Longfellow Creek Garden update, and a request for help
That’s a recent photo of Longfellow Creek Garden, the small organic garden/farm that is taking shape in North Delridge (first reported here last month). Zach Zink wrote us a while back inviting people to come help with getting LCG in shape, and got quite a response. Now he’s asking for help with a new challenge for this nonprofit operation: “We are in need of a certified plumber to install a few pieces of equipment so we can have an irrigation faucet at the Garden. Our budget is pretty low this year, and getting water installed is going to run us between 500 and 700 dollars. Saving on labor would help us out to the tune of 200 dollars!” If you can help or know someone who might be able to, e-mail Zach at zach@growingwashington.org.
Great day for West Seattle gardening – consider these offers
First, this just in from the Admiral-area branch of the city library system, announcing a seed exchange:
Do you have extra garden seeds? Don’t let them go to waste! Bring them to the West Seattle Library in a sealed, labeled envelope, and take home someone else’s extra seeds! The seed exchange is happening from now until the end of May.
And the city’s offering compost bins at reduced prices – read on for full details:Read More
You’re invited to a big party at “smallest certified organic garden”
Don’t let the tarp fool you — underneath it you’ll find part of the area’s “smallest certified organic garden,” which stretches across two plots, and into a greenhouse, on a site along SW Avalon (map).
This is part of Transitional Resources, whose invitation to visit in advance of their “Garden Party” this Saturday provided us with another one of those “been in West Seattle 17 years but had NO IDEA this was here” moments. Growing food and herbs at this site is a sideline for an organization that provides residential and drop-in services for more than 100 people every month who are working on having productive lives while dealing with mental illness. (Read more about TR here.) It saves taxpayers big bucks — the cost for someone to live and work here is a fraction of state or hospital institutionalization — but operates on a shoestring. (As TR’s Karyn Mikkelsen explains, “Without TR, clients would have fewer options and more would remain incarcerated, hospitalized or homeless, all at a high expense to society in loss of creativity and productivity, not to mention the huge financial expense of incarceration and hospitalization. The average annual cost of providing outpatient case management services to a client is $4,657. One year in the hospital or jail costs $146,000.”) To raise awareness and $, they’re inviting community members to come spend the day helping in the garden — and enjoying food prepared by a well-known local chef — read on:Read More
West Seattle Saturday scenes: Boating, gardening …
A little cruel that the sun finally showed up in the evening of “Opening Day” — but boaters braved the drizzly day anyway – we spotted these sailboats (and several others) coming out of the bay @ Don Armeni around mid-afternoon, while the schpritz (as we call it) dripped on down. Also seen around West Seattle:
West Seattle was the center of the plant-sale universe today, with several sales under way – that picture and the one below are from the Furry Faces Foundation animal-rescue fundraiser in the courtyard next to Hotwire Coffee (WSB sponsor) – $20 gets you a hanging basket, you pick the plants and they’re assembled for you on-site. This sale continues tomorrow, 10 am-4 pm.
If you’re not intimately familiar with Junction geography, the sale site is at California/Genesee, just a few blocks northeast of 44th/Alaska, where you’ll find two big events tomorrow: West Seattle Farmers’ Market (10 am-2 pm) and the first-ever Sustainable West Seattle Festival (10 am-3 pm, full program here) — we’ll be at the latter with West Seattle Community Garage Sale Day (next Saturday!) info and blogging tips for anyone who’s been thinking about starting one.
Welcoming a new WSB sponsor: Garden coach Julie Hale
It’s a WSB tradition to tell you about new sponsors when their ads start running, so we want to introduce you tonight to West Seattle-based garden coach Julie Hale, who’s offering her services just in time for the kickoff of spring gardening season. Julie’s career in horticulture has spanned more than twenty years. For much of that time, she owned a successful garden management and container-design business, with a clientele located primarily on the Eastside. In recent years, her focus has shifted to working one-on-one with clients in their own gardens. She offers a range of horticultural services, including general consulting, plant selection and placement advice, hands-on lessons in pruning techniques, formulation of seasonal maintenance plans, and container design and installation. She’s an active member of PlantAmnesty, a local educational nonprofit group dedicated to proper pruning and better gardening practices. She lives and gardens in West Seattle, and enjoys the opportunity to work locally with her neighbors and fellow West Seattleites! You can reach her by calling 206/351-8098 or e-mailing juliehale@q.com. We thank Julie for becoming a WSB sponsor; if you’re thinking about joining her and our other sponsors, here’s the place to start.
Free organic produce – with just one catch
That’s Longfellow Creek Farm — a quarter-acre at 2311 SW Myrtle (just off Delridge; map) where Growing Washington is inviting you to a “community-garden restoration work party” noon-4 pm April 19. Help is needed raking leaves, clipping brambles, spreading mulch, weed-whacking, and painting. The goal is to restore the site into a “functioning, food-producing garden,” and volunteers will be first in line for free organic produce — once it’s grown. They’d like you to let them know you’ll be there; register during the next week by using the contact info here.
Another sign that gardening season is about to bloom
Never mind the April chill, here’s news to warm a gardener’s heart: The schedule’s in for West Seattle-area Master Gardener clinics: The MGs will be at McClendon’s (White Center but close enough to WS!) 10 am-2 pm Saturdays starting this weekend — April 5-Sept. 13, and they’ll be at the West Seattle Farmers’ Market 10 am-2 pm Sundays, April 27-Sept. 14. They’re there to answer your home-gardening questions or help you identify specimens. The Master Gardeners’ annual citywide plant sale is at the Center for Urban Horticulture, May 5-6; West Seattle has many great plant sales in the months ahead too, and you’ll find them on our Events list page, along with other events such as the annual West Seattle Garden Tour.
Free plants!
Too good not to share immediately (the deadline to apply is Friday) – someone in West Seattle just might be perfect:Read More
Dig in
Even as we prepare to step into fall, one of the most beautiful events of every WS summer needs you – and asked us to share this one more time:Read More
From the “those blog people will post ANYTHING, won’t they” file
A tongue-in-cheek note accompanied the photo of recently harvested carrots from a Gatewood garden …
The e-mail subject line: AMAZING WEST SEATTLE CARROT. The text follows. Perhaps a flood of comments from insistent carrot lovers will force the gardeners to bask in their deserved spotlight.
We just pulled this pair of intertwined carrots from our garden in Gatewood and thought you should know about them. Feel free to publish this incredible photo on your blog — we have decided to keep it in the public domain and not pursue monetary rewards. In fact we humbly wish to remain anonymous.
Plum job
–
That could be the fruit from your overladen trees, filling a car and eventually bellies, rather than rotting in your yard or on your sidewalk. Aviva sent us the photo and this explanation:
Got Fruit?
We’ve got pickers! It’s that time of year again when neighborhood fruit trees are laden with ripe pears, apples, and plums. Perhaps you’ve seen a tree in your neighborhood with fruit starting to fall. Maybe you even own one of those trees, but never get around to getting the ladder out to pick, and the canner out to make plum preserves.
This year, consider contacting the Community Fruit Tree Harvest, an organization which matches volunteer harvesters with fruit tree owners. Fruit is picked and delivered to organizations such as the West Seattle Food Bank.
Fruit should be pesticide-free, worm-free, and on the tree. If you know of a tree, would like to pick, or know of a organization in West Seattle who could benefit from the harvest, contact aviva@duwamish.net or info@lawnandgardenhotline.org.
A garden to plant yourself in
They put on what is literally one of West Seattle’s most beautiful events of the summer … and just a few weeks after their latest success, they’re already looking toward next summer, with an eye on you and your talents. Click ahead to hear from the people behind the WS Garden Tour:Read More
WS weekend lineup: Ginormous gobs o’ fun
Bite Schmite; not a single reason to leave West Seattle this weekend. Harry Potter on campus! Parade! Free outdoor movie! Belly dancing! The WS Garden Tour! And that’s only the beginning (click ahead):Read More
Stop and smell the roses (and the lavender, and …)
Great news for garden lovers — organizers tell us tickets are still left for this weekend’s West Seattle Garden Tour. At your leisure, as long as it’s between 9 am and 5 pm Sunday, you will get to go gawk at “an eclectic mix of eight residential gardens” and hear from guest lecturer Marianne Binetti. You can even buy tickets online if you do it by tomorrow, or you can get tix in person up through tour day at a variety of locations including ArtsWest, West Seattle Nursery, Capers, True Value, and Metro Market.
Farmers’ Market fun find
If you see this before the Farmers’ Market closes @ 2 pm: the produce/plants booth at the SE corner has organic purple green onions, $2/bunch. And if you’re looking for a present for a mom who gardens, more booths than ever have plants today — though our fave remains Langley Fine Gardens and its often-unusual offerings.
| 2 COMMENTS