The Ellsworth Elementary Middle School (EEMS) Garden is located on the school campus which is nestled along the Union River, in the bustling little city of Ellsworth, in Hancock County near Acadia National Park.
They use their school garden:
- as a springboard for hands-on learning opportunities
- to encourage healthy eating by exposing students to new and locally grown foods
- to learn about the importance of agriculture and local food systems
- to connect students to nature through environmental stewardship
The EEMS Garden was originally started in 2010 and has grown over the years to include outdoor classroom seating and work tables, a compost area, a storage shed, a wheel chair accessible bed and a covered table area for inclement weather and shade. They also have a small orchard with elderberry, pear, and apple trees and a trail around the perimeter of the school campus. The ABC Pollinator Garden in the library courtyard and other pollinator friendly areas are also found around the campus to support biodiversity. They also have deer fencing!
The EEMS Garden benefits from the amazing community partners that help support the school garden and environmental programming including the Ellsworth Garden Club, Green Ellsworth, Birdsacre, Frenchman Bay Conservancy, Healthy Acadia and Friends of Acadia. These relationships enrich experiences and community connections for EEMS students.
In the spring, students from K-4th grade have opportunities in the morning to start seedlings for the growing season, to work in the garden preparing raised beds and planting before the summer months. They also host a Garden Potluck Party with students, teachers, families and friends to kick off the new season and celebrate all the student’s efforts!
During the summer, both staff and families sign up to help work a week in the garden. In 2024, the Ellsworth Garden Club gave a generous donation to help cover the cost of a new irrigation system which has been a tremendous help over the summer months and into the fall season. They also offer garden programming to summer school students which includes both science, agricultural art, and culinary opportunities.
In the fall, elementary students harvest and have hands-on science and art projects that relate to the garden. Some of what they harvest goes to the cafeteria to be included in the school salad bar. They also use the garden harvests to connect to the year-round Harvest of the Month programming where students participate in school wide tastings in the cafeteria that is also augmented by food from local farms.
In the winter, the middle school garden club students do activities like seed saving, vermiculture, hydroponic gardening, growing microgreens, learning about soil health, agricultural art activities, culinary activities, winter sowing and garden planning for the spring season.
In 2025, they received a grant from Friends of Acadia which they invested in new tools for more student participation and trail maintenance, an apple press, curriculum materials plus a new hydroponic wall system to continue growing indoors during the winter months on a larger scale.
They are also connecting students to the new Ellsworth Community Garden to help them gain knowledge from experienced farmers and have opportunities to see food grown on a larger scale. Plans are in place to kick off a school wide composting program through Chickadee Compost in January of 2026, after a successful pilot program in 2024.
The school garden is maintained by their Outdoor Classroom Coordinator, elementary students, the 7/8th grade Garden Club, parent volunteers, Ellsworth Garden Club volunteers and help from their school custodians…it definitely takes a village to keep a school garden growing!
Want to know more?!
- Martha Baldwin at mbaldwin@ellsworthschools.org
- Birdsacre
- Chickadee Compost
- Green Ellsworth
- Garden Club Federation of Maine and Ellsworth Garden Club
- Frenchman Bay Conservancy
- Friends of Acadia
- Healthy Acadia
- Maine Compost School
