Barbara Freeman
Director of Communications

Soon after transplanting from Bucks County, Pa. to Maine in 1991, Barbara put her event-planning and writing background to work, first for the Lincoln Arts Festival, and then for eight years as an award-winning writer, photographer, and arts editor for the Boothbay Register.

A Coastal Maine Botanical Gardens Charter Member, she joined the Gardens\’ staff of two in April of 2002. Initially, in addition to being the Gardens\’ publicist, she was the events coordinator and office manager. Now, as Director of Communications, Barbara writes and distributes PR, takes lots and lots of photos, edits and writes for the Gardens\’ newsletter, creates e-newsletters, administers the Web site, speaks to groups including garden clubs, gives presentations at flower shows including Boston and Philadelphia, and tries in every way she can to communicate to others her profound appreciation of the Gardens. 

Barbara\’s writing and photography - both for the Gardens and on other subjects - have appeared in numerous newspapers and magazines. In 2002, she received the First Place Award in Environmental Reporting from the New England Press Assocation. She has garnered other awards, including many from the Maine Press Association for features, reporting, and photos, and a grand prize from Maine Media Women for earning the most awards from that organization in one year.

Even though she has always been an enthusiastic gardener, whether in Pennsylvania, South Jersey, Germany, or Florida, and at one time worked for legendary landscape architects Ian McHarg and William Roberts in Philadelphia, she was flummoxed by the ledge, short growing season, and salt spray she faced in her Maine garden. The solution? She joined the Boothbay Region Garden Club in 1991, and then in 2004 became a certified Master Gardener through the University of Maine. She also learned a lot while writing her book, The Spare-Time Gardener, published in 2006.

Barbara feels that publicizing the Gardens is all about getting people here for the first time. After that, she says, they want to tell everyone they know about the fantastic garden they\’ve discovered on the coast of Maine.