Out of Season Garden Visits Falaah Jones, Environmental Educator on the Garden
General
Author : Laura Matter
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All but the most stubborn gardeners have put their gardens to bed by now. Understandably... it is cold and almost dark by mid-afternoon. But we encourage everyone to get out and have a look-see at the vast assortment of gardens in our area. Look beyond the burlap, rowcover cloth, and tired cloches and visit a garden that is new to you. Veggies rule! You might spot dinosaur kale looking proud and stately, encouraging neighboring fava beans, brussel sprouts or purple sprouting broccoli to defy the next snowstorm.
Seattle is blessed with 73 community gardens in our P-Patch system, spread throughout the city. Winter is a good opportunity, while you have less pull to work in your own garden, to get out and see where everyone else gardens. There are many architectural features in addition to the winter crops, mulches and cover crops now in place and they are worth a visit.
Rumor has it that the Belltown P-Patch has a cross-sectional vegetable fence, a gothic entry gate and a water fountain powered by sunshine. Now I have to see all that!
Then there is the Interbay P-Patch, a garden that has been moved from its original site. Hint: take your soil as well as your plants if you have to move. A unique feature at Interbay is a Food Bank collection station. This garden also has an active compost system and even a branded mulch technique (Interbay mulch anyone?). Come see the extensive ornamental plantings that help keep this garden a vibrant, healthy place while living adjacent to a very busy thoroughfare.
A great example of a small urban garden is at the Spring Street P-Patch. It is new and features stone walls, whirley gigs, birdhouses and plots specifically designated for the food bank, youth and those with special needs.
Other local P-Patch gardens include Linden Orchard, once the site of an apple orchard. It now has new fruit trees, edibles throughout its landscape and another cool cob shed. The kids will enjoy the lawn and interactive play area.
If you have never been, visit the one that started all this, Picardo P-Patch, a 2 plus acre site in NE Seattle. It sports a barn, a pavilion and, at long last, a compost toilet. Its rich soil to die for, born of a drained bog that was farmed for forty years previous to its incarnation as a community garden, supports an orchard, grape arbors, berry beds, a Rugosa rose and rhubarb bed and 200 plus plots each of produce. Pick some rose hips while you are there, that is if the birds have left any for you! This fall the south field was planted with winter rye grass as a cover crop, waiting April plowing.
If you can't decide whether to visit another P-Patch or wander through a learning garden, you can do both at the same time. Seattle Tilths adult and childrens learning gardens at the Good Shepherd Center are adjacent to the community P-Patch in Wallingford. You will see an example of a tiny, tiny straw bale garden and be able to compare crops in the ground with those in raised beds. Branches are bare, so study espaliered apples and pears. There is a fancy worm bin bench, a raingarden, and a greenhouse with a green roof.
Seattle Tilth has other learning gardens as well, each with its own particular flair. Bradner Gardens Park in Seattle's Mt. Baker district is another multi-use garden with a Seattle Tilth learning garden, a community children's garden, a perennial border and the Bradner Gardens Park P-Patch. The Tilth learning garden has beds bordered with stone, giving them a tidy look and the ability to hold in heat. This is an important consideration when you are trying to extend the garden season or grow heat loving crops such as eggplant and peppers. You will also have the chance to see the winterized drip irrigation systems in the garden beds. By now the tubing and emitters have been rolled up on site and the controllers and timers have been lifted out to prevent them from freezing over the winter. Bradner Garden Park P-Patch has extensive community plots, some tended by long-time, experienced gardeners. There is a tractor (and basketball court) for the kids to play on, a windmill and the lavish mosaics in the bathroom are definitely worth the trip.
Head east out to Issaquah to check out the Seattle Tilth learning garden at the Pickering Barn, made possible by the City of Issaquah Resource Conservation Office. The garden is in the process of a redesign, but some of the vacated annual beds have been planted out with winter cover crops. Compare beds of rye, clover, winter wheat, Austrian peas, soil building mix, vetch and fava beans. There are examples of small green roofs and a cob shed adjacent to the historic Pickering Barn. The property also links up with the multi-use trails that make this area so popular for walking. While you are on the eastside take a look at the Lake Hills Greenbelt and Crossroads Park in Bellevue. Besides the extensive trails through 150 acres of wetlands, farms and woodlands the area also offers opportunities for community gardening on the eastside.
Vegetables, vegetables, edibles, edibles! What about ornamental plants? Dunn Gardens, in NW Seattle, hosts a Solstice Stroll on December 19th, your only winter opportunity to visit this site where old and new ornamental plants co-exist. Visit the Witt Winter Garden at the Washington Park Arboretum for a refreshing sense of hope in the early season blooms. It is undergoing a facelift, but you will enjoy numerous witchhazels and the long, hanging tassels of Garrya eliptica (coast silk-tassel) as well as numerous heaths and heathers. A visit to Bloedel Reserve on Bainbridge Island offers a wind-swept ferry ride in addition and you don't need a reservation anymore to visit. It is stately with lawns and ponds and groves.
Last but not least, the Bellevue Botanical Garden and its display of Garden DLights is a fun nighttime adventure. The whole family will enjoy flowers and creatures and even grapes hanging from the arbor... all made from thousands of electric lights. Garden DLights runs through January 1st; it has become such a rousing success over the years so you will need reservations for all nights. There is a fee for the most popular nights this season.
We have led you to the trough. Now please go drink the water. We are excited to tour some of these gardens ourselves; we hope to see you there.
For addresses and directions to the gardens please see the following: www.seattle.gov/neighborhoods/ppatch/
www.seattletilth.org
www.ci.bellevue.wa.us/lake_hills_greenbelt.htm
www.dunngardens.org
http://depts.washington.edu/uwbg/gardens/wpa/witt_winter.shtml
www.bloedelreserve.org
www.bellevuebotanical.org/fmvisitor.htm
Contact the Garden Hotline at 206-633-0224 or help@gardenhotline.org or www.seattletilth.org for more information on gardening, classes and gardens in our area.
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