Anne Nord, of Damariscotta, stands behind her wooden flower cart the afternoon of Friday, June 28. Nord provides bouquets and live plants to brighten the days of passers-by. (Molly Rains photo)
At the roadside on High Street in Damariscotta, on some summer days, lucky passers-by may find a bright surprise: a wooden cart laden with cut vegetables, live plants, and other garden treasures, all free for the taking.
The cart and its offerings are curated by Anne Nord, master gardener and Damariscotta resident who lends her green thumb not only to commuters passing along High Street but also to other organizations and causes on the Pemaquid peninsula. Nord is a board and grounds committee member of the Old Bristol Historical Society, sits on the flower committee of The Second Congregational Church of Newcastle, is a member of the Old Bristol Garden Club, and has worked with organizations like Coastal Rivers Conservation Trust to help educate local youth on gardening and botany, to name just a few of her local contributions.
“I love the creativity of gardening, the physical exercise, the companionship with other gardeners, and the joy of seeing beautiful flowers and good food grow,” Nord said.
Nord got her love of plants from her father, who taught her how to garden during her early childhood years in Pennsylvania, where Nord was born. Nord’s father, a former English professor turned Pennsylvania ad man, taught her the Latin names of the various plants in their garden.
“We had sour cherry trees that my mother made cherry pies and jam and all sorts of delicious desserts from,” Nord said, “And blackberries and raspberries … What I remember most of all is digging potatoes in the fall with my father. He called it digging for gold.”
Ever since those early days, Nord held on to her passion for gardening. Nord’s love of plants and flowers followed her through a move with her family to New Canaan, Conn., where Nord went to school, then throughout her adult life and career as an educator, which saw Nord living and working in Virginia, Vermont, New Hampshire, Massachusetts, and Connecticut before she and her husband, Carl Nord, retired to Maine in 2018.
In her professional life, Anne Nord worked as a teacher and, later, as a principal.
“In my era, the jobs available to women were nurse, secretary, and teacher,” she said.
But a love of children came naturally, and she loved her work.
“I always had kids around me, and liked working with kids, talking to them, sharing my knowledge, and learning from them, as well,” she said.
Anne and Carl Nord have two children of their own, who are now adults and live out of state.
Raising her children, Anne Nord said, was a little bit like growing a garden.
“If you want kids to grow or you want plants to grow, you’ve got to feed them right and give them lots of care and watch over them,” she said. “Really, all children need a good foundation, just like plants.”
While living in Connecticut, Nord became certified as a Connecticut Master Gardener. The course involved 16 weeks of education and 45 hours of community service; for her project, Nord developed library gardens in Connecticut.
Upon her move to Maine, Nord said, gardening helped her find her community and connect with neighbors. It wasn’t until a few years later, when the COVID-19 pandemic struck, that Nord began giving away flowers.
The contact-free culture that the pandemic initiated worked well for the cart. Nord started by leaving a few extra plants or blossoms out at the end of the driveway, and passers-by would collect them while keeping a healthy distance from the house.
Nord has kept up the tradition since, stocking the cart with garden goodies all throughout the growing season.
Because Nord’s home is located within close proximity to LincolnHealth’s Miles Campus, a good proportion of her patrons are on their way to the hospital. The flower cart, Nord said, therefore takes on special meaning: it supplies gifts to brighten the days of medical workers, as well as those who may be visiting an ill loved one in the hospital.
Nord recalled some memorable visitors, including one woman took live flowers to plant outside her ailing mother’s window and a little girl who stops by Nord’s cart every year on her way to visit her grandmother.
One visitor in particular, however, stands out in Nord’s memory.
“A guy walking by said, ‘I’m going to ask my girlfriend to marry me this afternoon,’” Nord said. “He said, ‘Can I have a bouquet?’”
“Absolutely,” Nord answered.
Some visitors have been known to tuck some money into the cart or to leave a dog bone for Nord’s late Great Pyrenees, Tressie, who used to spend her days lounging in Nord’s yard.
To Nord, however, the joy of sharing her love of gardening and giving away plants is enough.
“It’s really fun to have something that is so beautiful, and you can give it someone else, and they appreciate it as well,” Nord said. “I’m glad when people take things.”
Part of her efforts with the cart, Nord said, involve education. Nord places a sign with the name of each flower on the cart, as well as information about how best to care for the plants.
Appreciation for the diversity, beauty, and “tenacity” of plants is, Nord said, one thing she hopes to share with others through her outreach efforts.
The discipline, joy, and release of gardening, she said, is another.
On May 23, Nord donned a T-shirt with the slogan, ‘Gardening is dirt cheap therapy.’
“That’s my motto,” she said. “Pulling out weeds you don’t like gets rid of a lot of anger and frustration.”
This summer, Nord will continue to stock her cart. She is also involved in a project of “rejuvenating” the grounds of the Old Bristol Historical Society to make them more sustainable and accessible.
Nord also hopes to continue educating children. She hopes to welcome some young helpers into her garden to assist her and learn a thing or two about plants and gardening.
“I just think it’s wonderful if we can get the younger generation involved in caring for things, the structure and the responsibility,” she said. “Those are all things that gardening can bring us — and the joy of seeing something grow.”
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