About Us

Philosophy​

Fresh Food Gardens thrives on helping families and organizations take steps towards self sufficiency by creating beautiful vegetable garden spaces. We foster community through education focused on promoting access to healthy, organic fresh food.

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History

Fresh Food Gardens started from a moment in a friend’s backyard. Roberto saw a tomato plant growing out of a 5 gallon bucket and was instantly inspired to learn more. Through experimenting, reading and diving deeper into the world of urban gardens, soil biology and how to grow in our northern climate, grew the desire to help and teach others. 

Fresh Food Gardens is based out of Portland, Maine, servicing the Greater Portland area and beyond. We offer design, installation and maintenance services of organic urban gardens with sustainability and self-sufficiency in mind. We help our clients grow fresh, nutritious food out of the comfort of their homes by working together to create the designs that fit their needs and vision. We install vegetable gardens from the ground up, while also offering seasonal garden maintenance services and garden coaching services. 

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Meet Your Farmers

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Roberto Rodriguez, Owner

Roberto, originally from Puerto Rico, spent most of his youth and lived in Miami, Florida before moving to Maine in 2011. He admits rarely thinking of food coming from anywhere other than the store until he began gardening after being inspired one day seeing a tomato plant growing out of a 5 gallon bucket in a friend's backyard. He has been growing food ever since in his home spending countless hours learning about soil biology, trying different gardening techniques, growing different vegetable varieties and experimenting with canning and preserving. Roberto has created his dream organic urban backyard farm with his wife and youngest daughter in the North Deering Neighborhood of Portland, Maine, where they live with their dog AJ. 

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Maya Lena, Lead Farmer

Maya is Fresh Food Gardens' Lead Farmer. She joined Fresh Food Gardens in 2021 as an assistant farmer, and her role quickly expanded to include writing our monthly newsletter along with garden coaching and caring for maintenance gardens. 

Maya is passionate about growing vegetables and loves to talk about gardening tips, tricks and successes! Using her background in education, she enjoys working with people to help them learn about how to design, plant, and maintain their gardens. 

Maya maintains her own vegetable garden (Instagram: @glenwoodgardener) at her home in the Nason's Corner neighborhood of Portland where she lives with her husband and two young children. As an active community member, Maya also serves as the president of the Nason's Corner Neighborhood Association and is a past member of the Portland Parks Commission.