SGGN Sprouts
SGGN Sprouts is composed of our two greenhouses whose growers generously plant and tend starts for our giving gardens. Located in Wallingford and Ballard, our greenhouses operate February through July.
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Maple Leaf Greenhouse Updates
The SGGN Sprouts project has been through many changes in the past years, as we anticipated the closure in 2024 of our long-time and beloved Ballard Sprouts location. Aside from finding new places to grow sprouts — in 2022, at Heron’s Nest in West Seattle, and in 2023, on Beacon Hill at Mid-Beacon Farm — we are delighted to have now secured a third site, in the Maple Leaf neighborhood, in partnership with Fairview Church and Child Center (844 NE 78th Street)! Fairview had an available greenhouse and enthusiastic support for the idea within their own community. We feel that this third location will enable our Sprouts project to more…
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Mike checking Seedlings
Our Sprouts program is one of our largest supportive programs at SGGN. Mike is doing great job at Herons Nest Greenhouse checking on the seedlings 🌱 Thank you to all the hardworking volunteers that come in everyday to the Ballard, Beacon Hill and Herons Nest Greenhouse to grow and give.
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Grow-a-Row
Home gardener or community gardener. Please consider growing a row for food sharing. Mark it, harvest, share to your nearest food pantry, soup kitchen or foodbank. Check out “Donation by Location” on our website for more information on where to bring fresh produce in your Seattle neighborhood.
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Mid-Beacon Hill Sprouts Pilot
We’re nearing completion of the pilot project at Mid-Beacon Farm Greenhouse. Thank you Heather Weiner for taking on the Sprouts project in a winning first year. There is much to celebrate in a big step forward to providing healthy food for our communities.
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Support Ballard Sprouts!
The Ballard Sprouts project provides a headstart to the Seattle Giving Gardeners by starting seeds in a greenhouse in mid-February. We transplant and tend the plants and then in April donate the plants to the Seattle Giving Gardeners. These gardeners will grow and harvest the food then donate the produce to the Seattle Food Banks or food needy people. These giving gardens are usually associated with a P-Patch but anyone can have a giving garden. All the funds for Ballard Sprouts come from the Seattle Giving Garden Network. Ballard Sprouts spends about $2500 each year and we donate around 20,000 plants to the Seattle Giving Gardeners. In 2023 we had a successful Sprouts pilot…
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Ballard Sprouts March 2023 News
Ballard Sprouts started planting seeds on Valentines day, 20 trays of 220 seeds each. During the very cold spell we kept the trays on the heating mats. Now we have planted another 20 trays and are just beginning to transplant the first seedlings into pots, 5 per pot.We will continue seeding, transplanting, fertilizing and caring for these plants until mid April when they will be donated to gardeners who are growing food for the Food Banks or food needy programs. Here are photos of volunteers planting seeds and Michael checking them one week later.Ballard Sprouts will no longer have access to its greenhouse in Ballard as of June 2024. We are…
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Sprouts 2022
Kit and Phoebe working away growing sprouts for giving gardeners who grow for donation.
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Harvesting SGGN’s Ballard Sprouts
Beautiful Collards, Kale, leafy greens and pak choy about to get their first big harvest. Thank you Ballard Sprouts.
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Sprouts Growing Tomatoes
On April 28th the Sprouts volunteers transplanted 1000 tomato plants and placed them in the hoop houses. We put netting around them to keep the rabbits out. For the last three weeks the weather has been so cold that we have mostly kept the hoop houses covered. Now, as the weather turns warmer, we can uncover the hoop houses to give the tomatoes some welcome sun and warmth. We still do not know what day we will distribute the tomato plants. We are monitoring them and the weather.
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2021 Ballad Sprouts grew more than 22000 vegetable starts!
Many of these were Spring and summer greens; others were warm weather crops such as squash — and 2900 of these were tomatoes. So how did your Giving Garden Starts produce in 2021? We were tired and are happy. Already we’re thinking about 2022. Within the next several weeks you should see a survey sponsored by the City of Seattle asking how the Sprouts grew for you in your Giving Gardens. But we can tell you from our own personal experience: those starts resulted in many tons of produce sent to food banks and to their clients, to shelters, and to kitchen missions. Seattle’s Gardeners: you’re great!
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May 18-20 Tomatoes (and last plant distribution of the year)
Confirmed: we’ll distribute tomatoes May 18-20, 2018 at the Ballard greenhouse location. We planted the seeds and this year they ALL sprouted: so please come and get them for their new homes. Some summer lettuces also remain. There’ll be a few boxes to use to take them to your giving garden, but it’s best to bring your own. And this will also be a good time to bring back those 4 inch square pots. (Preferably clean).
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Information about tomato sprouts (and other warm weather starts)
This distribution is TENTATIVELY scheduled mid to late May each year, if nighttime temperatures continue to be 50 degrees farenheit. We chose to plant a diverse variety this year: in part because our summer weather is uncertain. Here’s what they are: TOMATOES: in general, plant out when nighttime temperatures are reliably at or above 50 degrees F. Apply about ¼ c of complete fertilizer into the soil around each plant, add bone meal if the soil is acidic. Water when dry and fertilize monthly (some instructions recommend fertilizing twice a month). All seeds started between March 3 and March 22. Slicer: Beefsteak Determinate may be planted in a large pot…
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Greens, beans, squash, cucumbers & onions for pick up May 4th, 5th & 6th.
SGGN’s Sprouts second distribution for 2018’s growing season will be greens, beans, squash, cucumbers & onions over May 4th, 5th & 6th at the backyard greenhouse location in Ballard. Tomatoes will be ready approximately mid-May (when night time temperatures are consistently close to 50 degrees.)
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Tomatoes are a challenge in the PNW — we’ll provide starts, you grow them
SGGN will have tomato starts ready for the giving gardens, kitchen gardens, and food banks approximately mid-May, 2018. Despite the cold April weather, we have lots of starts, and lots of varieties including slicers (beefsteak, Money Maker, Siletz) cherry tomatoes: (red and yellow) paste and pasta varieties (San Marzano varieties). For those who’d like some tutoring before taking on the responsibility for new tomato starts, here’s one class: Growing Vegetables including Tomatoes, Sunday, April 22nd – 10:00 am – 11:00 am at Magnolia Garden Center. In this class, owner Chuck Flaharty will go over planting and fertilizing vegetables with a special emphasis on Tomato growing in our area, including best…
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2018 Sprouts ready April 6 for Giving Gardeners
To all the Giving Gardeners: plant starts are ready for pickup at the Ballard Greenhouse starting Friday April 6th at 9am and continuing until Sunday April 8th at 6pm. If you need to know where this is please ask! (We will not post the address on this public site.) There are 5 plants per pot. Take what you can grow and donate to food banks or food programs. Only take the pots, leave the trays. It is best to bring a box to transport your pots. Please return the pots and labels back for our reuse. Please be sure to fill in the pickup sheet in the plastic box with…
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Seed Distribution for Giving Gardeners February 10 2018
at the Spring Gather. The Spring Gather will be near the Immaculate P Patch on Capital Hill in a room in the Lake Washington Girls Middle School. We are grateful that the Middle School has made space available for this event. Address: 810 18th Avenue Date and Time: Saturday, Feb 10th, 2018: 10 AM to Noon We will have seeds for giving gardeners available for pickup at that time. There will not be another distribution of seeds until the Starts are distributed by the Sprouts program in Ballard (most likely some time in early April until May.) If you are responsible for a Giving Garden but cannot attend the Saturday…
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Three Greenhouses
The Ballard Sprouts, South Park’s Providence Regina House Food Bank, and a small back yard greenhouse grew more than ten thousand starts for Seattle’s Giving Gardens. 2017 should be a very good year. Thank you to all of the volunteers who planted, nurtured, transplanted and transported these wonderful plants.
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2017’s STARTS seeded by Sprouts volunteers
Volunteers have seeded lettuce, chard, tomatoes, peppers, kale and Asian greens for distribution to Seattle Giving Gardeners. Later there’ll be summer squash and cucumbers. When will these be ready to distribute? It depends upon the weather: our greenhouses are passive greenhouses but cozy, even on our snowy days. We’ll send a notice through the city of Seattle’s listserve when they’re ready. Hint: perhaps late March or early April for the cooler weather crops; May for warmer weather crops. And THANK YOU to the volunteers who make this happen every Spring.
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SGGN Sprouts – Learn about our greenhouses!
Each February, community volunteers refresh their seed-sowing skills and begin planting lettuces, kales, beans, tomatoes, peppers, and other vegetable varieties that grow well in Seattle. As successions of seeds are sown in the greenhouses, winter blankets of burlap and leaves are removed from Giving Gardens in the city’s P-Patches. Starts continue to leave the greenhouse through late May and are distributed to waiting Giving Gardens across Seattle. The seedlings help extend the growing season and increase harvests, allowing more produce to be donated to food banks, shelters, and meal programs. Vegetable varieties are tailored to food bank requests and ensure that different cultural communities receive familiar and favorite foods. We…
