Evangeline Garden UMFK’s living lesson Longfellow’s poem inspired biology professor to grow old-time plants Acadians used

FORT KENT – Dandelions are good for sore throats and stomachaches. The pesky weeds make a savory wine and can be eaten as greens. Some folks still know that, but decades ago, everyone did.

Nestled on the grounds of the University of Maine at Fort Kent, not far from the banks of the Fish River, is the Evangeline Garden where you can learn what plants the Acadians and French Canadian settlers of the St. John Valley used in their daily lives for their own consumption or to cure aches and pains when the doctor or hospital was too far away to reach.

The garden was conceived during a 1997 commemoration of Henry Wadsworth Longfellow’s poem, “Evangeline.” The poem tells the story of the Acadian heroine, Evangeline, who spent her life searching for her loved one after being separated from him by the British during the Acadian deportation from Nova Scotia in 1785.

To create the Evangeline Garden, UMFK professor of biology and environmental studies, Steve Selva, used the university’s Acadian archives to identify more than 100 plants either consumed or used medicinally by the Acadians and French Canadian settlers of the St. John Valley. The garden is intended as a refuge on campus as well as a living laboratory for students.

“A lot of people have heard about these plants and their uses, but they can no longer recognize the plant, and this may foster a new interest,” Selva said.

Mugwort, or l’herbe-sainte as French-speaking folks called it, looks like a common weed found in many fields. A relative of sagebrush, it can grow as high as 5 feet, and has clusters of greenish flowers. Served as a tea, the plant induces sweating, promotes appetite, calms nerves and can be used to treat bronchitis, colic, menstrual irregularities and the pains of childbirth.

Prepared as a poultice, mugwort provides relief from itching, swelling, colds and sores. It can even be used to store woolen clothing, and keep moths away. It also is said to keep ghosts away.

Such information is found on small signs identifying most of the more than 80 native plants, shrubs and trees in the Evangeline Garden. The signs carry both the English and French plant names.

The Evangeline Garden pathways are covered with crushed shale and red, blue and gray slate steppingstones. Several plant beds are adorned with large pieces of driftwood and many are rimmed with fieldstones.

A stone sculpture made by Kevin Hodgson, a work-study UMFK student from Grand Isle, graces one of the flowerbeds.

There are wooden benches where people can sit, eat and contemplate as well as small trails meandering to the Fish River. The trails are bordered by lush ferns, small shrubs and towering trees. The temperature along the river is much cooler, most likely because of the lowland forest canopy.

This season Hodgson and Amanda Damboise, another Grand Isle student, have expanded the plant beds, using species culled from local bogs, fields, riverbanks and forests.