West Seattle Clean and Green, report #2: The results; the reason

That’s the site of the new Genesee P-Patch late this afternoon – just a few hours after the big city-supported Clean and Green work party (first report here) that mixed mountains of Cedar Grove-donated compost into the soil:

Among the dozens of volunteers was John Legge, among those who received certificates today in honor of the plots they’ve been awarded in the new community garden:

(If you noticed some lighter spots in the compost pile in that photo – that’s actually where steam rose as the volunteers dug in — pungent steam, at that.) Among the others – Rahn Lee and her 9-year-old daughter Mei Lee Vandervelde, who are with a Girl Scout troop that meets in South Delridge:

The new P-Patch is on a spot of land along Genesee just east of West Seattle Christian Church, which donated the site (and has also been donating food grown on another patch of church land). In this video clip, you’ll hear WSCC’s Pastor Dan Jacobs talking about how the gardening sideline came to be:

As we mentioned in our first report, Mayor Nickels and wife Sharon Nickels volunteered today too. In his kickoff speech, the mayor mentioned this was the city’s 99th Clean and Green event:

And a shoutout to the organizational efforts of two more people who helped make today happen — Stan Lock, one of the city’s two Neighborhood Service Coordinators on our peninsula – he works out of the office in The Junction, next to Rocksport:

Plus, Erica Karlovits, president of the Junction Neighborhood Organization, which held its quarterly Adopt-a-Street cleanup in connection with today’s Clean and Green:

And these events do require planning down to the last detail, like treat procurement – Erica told us these cupcakes, with icing-drawn carrots and radishes, were donated by Coffee to a Tea with Sugar in The Junction:

Side note: In our first story on today’s event, we mentioned the three other West Seattle sites proposed for funding under the Parks and Green Spaces Levy. One is the “southern triangle” near California Place Park, the subject of a story you’ll see later tonight (because of the celebration in the park today); the other is in High Point; and we just noticed this brand-new sign up at the third, in Westwood (34th and Barton):

The sign makes it clear that the proposed disposition of that site (which we originally wrote about here) is as a “community garden,” and says you’ve got till July 20 to send comments to the city (same person that’s listed here).

6 Replies to "West Seattle Clean and Green, report #2: The results; the reason"

  • mickey mouse June 20, 2009 (9:02 pm)

    The pea patch will be a great assest to that neighborhood, but isn’t that property owned by Seattle Lutheran High?

  • neat June 20, 2009 (9:07 pm)

    Very cool. Looks like a very successful event. Congrats and kudos to the people who volunteered very nice to see the community working like this together.

  • djake June 20, 2009 (9:34 pm)

    Seattle Lutheran is across the street….this land is owned by West Seattle Christian and located at West Seattle Christian Preschool

  • larry June 21, 2009 (7:32 am)

    aren’t we all supposed to have our own garden and grow food for ourselves? Oh thats right-now we BUY all of our food at supermarkets and live in apartments or condos where we don’t have a inch of dirt to our name…we were better off in the old days. We are just creating more work for ourselves.

  • pnwestguy June 21, 2009 (1:59 pm)

    @Larry,

    You don’t have to own land in order to grow food for yourself–and for others too.

    Living closer together, in smaller spaces, and working together to grow food and build our communities is okay by me. In fact, it works better right now than the old American dream of everyone owning acres of land and a big house. We have the power to redefine the American dream.

  • Ranna June 22, 2009 (4:06 pm)

    I just love the idea of redefining the American dream. Maybe the new American dream will be of folks with small but functional homes, better public transportation, and growing food in community gardens like the pea patch. And, in general, getting involved in activities that bring people together and create community. Bravo to all we made this possible.

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