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Grand Opening of the Mary Nash Beaupre Growing Dome

May 30, 2018, 3:30 PM – 5:00 PM

Free

GRAND OPENING

Mary Nash Beaupre Growing Dome

May 30th, 2018 from 3:30 - 5:00pm

Alfond Youth Center 126 North Street Waterville, Maine 04917

RSVP

IT'S DONE!

And we can't wait to show it off to you!

Our Sustainable Garden to Table Program started in 2011 with 4 raised beds, the Campbell's True Value Kids' Garden, completely managed and monitored by the kids we serve. As of 2017 we had fifteen above ground and multiple in ground beds with the produce grown during the season used in our Kids’ Kitchen to feed over 200 at risk youth who attend daily and fill the Backpacks going home to over 75 families in need every Friday during the school year. This program addresses the over 23% food insecure youth in Maine and 90% of the youth served by our After School and Summer Enrichment Programs who qualify for free and reduced meals.

But what about the 9 months of Maine’s off season and the weekends over the summer?

Thanks to the generosity of donors like John and Mark Beaupre, Backyard Farms, and grants from Lowe’s and Hannaford, we are able to build and sustain a 42 foot diameter Growing Spaces Biodome – a solar powered ecosphere with hydroponics and aquaponics learning labs – which broke ground last August. After erecting the structure, laying the floor, building the beds, placing the pots, filling everything with soil, growing the seedlings and getting the temperature control figured out, we can finally say - It's Done!!

We are busy putting up the border fence, landscaping and preparing the outdoor beds so we can show it all off to you on

Wednesday, May 30th from 3:30 to 5:00pm!

This year-round state-of-the-art greenhouse will provide fresh, nutritious produce and herbs to the Kids’ Kitchen and Weekend Backpack programs year round and the kids will work on STEM activities, start their own produce stand business, hold community garden days, and start cooking classes using everything they have grown!

What the Kids Are Growing...

In Beds and Pots

Carrots - Purple, red, yellow, white, 4 x orange.

Radishes - 5 varieties

Swiss Chard - Bright Lights

Lettuce - 6 varieties

Spinach

Green beans

Peas

Scarlett Runner Beans

Morning Glories

Greenhouse cucumbers - 4 varieties

Beets - 5 varieties

Kale

Turnips - Hakurei salad

Nasturiums- edible flower - 4 varieties

Calendula - medicinal flower

Herb Tower:

Echinachea, Lavender, Cumin, Sage, Thyme, Basil

Seedling Trays

Onions, shallots, leeks – 7 varieties

Peppers - purple, yellow, orange, red, green

Tomatoes - 15 varieties

Eggplant - white and purple

Broccoli

Cabbage

Brussel Sprouts

Grasses - slivertip, lowlander, blacktip

Marigolds - 5 varieties

Bergamot

Sweet Annie

Viola

Gomphrena

Craspedia

Sunball

Strawflowers Alyssum,

Zinnias

Forget me nots

Asclepias

Verbena

Orlaya Cosmos

Eucalyptus

Catnip

Rudbeckia

And more!

Details

Date:: May 30, 2018
Time:: 3:30 PM – 5:00 PM
Cost:: Free

Organizer

: Alfond Youth & Community Center
: View Organizer Website

Venue

: Alfond Youth & Community Center
: 126 North Street
Waterville, ME + Google Map
Phone: 873-0684
: View Venue Website