These are the Bar Harbor Garden Club’s ongoing projects, unless noted otherwise.
* Bar Harbor Historical Society, LaRochelle, Bar Harbor — Club members designed, planted and maintain the Butterfly and Bee Garden. The Club also makes a donation towards garden supplies. Learn about BAR HARBOR HISTORICAL SOCIETY at their website.
* Beatrix Farrand Society Garden at Garland Farm, Bar Harbor — The Club provides volunteers as needed, and made donations towards replacing the BFS house roof, and purchasing plant labels and heather plants. Learn about The Library at Garland Farm at their website.
* Blue Star Memorial Marker Ceremony and Wreath Laying, Bar Harbor —The Club holds Memorial Day and Veterans Day ceremonies; and maintains the memorial marker and plantings. The Club provides BHGC Volunteers.
* Charlotte Rhodes Park Butterfly Garden, Southwest Harbor —The Club made a donation towards the construction of a garden barn, and gives donations towards the purchase of annuals and perennials for the garden.
* Jesup Memorial Library, Bar Harbor — The Club makes a donation for garden supplies and maintains the library’s Pop-Up Garden.
* Land and Garden Preserve, Northeast Harbor —The Club makes donations to Asticou Azalea, Thuya and Abby Aldrich Rockefeller gardens that are all located in Northeast Harbor. Visit gardenpreserve.org to learn more.
* MDI Housing Authority, Southwest Harbor — The Club makes a donation for materials and provides volunteers to maintain this garden.
* Mount Desert Historical Heirloom Garden, Somesville — This garden was founded by the BHGC and MDI Historical Society. The Club supports the garden by making donations.
Visit mdihistory.org to learn more.
* Open Table MDI, Bar Harbor — The Club partnered with Open Table MDI for the first time in the summer of 2022 to double the size of the non-profit’s organic garden in Tremont, named Open Garden MDI.
The goal was to harvest 4,000 pounds of produce for Open Table to distribute to improve food security on MDI. Club contributions included funding and volunteers.
Learn more about Open Garden MDI…
* Scholarships —Inge Weber Memorial Scholarship, Nell Goff Memorial Scholarship, Peter H. Dolliver Legacy Scholarship, and the Student Conservation Association.
* SCHOOLS: ASHLEY BRYAN SCHOOL, CONNORS EMERSON ELEMENTARY, FRENCHBORO, MOUNT DESERT ELEMENTARY, PEMETIC ELEMENTARY, SWAN’S ISLAND SCHOOL, TREMONT CONSOLIDATED, TRENTON ELEMENTARY —The Club makes a donation towards the schools’ Greenhouses (or raised garden beds). The Club also provides BHGC Volunteers.
* Sundial Lupine — The Sundial Lupine Project is an undertaking by the BHGC to re-establish the native sundial lupine (Lupinus perennis) in Maine.
This project was awarded the 2020 Maine Arts Commission Bicentennial Grant.
* Valentine Tray Favors — Floral themed Valentine tray favors are presented to Residents of Birch Bay Village.
* Wild Gardens of Acadia at Sieur de Monts Spring, Bar Harbor — These gardens were founded in 1961 by the Bar Harbor Garden Club and Acadia National Park, and are now overseen by the Friends of Acadia National Park Service. The Club provided funding to print postcards for purchase by visitors; and to develop QR code plant descriptions for bog plants. The Club also provides BHGC Volunteers. Learn more…
* Woodlawn Museum, Ellsworth — The Club provides volunteers as needed to decorate for Christmas at the Woodlawn Museum. Learn about the Woodlawn Museum at their website.
* Youth Garden Program, Bernard — In partnership with the Bass Harbor Memorial Library in the summer of 2022, the Club created and funded the Westside Summer Garden Club to foster a life-long interest in horticulture among middle school children through a relaxed, hands-on gardening experience.
In a large garden plot in the Maine Coast Heritage Trusts’ Kelley Farm Preserve in Bernard, the youngsters and BHGC mentors prepared soil, planted seeds, transplanted seedlings, composted, watered, and weeded, then harvested vegetables and flowers.
* “Youth Activities” — The Bar Harbor Garden Club supports and sponsors a range of Youth Activities in the local community focusing on gardening, birding, creative arts, language arts, and environmental awareness. Learn more…
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Learn about the early history of the Wild Gardens of Acadia.