A wonderful article about Seattle Tilth and Good Shephard Center on the Tree Hugger blog today (below).
The Community Gardening movement is catching fire in our area too.
Shoreline now has a brand new Community Garden, which held its grand opening celebration Saturday.
The Ballinger Neighborhood Association and the Shoreline Community Garden Group teamed up on an exciting project this season.
Community Garden Group Mission Statement:
Foster the creation of a sustainable food system, environment, and community, by networking, educating, building community gardens, and sharing resources.
There are 18 Community raised bed, garden plots, 2 food bank plots, educational kiosk, water source and tools. The effort is an entirely volunteer project and it provides beds to people in the immediate neighborhood. Many of them live in nearby apartments or condos and have no yards, so this project provides them with the space and means to grow their own food.
Community Garden Raised Bed at Work!
Photo credit - Linda Stein
Rep Maralyn Chase enjoys the celebration with volunteers
photo credit - Corey Murata
There is room to expand, and lot's of features are being added such as decorative plantings to make the location look nice year round.
The groups goal is to expand the project throughout the City.
Volunteer Jan Stewart said, "It looks pretty darned good! It's an example of taking a desperate patch of earth, overrun with invasive weeds, a terrible, forgotten piece of ground. And the group of dedicated people, including Joyce Lingerfelt, Londa Jacques, Judy Griesel, Linda Stein and others, came together and said, "Let's do it". Brian and Meghan Peterka and their family really pitched in and made it work. It's a lovely example of how to do a grassroots project."
Before
In Progress
Rain City Rotary provided a lot of the community backing and the Ballinger Neighborhood Association
received a Shoreline Neighborhood Mini-Grant, which provided supplies. Also, of course the Shoreline School District allowed the community to use this piece of land behind Aldercrest Learning Center.
Brian and Meghan Peterka and their two children have a folk music combo which provided entertainment.
photo credit - Linda Stein
Peterka Family Band
Our group meets:
The Shoreline Community Gardening Group meets on the 4th Tuesday of the month, at City Hall, in Room 301, from 6:30-9pm. All are welcome!
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http://www.treehugger.com/files/2009/08/urban-farmers-and-repurposed-building.php
Tree Hugger
Urban Farmers and Repurposed Building for Nonprofit Tenants
by Roberta Cruger, Los Angeles 
on 08.23.09
Tenants of urban chicken farming. Photo by Steven Walling via Flickr
Sometimes I miss living in Seattle. I used to teach at a converted building dedicated to nonprofit orgs and low-income artist housing. There are similar endeavors in many cities, but in Seattle it’s everywhere and at the Good Shepherd Center, located a mile away from my former home, one of the tenants, Seattle Tilth, inspires and educates people to garden organically and consider urban chicken coops and beehives. My neighbors upstairs turned half our yard into a garden. Last week it held a workshop in Herbal Tea Gardening and on the 23rd it gives one on Composting for Apartment Dwellers. Take a look at the tenants inside this one building. Shouldn’t every city have one?
Former Good Shepherd School turned home for nonprofits with organic garden in Seattle. Photo by JWalsh via Flickr
Good Shepherd Center tenants include a local holistic center and all of the following:
Cascade Harvest Coalition: builds a sustainable local food system by supporting farmers and consumers. Programs and activities address the local food and farm system, promotes preservation and protection of farmlands and resources, improves access to locally-produced food. Works with Puget Sound Fresh www.pugetsoundfresh.org consumer education program; Farm to Table, Washington FarmLink providing farmer education services, and others.
International Snow Leopard Trust: works to conserve the endangered snow leopard and the biological diversity of the snow leopard's wilderness habitat in central Asia through balanced approaches that consider needs of people and the environment. ISLT supports programs of research, monitoring, field conservation, training, technical assistance, and environmental education.
Washington Toxics Coalition: protects human health and the environment by preventing pollution. It advocates pollution-prevention based policies, supports sustainable and organic agriculture, promotes alternatives to pesticides and other toxic products. Works with farmers, farm workers, and local citizens concerned with securing a safe environment.
Washington Water Trails Association: works to build partnerships with public and private organizations to manage water trails, instills a strong stewardship ethic for the aquatic environment, and encourages the use of "blueways." The Cascadia Marine Trail provides resting sites for small hand-carried human-and wind-powered watercraft users on Puget Sound from Olympia to the Canadian border, and the Lakes-To-Lakes Water Trail.
Seattle Tilth: volunteer organization of gardeners interested in environmentally sound ways of growing edible and ornamental plants. It also administers the city's Community Compost Education Program. Committed to increasing urban self-reliance by sharing ideas and techniques in organic gardening, edible landscaping, composting and related subjects through its newsletter, demonstration garden and children’s garden, workshops, lectures, tours, and referrals.
Photo by JWalsh via Flickr
Upcoming classes to assist the urban farmer include “Fall and Winter Container Herb Gardening” and "City Chicken 101” an intro to chicken husbandry in urban and suburban settings, and “Lawns to Lettuce” workshop. Seattle Tilth's Harvest Fair happens Saturday, September 12.
Seattle has become known as a world-class chicken destination and Seattle Tilth offers an annual Chicken Coop tour with resident chicken keepers. Also tours urban dwellers with goats, ducks and bees with a self-guided map through neighborhoods. Considered a "weird eco-habit” in Treehugger in 2005, is it still?
More on chicken coops and home gardens:
The Stealth Chicken Coop - Keeping Swine Flu and Zoning Officers
Another Kind of Chicken Coop
Sowing the Seeds of Sustainability: Victory Gardens are Back
18 Beautiful Edible Landscaping Plants
Posts
It's great to see Shoreline finally establishing a community garden! Let's hope it's the first of many. These gardens are the best way to build wonderful connections with neighbors.
ReplyDeleteAll,
ReplyDeleteIt is wonderful, but the key is volunteers who stepped up with the idea and the sweat equity. The citizens are what makes it all become a reality. And thanks to the City for the support and the partners.