West Seattle, Washington
18 Monday
Two events coming up tomorrow (Sunday, March 3) that you might want an advance alert about:
WEST SEATTLE BEE GARDEN: Lisa sent the photo and an invitation for volunteers of all ages to help out tomorrow, all or part of the three-hour period between 10 am and 1 pm:
Our next work party is full of opportunity to:
-plant native plants – a wide variety coming from the King Conservation District Native Plant Sale,
-move loads of compost for our new perennial pollinator pads,
-plant native flower seeds – blanket flower and globe gilia,
-make more temporary signs, and,
=relocate desirable plants.As usual, dress for the weather and bring a water bottle. We’ll have some light snacks. We also have an assortment of garden tools but if you have a personal favorite, you’re welcome to bring it.
We need lots of folks to make this all happen. Bonus points for those that bring a friend :) Thanks so much for your consideration and effort to help shape the West Seattle Bee Garden into a place of education, inspiration, and beauty.
The West Seattle Bee Garden is located at Commons Park – Graham St and Lanham Pl SW.
FAMILY HISTORY RESEARCH: If you’ve been looking into your family history but reaching some dead ends, local experts might be able to help – they’re inviting you to this free event Sunday:
Join us for an afternoon of free Family History Research
Sunday, March 3, 2024
2:30 pm – 4:30 pmInterested in your family history? We have expertise! We’d love to help you discover the joy of family history! Walk-ins are welcome, but appointments are encouraged. Email bevitaly@gmail.com to reserve a time slot.
Timed to coincide with this Thursday to Saturday event: RootsTech 2024 – The world’s largest family history event. (In Salt Lake City and online.) Then join us in person on Sunday afternoon!
The West Seattle Ward of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints – 4001 44th Ave SW
Though spring is still five weeks away, the baby blossoms you’ll eventually see in West Seattle Junction flower baskets this year are growing now. The Junction Association provided these photos from Van Wingerden Greenhouses in Blaine, raising the spring/summer color show again this year:
With basket season approaching, WSJA has opened this year’s adopt-a-basket opportunities – almost 100 this year, and you can adopt – aka sponsor – one for $189, supporting the nonprofit’s operations. You can sign up here.
Again this year, the Kiwanis Club of West Seattle will offer free seeds to teachers and parents for working with kids to learn about growing food. Right now, though, they need your help deciding what kind of seeds – here’s the announcement and request frm Kiwanis president Denis Sapiro:
The Kiwanis Club of West Seattle gave out about 200 packs of seeds to people at the Sunday Farmers’ Market last year. Kiwanis will again offer vegetable seeds and flower seeds this year. Teachers and parents can help select the type of seeds and number of packages of seeds Kiwanis will order this year. This is not a commitment to use the seeds nor for Kiwanis to provide all that is requested.
Here’s the survey – please answer it by February 5.
Kiwanis offers the Seed Project to boost family fun and joy and to provide an educational experience with hands-on activity! As the plant grows, you can transplant it into your garden. In the survey, please add your contact info (particularly your email address), so that we can let you know when the seeds will be available at the Farmers Market in the spring.
Today we’re welcoming Fauntleroy Gardening Co. as our newest WSB sponsor. When new sponsors join us to advertise their local businesses to you, they get the opportunity to tell you about themselves – here’s what Fauntleroy Gardening Co. would like you to know:
Are you looking for an exterior space to match the detail of your home’s interior? Do you want to extend your living space out into the garden? Fauntleroy Gardening Co. has distinguished itself in designing, installing, and maintaining gardens that invite the visitor into their spaces and encourage them to linger, relax, and unwind. Established in 2006 and based in West Seattle since 2014, Fauntleroy Gardening Co. welcomes new homeowners and established West Seattleites as we continue to grow our roots deeper in the neighborhood.
With over 20 years of horticultural and design experience, we provide our clients with unique garden design that closely aligns with their desired aesthetic, style of home, and natural surroundings. Our work ranges from containers to mixed borders, estate gardens to urban oases. In addition to fine pruning, seasonal color updates, seasonal cleanups, garden restoration, garden coaching, design & installation, we also specialize in garden maintenance.
Once your new or restored garden is in place, you’ll want to keep it looking beautiful with regular maintenance. Our clients rely upon and benefit from our team’s knowledge and expertise to assess the garden, create a game plan for its care, and implement it over time. Fine pruning techniques are used to whip neglected maples, rhododendrons, and other ornamentals into shape and keep them looking beautiful from season to season.
For those whose love of gardening exceeds the space that they have, let us tempt you with lush and lovely custom containers. Check out the container portfolio on our website for examples of containers that our clients love. We’re deeply invested in the care, maintenance, and betterment of our clients’ gardens as well as our community. That’s why we take the time to seek out local community organizations who share our values of preserving/protecting Puget Sound ecosystems, and enrich them through education and good old-fashioned hard work. We have partnered with New Start Community Garden (aka Shark Garden) by donating Fauntleroy Gardening Co. volunteer hours, and we look forward to expanding our local volunteer network as we continue to grow as a company.
We know that there are many landscaping companies out there and perhaps you’ve worked with one only to have been underwhelmed. Give FGC a call and let us show you what it means to work with a professional gardening company. Check us out on Instagram @fauntleroygardeningco, then head over to our website fauntleroygardeningco.com where you can see our portfolio and contact information. We look forward to meeting more of our West Seattle neighbors as we continue planting the seeds of great design.
We thank Fauntleroy Gardening Co. for sponsoring independent, community-collaborative neighborhood news via WSB; find our current sponsor team listed in directory format here; email patrick@wsbsales.com for info on joining the team!
We are exactly five months from the 2024 West Seattle Garden Tour, set for June 23. But you’re invited to daydream about that summer day now, with the announcement of this year’s poster-art winner:
Each year, West Seattle Garden Tour provides an opportunity for one talented artist to showcase their original artwork on tour marketing materials and to take home a $750 cash prize. We are pleased to announce Sammamish artist Pam Lustig as the winning artist for our 2024 tour.
Garden Pose (18”w x 24”h; watercolor and pen) will be featured on the 2024 West Seattle Garden Tour’s official poster and ticket book. Ms. Lustig will also receive a $750 cash prize. West Seattle Garden Tour will conduct a silent auction of the artwork beginning at the May 2024 West Seattle Art Walk (at Capers Home) and concluding on the day of the tour, Sunday, June 23, 2024. Bids will also be taken on tour day in one of the gardens from 9 am to 5 pm. Proceeds will benefit this year’s designated grant recipient nonprofit organizations.
Garden Pose, along with works by four West Seattle Garden Tour Art Competition finalists, will be on view at Capers Home during the West Seattle Art Walk, 5-8 pm, May 9.
The Garden Tour usually sells out; you can order tickets right now online (in-person retail sales start in mid-May).
The weather looks promising tomorrow for the next “work party” at the West Seattle Bee Garden on the north edge of High Point Commons Park. If you can spare a little time, 10 am-noon Sunday, you can make a big difference in getting the garden ready for the new year. Lisa from the Bee Garden says the work party “will be led by our wonderful volunteer Katherine M. I invite you to join her in continuing the work to reclaim the beds and pathways from weeds, making room for new plantings in the coming months. As usual, dress for the weather (chilly) and bring a bottle of water. We have many pairs of work gloves, weeding tools, some light snacks, and our gardening crews provide great company.” No pre-registration required – just show up (here’s a map).
Thanks to the gardener who emailed to share the news that the West Genesee P-Patch on the north end of The Junction is being closed and removed, with work expected to start for the long-planned adjacent housing development. We last wrote about the project more than a year ago; the 3/4-acre site at 4401 41st SW currently holds a parking lot and a former church school. City files now show a different prospective developer now with a plan for 26 townhomes, fewer than the 2022 proposal; county files do not show a finalized sale of the West Seattle Christian Church-owned property (we’re checking with the church on its status). But nonetheless, the garden is being cleared now through Monday. They’re inviting community members to help remove “vegetation, gardening supplies/ materials from our giving garden network to ensure produce & resources goes to good homes & NOT wasted.” The announcement continues: “1st Come; 1st Served! The garden is open to you from dawn till dusk to harvest & gather herbs/ tomato cages/ plant starts/ produce to donate/ burlap sacks/ corrugated metal sheeting on fence/ pavers/ wood/ etc. Please be respectful by returning the land into a safe open space. Do NOT leave behind debris, ‘pack it in – pack it out.’ Please bring your own pots, tools, gloves, supplies for transfers.” The church donated the streetside site for a P-Patch in 2009 – when it opened with a mayoral visit and celebration
Today is the holiday-season occasion known as Giving Tuesday – with the spotlight on donations. We feature giving opportunities year-round on WSB, including the list of donation drives in our West Seattle Holiday Guide. But we received two requests for Giving Tuesday mentions, both coincidentally on West Seattle’s Puget Ridge, so we’re sharing them with you:
SANISLO ELEMENTARY: The Sanislo PTA wants you to know that even a little gift will make a big difference for their small-but-mighty school:
Sanislo Elementary School is one of the smallest schools in Seattle Public Schools, and it is right here in the heart of West Seattle. We know our tiny school escaped the chopping block for this next year’s school consolidation push, but we are trying to prove that our tiny school (fewer than 200 students) is an important part of our community.
The Sanislo PTA is doing a GIVING TUESDAY fundraiser, and we are hoping for just $2,000 in donations from at least 30 donors. It’s a modest goal, but these funds go a long way with our small school. Our PTA funds everything from afterschool activities (improv classes, Ultimate Frisbee team, movie nights, and cultural celebrations) to basic classroom necessities (snacks, reading materials, classroom supplies).
We are a Title 1 school, which means a considerable majority of our students are from low-income families. Sanislo is certainly one of the under-resourced schools described by the district, but that doesn’t mean we can’t offer our students the support, community, and education they deserve. We believe that all students should have the opportunity to create, learn, and grow within the community that supports them.
So, help us support them. Anyone can contribute to our fundraiser at our Member Planet Donation site. memberplanet.com/campaign/sanislopta/givingtuesday_34 or through our Venmo Platform — @Sanislo-Pta .
Small schools are on borrowed time in Seattle, and we want to prove that because we have strong roots in our community and are willing to water our potential with our own generosity, our students will grow and thrive without uprooting them and transplanting them somewhere new.
The Sanislo PTA’s gardening analogy fits with the fact that the other fundraiser we were asked to share is for a garden so big it’s a public park – Puget Ridge Edible Park has a donation drive going today:
Our story started with a Seattle City Parks acquisition levy that passed with big voter support. Our Puget Ridge neighborhood organized to apply for a grant to acquire a 3/4 acre parcel that is one of the last standing undeveloped agriculture-based land. For the past 8 years this land has been regenerated through permaculture techniques to provide free, self-harvest food to the public.
We also distribute food through our farmstand and to food banks. It is our goal to share the methods we had set forth to make this project a reality. Organizing the community to have open communications on a variety of topics through an email group was the first step to our success. Finding a few motivated gardeners with some knowledge and background was not hard. Starting awareness events and work parties began to gel a core group capable of making great progress over the years of development. The park has been a learning center for local backyard gardeners as well as schools. We have also seen similar projects started from this project. Our only real financial support has been the Seed Money Campaign.
Puget Ridge Edible Park is at 18th/Brandon.
(WSB photo, West Seattle Bee Garden, last May)
Have some time to spare tomorrow and/or beyond? The West Seattle Bee Garden in High Point would love your help:
Work Party dates
Sunday, November 19th, 10 am-12 pm (this is a make-up for the one cancelled recently due to stormy weather)
Saturday, December 2nd, 10 am-12 pmFor these events, our focus is on weeding and other garden clean-up. We may begin some relocating of some plants to make room for new plantings in the late winter/early spring. Dress for the weather and bring a water bottle. A small snack will be available.
Plant committee
We expect to meet for the first time in early January to discuss what and where to install some new plants. So exciting! We’ll discuss keystone native plants, berries for more picking and eating engagement, other pollinator friendly plants as well as conduct research to identify plants suitable in the face of climate change. Please email volunteerwsbg@gmail.com if you’d like to be added to the Plant Committee communications.Lastly, we are trying to grow our volunteer support for the garden – email volunteerwsbg@gmail.com
For Sunday morning’s work party, just show up! The Bee Garden is on the north side of High Point Commons Park, Lanham/Graham.
Extra incentive to get those leaves off the sidewalk and away from storm drains – November is the month when Seattle Public Utilities allows you to set out up to 10 extra bags of yard waste each collection date, no extra charge. From the full announcement:
Extra yard waste must be contained either in kraft paper bags or placed in an extra container that is clearly marked to indicate it contains extra yard waste. Please make sure your extra yard waste collection bags or container only contain yard waste, not food waste. Fallen branches and twigs can be set out for extra collection as well. These can be tied into bundles up to 4 feet long by 2 feet in diameter and tied with fiber twine. Do not use wire, nylon cording, or plastic banding.
As commenters have pointed out in past years, if the leaves have fallen on greenspace – your lawn, garden, planting strip – you can just leave them there to decompose as mulch. Otherwise, bag ’em up and get ’em out!
(WSB file photo)
Again this Sunday, the West Seattle Bee Garden is inviting volunteer helpers to buzz on over!
Come join the Fall gardening fun at the West Seattle Bee Garden, Sunday, October 8th from 11 am-1 pm.
Maintenance work will continue to remove the horsetail, other weeds, and general garden cleanup. Dress for the weather, bring garden/work gloves and a water bottle. Light snacks will be available. This is a great opportunity to meet fellow community members interested and passionate about bees, plants and caring for a shared outdoor community space.
Can’t make this one? To sign up to learn about future volunteer opportunities, write to: volunteerwsbg@gmail.com
The West Seattle Bee Garden is located at the north side of High Point Commons Park, at Graham/Lanham.
(WSB file photo)
One of West Seattle’s unique treasures needs some autumn TLC this weekend, and you are invited to volunteer. Here’s the announcement we were asked to share:
Maintenance Day at the West Seattle Bee Garden:
This volunteer day will be this Sunday, September 24th from 11:00 AM to 1:00 PM. Tasks will include building raised garden beds, transferring soil into these built garden beds, cleaning the apiary, and pulling weeds. Please make sure to dress appropriately (gloves, rain gear, covered shoes) for the weather and bring any tools you think would be necessary for these tasks. The garden has a limited supply of tools.
Volunteers will get a chance to meet with WSBG founder Lauren to get to know the history of the garden. Light snacks and refreshments will be provided. Volunteers are encouraged to sign up using the following form to get a good head count to make sure there are enough refreshments.
The Bee Garden is on the north side of High Point Commons Park, at Graham/Lanham.
That house in North Admiral is the northernmost of 10 stops on this year’s West Seattle Garden Tour, happening until 5 pm today. It’s an annual celebration of not just what’s in bloom, but the creativity with which some gardeners have used the available space on their property. We visited a stop in the south, a home in Arbor Heights:
Homeowner Greg Olsen told us his daughter designed the garden around the house, which was built 12 years ago, and required some excavation so “not a plant was left on the site.” Now, beautiful collections of plants are everywhere, front, back, side:
Olsen said most of the open space originally was covered with sod – no budget left for landscaping – but over the past decade, with his daughter’s help, it’s been transformed.
He thinks they’re largely done – “until she has a new idea!” (Gardeners will identify with that sentiment – you’re never really “done.”)
Other stops on the tour this year are in the Alaska and Morgan Junction areas, Gatewood, Genesee Hill, the Arroyos, and Puget Ridge, where the Seattle Chinese Garden is featured. You can visit there today – or any other day – without a Garden Tour ticket book; it’s at the north end of the South Seattle College (WSB sponsor) campus at 6000 16th. WSGT organizers tell us they’re offering tour attendees tastings at the nearby Northwest Wine Academy, too.
One important aspect of the Garden Tour: Both through ticket-book sales and a silent auction of this year’s competition-winning artwork, it raises money to support other nonprofits. They’re still seeking applicants for next year’s grants – here’s how to apply.
Every month, HomeStreet Bank in The Junction (41st/Alaska, WSB sponsor) spotlights a different local business or nonprofit. The most-recent spotlight has been on, it’s the West Seattle Garden Tour, which is happening June 25th. Branch visitors are invited each month to enter a drawing for a giveaway from the spotlighted business/organization. On Tuesday afternoon, tour chair Jeff Daley (above center, with HomeStreet’s Joyce Leslie and Jessica Santana) visited the branch to draw the winner of two Tour tickets. You didn’t have to be present to win. HomeStreet also is selling tour tickets, or you can buy yours online here.
It’s a familiar sight if you walk, run, ride, or drive along SW Thistle in Gatewood – the garden outside Peace Lutheran Church (39th/Thistle). It’s not just for show – it’s part of the church’s RainWise installation, as are cisterns:
The church’s grounds are the setting for today’s RainWise info event – more West Seattle residents are eligible for rebates to lessen the load on our area’s stormwater system by capturing rainwater, so they’re getting the word out this spring. Even if you’re not, you’re welcome to stop by and talk about topics including wildlife habitat:
This is on until 1 pm – more info here. (And if you miss it, another round of RainWise events, in-person and online, is coming up soon – watch this page, and our calendar, for details..)
One of the 28 highlights on today’s West Seattle event list is continuing until 4 pm – the Giving Gardens plant giveaway at The Heron’s Nest. As explained in this preview, these are edible-plant starts, grown by volunteers; your part of the deal is to take them home, plant them, and donate produce to people in need.
Heron’s Nest Sprouts is not the only volunteer-powered project at The Heron’s Nest today – youth volunteers are focused on a drainage-related project today, as site restoration continues:
(You’re invited to Volunteer Land Stewardship events like this most Saturdays and Mondays – check this calendar.) One more reason to visit – one of The Heron’s Nest’s periodic outdoor markets is happening until 5 pm:
If you’ve never been to The Heron’s Nest (featured in this 2021 WSB report), it’s just uphill from West Marginal Way, south of the Duwamish Tribe Longhouse – here’s a map.
If you enjoy growing vegetables – and helping others – here’s a way to do both this spring. It’s a new effort called Heron’s Nest Sprouts, and it’s offering free plant starts later this month for would-be giving gardeners. Here’s how organizers explain what’s planned – and what’s been happening to prepare for it:
Feeding hungry people in Seattle involves a complex patchwork of programs and funding, but part of the work is simply growing vegetables! Seattle is dotted with “Giving Gardens,” many situated at our community P-Patch Gardens–including Delridge, High Point, Solstice, and others in West Seattle–and they are an important piece of this puzzle, growing fresh produce for those in need. Gardens in the Seattle Giving Gardens Network pledge their harvest for donation to community food programs. Last year, the growers generated 44,400 pounds of produce.
For 15 years, Ballard Sprouts volunteers have supported these gardeners, growing over 20,000 vegetable starts each spring and donating them to the Giving Gardeners. This year, a new sister project has emerged to supplement their efforts: Heron’s Nest Sprouts.
On Saturday, April 15 from 10 am to 4 pm, about a thousand plants will be available to pick up for the first time at Heron’s Nest, where 12 enthusiastic volunteers have been quietly growing seeds in the greenhouse since February. Pots of lettuce, chard, pac choy, mustard greens and kale will be available. Any gardeners interested in growing to donate to their community can come to get as many free starts as you need. Seattle Giving Garden Network will happily get you started in growing to give.
An added bonus to this happy occasion is the first Art Market of the year at Heron’s Nest that same day, giving space to Indigenous and other artists to display and sell their work. The public is invited to come visit Heron’s Nest, browse the art, and learn more about the Giving Garden program.
Heron’s Nest Sprouts hopes to continue next year and expand its production, because after next season, the Sprouts program will lose their Ballard location. The goal is to develop several new sites similar to Heron’s Nest Sprouts to continue the work going forward. Anyone with an interest in starting a Giving Garden, volunteering with Heron’s Nest, or who knows of an available greenhouse location elsewhere in the city should email the Seattle Giving Garden Network at info@sggn.org.
Heron’s Nest is located at 4818 15th SW [map]. Turn west onto Puget Way from West Marginal Way, south of the Duwamish Longhouse, and follow a short winding road to the entrance. The property is being restored by a passionate group of volunteers with the mission of community outdoor education. Besides the greenhouse, there are raised beds, a chicken run, the forested Duwamish Greenbelt, and space for community events such as the art market, outdoor movies, skill workshops, a tool library, and sustainable and traditional indigenous farming practices. The Heron’s Nest site is available by reservation for workshop space, classes, all-ages activities, cultural education, gatherings, meetings, music, art, and more. Check the Heron’s Nest events page for their updated calendar.
Heron’s Nest is accepting online donations to further their efforts, and volunteer help is appreciated as work continues at the site. Email HeronsNestOutdoor@gmail.com if you would like to volunteer or rent the space.
This year’s West Seattle Garden Tour is still more than two months away – June 25th – but in one important way, the WSGT is looking ahead to next year already. This announcement explains:
Each year the West Seattle Garden Tour, a 501(c)(3) organization, seeks out other non-profits whose goals fit our mission — to promote horticultural-based interests, educational projects, and arts programs — within West Seattle and neighboring communities, to provide them the funds they need to continue and complete their efforts. The purchase of garden tour and raffle tickets, along with the generous support of our sponsors, makes that goal possible.
For non-profit organizations interested in requesting a 2024 grant from the West Seattle Garden Tour, applications are now available. Application forms can be found on our website at westseattlegardentour.org/grants along with submission requirements and instructions. Completed applications are due to the West Seattle Garden Tour Grants Chair, Karen Fields, by July 15, 2023. Our Grants Committee will select 8-10 applicants out of all applications for furtheronsideration by our entire West Seattle Garden Tour Committee. Those selected 8-10 applicants will be notified by August 1 and will be scheduled to present their organization’s project at a committee meeting beginning in the fall. Non-profits who receive a grant from the garden tour will not be eligible to apply the following year, to allow more organizations to compete for funds.
P.S. If you want to see gorgeous gardens while contributing to the WSGT’s community giving, tickets for this year’s tour are on sale now via the WSGT website.
Friends of Roxhill Elementary can help you grow flowers and other plants this spring/summer, while you help them. Here’s the announcement. of this year’s Flower Power fundraiser:
We are partnering with Flower Power Fundraising to sell flower bulbs, kitchen garden herbs, sprouts, seeds and more to bring some joy to your home garden or window sill this spring.
Check out our fundraising website:
friendsofroxhill.fpfundraising.comThey have a variety of plants for every climate. If you know a Roxhill student, enter their name in the field “Give Credit For This Sale To” when you check out. The student with the most sales will get to pick any item from the Roxhill School Spirit Store.
How does it work?
Use the link above to choose from 50+ types of flower bulbs, seeds and accessories for your garden. Friends of Roxhill receives 50% of the profits from every order. Orders are shipped directly to the person placing the order starting April 1 (there is a $6.99 shipping fee).100% Grow Guarantee
● You can shop with confidence when selecting bulbs with a 100% grow guarantee. If you are dissatisfied with your purchase, Flower Power Fundraising will send a replacement.
● All of the flower bulbs offered are for planting in the spring season for summer blooms.
● Zones 7-10 are encouraged to place orders Mid-March to Early April for delivery and planting early-Mid April as soon as orders arrive.
● Seattle is in Zone 8. See website zone map for other locations.
● No shipping to Hawaii or Alaska.Order deadline is May 15, 2023. Thank you again for your continued support of Roxhill Elementary.
Congratulations to West Seattle Nursery for an award-winning run at the Northwest Flower and Garden Festival. The report is from WSN’s Marie McKinsey:
The crew at West Seattle Nursery is tired but happy today. Their display garden, “Shaded from Reality,” just won the Founder’s Cup – Best in Show Award at the Northwest Flower and Garden Festival. They also won the Beyond Beautiful Award from Fine Gardening Magazine, and a Gold Medal.
The garden featured a rustic greenhouse in the woods, built using reclaimed windows and other recycled materials. The structure was surrounded by shade-loving plants, including a stunning collection of hellebores, with a stream tumbling over rock near the entrance.
The Show opened on February 15th and closed last night.
It was held at the Convention Center downtown.
February showers bring thoughts of June flowers! Advance tickets are now available for this year’s West Seattle Garden Tour, and the WSGT has announced Brooke Borcherding‘s painting Magenta and Lemon as this year’s art contest winner:
Each year, West Seattle Garden Tour provides an opportunity for one talented artist to showcase her or his original artwork on tour marketing materials and to take home a $500 cash prize. We are pleased to announce Seattle artist Brooke Borcherding as the winner for our 2023 tour.
“Magenta and Lemon is inspired by everyday scenes. My work often illustrates a small slice of life in a unique way. This piece shows a variety of floral foliage against a wall depicted in my distinct style of energetic markmaking and bold color,” says Ms. Borcherding about this winning piece.
Magenta and Lemon (36”w x 36”h; acrylic) will be featured on the 2023 garden tour’s official poster and ticket book. Ms. Borcherding will also receive a $500 cash prize. West Seattle Garden Tour will conduct a silent auction of the artwork beginning at the May 2023 West Seattle Art Walk (at Capers Home store) and concluding on the day of the tour, Sunday, June 25, 2023. Bids will also be taken on tour day in one of the gardens from 9 am to 5 pm. Proceeds will benefit the year’s eight designated grant recipient non-profit organizations.
Magenta and Lemon, along with works by four West Seattle Garden Tour Art Competition finalists will be on view at Capers Home during the West Seattle Art Walk, 5-8 pm, May 11, 2023.
WSGT tickets are only on sale online for starters; in-person sales will be announced later.
That’s one of the 93 new flower baskets you’ll see hanging in The Junction starting in late May. It’s bigger and heavier than baskets used in past years; West Seattle Junction Association executive director Chris Mackay tells WSB the company that previously grew and maintained the baskets couldn’t do that this year, so they found a new grower – Van Wingerden Greenhouses in Blaine – and a local firm to keep them watered and maintained., Though the new baskets are bigger, they’ll require less water and less fertilizer. The Junction is again covering part of the costs by offering the baskets for “adoption,” $189 per basket – if you’re interested, go here. (The Junction is a nonprofit, so it’s a tax-deductible donation.)
It’s the only “edible park” in West Seattle – Puget Ridge Edible Park – and it’s right here on the peninsula. A recent arrival to Puget Ridge who has been chronicling her family’s journeys on YouTube, Melissa Smith, discovered PREP (18th SW and SW Brandon) and wanted to tell its story. After she sent us the link to the resulting video (embedded above), we asked her for the backstory about her storytelling:
Since summer 2022, we have been traveling by van across the West Coast from Santa Cruz, California, where I first converted a 1/10 acre property into a micro food forest. As former middle-school science teachers, my husband and I decided to pursue our dream to start a regenerative farm and are now on the road searching for where to buy land and immerse ourselves in a community with our farm and education center.
In late October, we decided to settle for the winter and looked around the Seattle area. We fell in love with West Seattle after experiencing the Halloween bash downtown. We found a furnished space to rent and have started to explore areas locally. I just so happened to walk by PREP and immediately fell in love. I met Stu [Hennessey] and asked if it would be possible to share all he and this community have done to create such a powerful place.
It is a dream to help others create similar spaces like PREP in their communities.
PREP itself is the fruition of a dream dating back into the ’00s, finally funded in the ’10s by the city Parks Levy Opportunity Fund, transformed and maintained by community volunteers,
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