20 reasons to visit downtown Portland, Connecticut

We are excited to announce the following participants in our first Portland Village Street Garden Project: 

• The Wedding Dress
• Primavera Pizzeria
• The Portland Ale House
• Magic Mirror Unisex Salon
• Reliable Dental Care
• Lily Rose Gardens in partnership with Savvy Swap Consignment
• Portland Dental Care
• Sarah's on Main
• Connecticut Valley School of Music and Dance
• Fabian's Pizza
• Bud's Café
• Portland Youth and Family Services and Portland Parks and Rec.
• PegArch Architecture and Design  in partnership with Tropical CT
• Melilli's Caffe & Grill
• Concentric Brewing Co.
• Brownstone Bottle Shop
• Mirabito Energy
• Revolution Properties LLC
• Siltec
• Gardener's Bouquets LLC in partnership with Xpress Fuel
• Portland Memorial Funeral Home
• Chris Cote's Golf Shop

There are four categories that Street Gardens can be entered into: Window boxes, Container Garden, In-Ground Garden and Hanging Baskets. Main Street businesses had the opportunity to sign up for one or all categories for their Street Garden Project. 

We’ll be sharing the entries for each category in the coming days on this site, so be sure to check back. 

Many of the gardens have been planted - so get out to Main Street and admire the hard work! Be sure to take note of your favorites gardens. The Portland community will also be able to participate in one part of the judging that takes place in July with a Portland’s Choice poll where the community will pick their favorite garden in this year's project. We will be partnering with the admins of the Portland CT Community Facebook Group to make this happen. We are also planning to have a drop-off ballot location in town available for individuals who are not on social media. 

Background 

The street garden project is based on the successful Old Saybrook Street Garden program. Last year, PRVGC members had the opportunity to connect with Old Saybrook members who shared how their program works. 

We were inspired by this great program on the Connecticut shoreline, and thought this would be a fantastic way to beautify the Portland downtown area. We took into consideration some ways to fine-tune and make this speak to the Portland community, and in early spring 2023, we shared our idea with Portland Economic Development Commission. Using Old Saybrook's plan as a guide, the Portland version includes similar categories, with the addition of the Hanging Basket category and the Portland’s Choice Award category.

The response to the project by downtown businesses has been overwhelmingly positive and we’re excited to see where this growing season takes us!