Green, Clean, and Sustainable
Our work
Our Green & Clean Team focuses on the beauty and sustainability of public spaces in and around Woodfords Corner. We do this by focusing on the design and care of the spaces like parks, sidewalks and little pockets of the corner landscape. Along the major thoroughfares, we envision more green attractions like trees, flowers, and plants – good for the people, good for the planet, and good for the hyperlocal economy. And most importantly, we want to engage the community in doing this work together – and demonstrate that caring for our common space can be creative and fun too.
Come join the team! We have lots of volunteer opportunities on the Green and Clean committee - from committee planning to specific events and projects.
Deering Avenue Planters and Rain Barrels
In 2020 we installed planters along the entrance of Deering Avenue using recycled oak whiskey barrels. In 2021 we added edible plants to some of the barrels, and retrofitted wine casks to show how to catch roof water and care for the plants. Our hope is to expand this program to more blocks in the corner.
Trinity Park
In 2017 Friends of Woodfords Corner started partnering with the generous folks of Trinity Church to care for the pocket park at 580 Forest Avenue. It’s that small triangle space in front of the Church with the fountain. It’s hard to tell it’s public space, so FWC partnered with Trinity Church and began a more comprehensive approach to caring for and activating the park. In 2019, we hosted 4 summer evenings called Third Thursdays at the park with music, food, games and a chance to meet neighbors. In 2021, Davis Hartwell, a local avid gardener and volunteer took the reins and has started Friends of Trinity Park, and FWC remains committed to partnering with them to care for our little pocket park.
Annual Railroad and Green Space clean ups
In 2015 we started with cleaning up the RR tracks from Woodfords to Lincoln. Since then our annual cleanup has expanded to cover the tracks from Woodford Street to Brighton Avenue. And we also clean up and weed several of the small green spots along the corridor - Luminous Arbor, Saunders Triangle and other tree wells etc. We’re looking forward to 8th Annual Clean Up in 2022.
Community Garden Tour
In 2021 we held our first annual Garden Tour to share 12 beautiful gardens with our neighbors. All the gardens are beautiful and interesting - some have added vegetables and bees and rain barrels, all demonstrating how urban areas can be good for the eye and the earth. Great fun for all and we’ll do it again in 2022.
Murals and Graffiti Awareness
WC is an older urban hub with lots of asphalt and concrete, we work to keeping it clean and attractive – for instance less trash, more trash cans and less graffiti, more murals. We encourage folks to report tagging (unwanted graffiti) on Fixit Portland and we work with property owners to encourage and facilitate the installation of more murals.
Talk Trash with Ecomaine
About ecomaine: "ecomaine provides comprehensive, long-term solid waste solutions in a safe, environmentally responsible, economically sound manner, and is a leader in raising public awareness of sustainable waste management strategies"
Where does my recycling and trash go? And what happens to it?? Presenters Katrina Venhuizen of Ecomaine and Troy Moon Sustainability Coordinator, City Portland.
Seed Starting with Backyard Blooms
Spring is here and it is time to prepare for a bountiful summer. Starting your own seedlings at home can save you money at the nursery and allow you to grow more varieties of plants than are often commercially available. If you have always been interested in starting vegetable, flower, or herb plants from seed at home, this informative session will help you get started. Seed starting requires only a few inexpensive supplies and can be highly enjoyable. In this hour, you will learn about requirements to ensure seedling success, appropriate timing to start your seeds, which seedlings to choose to grow with little or no experience, benefits of supplemental lighting, and how to harden off your seedlings to prepare them for transplanting to the outdoor garden.
Jason Aucoin is co-owner of Backyard Blooms along with his long-time friend and neighbor Kate Hannavan-Ross. Together they sustainably grow seasonal cut flowers for events and purchase at their farm stand on Saturday mornings at 74 Ocean Avenue, Portland. Backyard Blooms is a true urban micro-farm, with approximately 1/8 of an acre in production. High intensity planting and creative planning allows them to produce thousands of stems to supply the neighborhood with quality florals
each season. Jason graduated from the Maine Master Gardener program in 2009. When he is not in the garden, he works as a Neurology Nurse Practitioner at Maine Medical Center.