project in 2022, Emily served as Entomologist and Educator at the Coastal Maine Botanical Gardens. She has an extensive background in horticulture and environmental education and focuses largely on using native plants to support food webs and biodiversity. She holds a BS in Environmental Science from the University of New England and an MS in Entomology from the University of Delaware.  

Ellen Maling and the volunteer Perennial Team at the Tom Settlemire Community Garden work year round tending and growing an array of perennials, biennials, herbs, vegetable seedlings, annual seedlings, heirloom variety plants, shrubs, small trees and vines. Each year the Land Trust’s Tom Settlemire Community Garden hosts the ‘Taking Root’ Plant Sale thanks to the effort of these incredible volunteers as a fundraiser in support of the Garden. 

Barbara Murphy has been involved with the Tom Settlemire Garden since its inception in 2012. She recently completed the Master Gardening Volunteer program through Maine Cooperative Extension. At TSCG, she maintains a plot, has worked as a mentor for new gardeners, has volunteered as part of the perennial team, and with the Common Good Garden. She loves growing both native perennials and annuals from seed. In 2018, she started the process of transforming her Brunswick front yard from a weedy lawn into a garden of mostly native plants designed to attract pollinators. 

Joan Carney has been a plot holder in the Tom Settlemire Garden since 2014. In 2016 she started planting native perennials to magnetize more pollinators to that part of the garden. One thing led to another, the perennials were encouraged and took over the space… more variety was added to better support the pollinators in all stages of life. Joan also sows seeds in the winter, honoring the winter needs of the native pollinators.