P-Patch Community Gardens

Interbay

One Hundred Gardeners Strong

In the mid seventies, just as community gardens started in Seattle, the Interbay P-Patchers began gardening on a thick clay cap of an old land fill between Queen Anne and Magnolia. The site was large, in the middle of a wasteland; phantom dumping was common; but, so were pheasants, quail, and songbirds. The sound of the rail yard was always near. The drainage on the clay was poor, but the gardeners were a hearty bunch, hauling mountains of organic materials to build up their soils.

Then came the eighties. A golf course was planned for "their" land. The newspapers blasted banners of golfing around the zucchini dogleg as the garden was in the way of the golf course. The gardeners together, one hundred strong, asked the City fathers to save an acre for their gardens when the golf course was eventually built. "Yes," the City fathers said, "Just don't bring us any more zucchini, please!" And so an acre was set aside for gardening and ten years snuck by.

Then came the nineties, and visions of golf came ever nearer. The City plan for the golf course was drawn; the gardens had to move! Bulldozers invaded the peaceful turf of Interbay. Gardeners, one hundred strong, moved plants to safety. As soon as the new garden site was ready with an army of wheelbarrows, they moved precious soil, lovingly built over many years, and plants collected from loved ones were then planted afresh in the "New Interbay P-Patch". Garden slaves, garden gnomes, garden heroes and heroines, garden fairies worked all through the summer of 1992 to make themselves a new home. A tool shed, always dreamed of, became a reality. A Food Bank collection station was built to hold the bounty of donations for delivery to those in need. Real compost bins graced the site. Fruit trees formed the foundation of an urban orchard.

And today the Interbay P-Patch is a place of peace, beauty and productivity, designed and built by the many who cared passionately about preserving a place to grow food and friends! The year 2000 is not far away. Will they be a true Seattle garden? Selling lattes from their tool shed?