Maher Garden Center reopens in time for Christmas after four-year hiatus

MIDDLETOWN – Thanksgiving Weekend saw the successful reopening of the Maher Center’s Garden Center and a return to the center’s longstanding holiday greenery sale after a four-year hiatus. The launch was a “soft open,” offering hand-decorated wreaths, ornaments, holiday decorations and organic Maine Christmas trees, and was followed up by the center’s second annual pop-up tree and wreath sale at the Castle Hill Inn over the weekend of Dec. 3 and 4.

“Our Garden Center has been a really beloved institution in the community for over 40 years,” said Eileen Curtis, the Maher Center’s director of strategic development and partnerships. “It was always actually a really important part of people’s Christmas, which is why we’re so excited to be opening this Christmas with trees, wreaths, poinsettias, gifts and all that kind of stuff.”

For those who missed the pop-up sale and complimentary cocoa on Castle Hill Inn’s picturesque lawn, the garden center at 910 Aquidneck Ave. in Middletown will also be open the weekends of Dec. 10-11 and Dec. 17-18 before closing down for the winter. All proceeds from the holiday sales will benefit the Maher Center’s programs and services for people with intellectual and developmental disabilities.

“We’re thrilled to be bringing the magic back to our Garden Center for the whole holiday season,” said Executive Director Lynn Maher in a November press release. “We can’t wait to connect with old and new friends, and we’re so grateful to everyone whose holiday purchase will help support our programming all year long.”

The garden center is a key part of that programming. In the spring, the center will fully reopen and house a new horticulture training program for disabled adults which has been developed in partnership with the URI Master Gardener program, an exciting new initiative to complement the Maher Center’s existing programming geared towards job and life skill training for disabled adults.

Kurtis explained the center already has an active employment program, and members of the Maher Center community are working all over Aquidneck Island including at Naval Base Newport, in office parks, and at supermarkets. However, she also stressed the center and the people it serves have a long history of engaging in horticulture, gardening and growing; in addition to the garden center, Maher Center community members cultivate plots in the community gardens at Middletown Public Library and at the Aquidneck Land Trust’s Spruce Acres property in Portsmouth.

The center also runs 10 supportive residences housing 66 adults across Newport County and the East Bay, and each residence has a container garden. These gardens were first obtained through a grant from the Rhode Island Foundation’s Newport County Fund, providing Maher Center community members a way to get outside, socialize and grow their own supply of nutritious food during the pandemic lockdowns. Now, they are maintained by the residents in partnership with volunteers from the URI Master Gardener program.

The horticulture training program planned for the Maher Garden Center on Aquidneck Avenue is also a part of the evolution of the relatively new partnership with the master gardener program – the center applied to partner with URI through a competitive process in 2021, and recently celebrated its one year anniversary of partnership.

“Rewarding work makes life fuller for everyone,” said Maher Center Board President John Casey in the release. “We look forward to drawing on the Maher Center’s rich horticultural heritage, as well as the expertise of our friends – through our wonderful partnership with the URI Master Gardeners Program, for instance – to help people develop practical skills through new, hands-on training programs based at the Garden Center.”

The Garden Center will continue to evolve and eventually offer unique art and products created by members of the Maher Center community. Speaking to The Daily News more recently, Kurtis added that part of the vision for the garden center is to run workshops, vents and gatherings for the broader community.

“Gardeners from the community can come in and we would have workshops and lectures, and we want it to be a dynamic, open space where people feel at home and, as our tag line says, ‘It’s where plants and people grow,’” Kurtis said.

She also said the Maher Center hopes to see participants who complete the horticulture training program emerge with the skills needed to seek gainful employment at local nurseries and other green businesses, and encouraged any businesses interested in partnering with the center to reach out.

This article originally appeared on Newport Daily News: Maher Garden Center, Middletown, reopens with horticulture program