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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…
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2018’s Starts – looking good
We are happy that Spring is near — here’s an advance peek at the work of our dedicated volunteers. Estimated time until they’re ready for pickup: another 4-6 weeks (depending on the weather, of course!)
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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…
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SHOULD I pick those squash?
If you were growing summer squash: you know the season is over and that it’s time to be thinking about pulling those vines and composting them. My own winter squash, however, still have nice looking fruit and some decent looking leaves. When to harvest, and how to ensure long shelf life for the food bank clients? Fortunately, Territorial’s blog just…
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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…
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Resources — about compost
And, in particular, information about using coffee grounds in compost can be found at the WSU website.
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Wow — Over 12000 starts provided to giving gardens this year
Just in time for the Return of Summer Weather — Happy Growing every one
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Free soil testing for King County residents
The King County Conservation District will process up to five free soil tests (lifetime, per address.) To learn more (including how to send the samples and how to take a sample) contact the district. Worried about heavy metals? The Department of Ecology has an interactive webpage to check services available at your specific address.
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Permaculture education – Beacon Food Forest
We recently heard about these coming classes: Date: Saturday, Feb. 27, 2016 From 2 p.m. until 4 p.m. (Pre Registration Required) Early season vegetable seeds and plant cuttings propagation. Start some cool weather veggies, and start fruit shrubs from cuttings. Bring some home! For more info: http://beaconfoodforest.org/education/classes/start-your-garden-feb-2016/ – and – Fruit Tree Pruning with City Fruit and BFF Date: Sunday,…
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Late Tomato Blight can break the gardener’s heart
I haven’t seen it in my own gardens yet (and hope that I don’t this year, especially since it’s been so hot) but we DID just have some rain! There’s great advice at the garden hotline!
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A Giving Gardeners Plea: Dealing with Club Root (aka slime mold)
A Giving Gardener (who volunteers at several gardens) wanted to alert everyone to the challenge of club root. The gardener sent the pictures which we’ve uploaded and also shared research and experience with us. Susceptible crops include but are not limited to: rapeseed, mustards, brassicas, broccolis, the –chois, turnips, radishes, cauliflower, kale … We also asked the broader community what…
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The “New Normal…
Today’s Seattle Times had an interesting article by Janet I. Tu, “‘New normal’ Food banks much busier, despite better economy” that talks about the increasing number of visits to local food banks. While a lot of people think the economy has mostly recovered during last few years, this article provides some alarming statistics including: “In the Seattle area, some food…
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Making Compost is Simple? Not!
Making compost is simple: vegetable waste + water+ heat = rot and (eventually) soil. The tricky part comes when we realize that what we put into the compost doesn’t always rot into something that’s healthy. ( School compost programs should think carefully about how to compost: see for example compost.css.cornell.edu/faq.html for examples of ways that compost can become a problem.)…
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Where, Oh Where to plant the kale?
Planning Garden Beds: Oh, Where Oh, Where to Plant: I like talking with neighbors about their plants — I like the sense of community, and it gives me a chance to prevent problems in my own garden. Recently, a neighbor was telling me about club root in her garden. Since I don’t want club root in my garden, her story…
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Food and Faith Programs
We’ve met involved gardeners with the food and faith initiative these last couple of years. Sometimes the folks are growing food for the public food banks, sometimes supporting their own kitchen-based feeding programs. More information about the these groups (and resources for starting or for maintaining your own) can be found on Seattle Tilth’s site. The Food and Faith Initiative…
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GROW provides fiscal sponsorship for SGGN
GROW (formerly the P-patch trust) has served as a fiscal sponsor for SGGN. We are so grateful for this help. (Accounting n’ stuff isn’t our strongest suit: we’re gardeners at heart. So GROW’s help has been very welcome.) Want to know more about them? Start with the Seattle Foundation’s review. Want to donate? Funds should be sent to the P…
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Saving Vegetable Seeds
While doing the last of the fall clean-up (pulling down vines and pulling out old plants for the compost bin) I am finding “mature” heirlooms (they’ve set seed!) What to do? Photo: red chard gone to seed; onion seed head (white star-shape in center.) 1. Pea and bean: harvest dried pods from plants (or pull them off and dry indoors…
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Theft from P-Patches
Safety, Vandalism, Theft in the Garden was recently shared online by P-Patch@talk2.seattle.gov which hosted a very active discussion by gardeners about theft of veggies: carefully nurtured tomatoes, carrots, and fennel bulbs being some of what was stolen; also anything copper or brass (useful for recyclers), themometers, ladders, and gardening tools. Gardeners shared strategies: physical barriers (a short two foot fence; planting the desirable…
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El Nino and planting fall/winter crops
After this unusually warm summer, my gardening partners at our Giving Garden plot have been wondering how long the warm weather is going to last. While I usually plant a crop of lettuces, chard, kale and collards for the fall, I haven’t had much success growing year round. This year might be different though thanks to El Nino! Cliff Mass,…
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Preventing Problems from pests
Believe me: I’ve had ample opportunity to test advice about pests in the last couple of years. First: be cautious: even if some things are considered “organic” they aren’t necessarily ok for frogs or fish populations. And some proposed solutions (such as those involving tanglefoot products) kill all insects including beneficial insects that control problem insects. 1. Start out right: grow in soil…
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Washington State University advice for veggie gardeners
Evidence based gardening information and downloadable handouts and pamphlets http://gardening.wsu.edu/
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Too late for Autumn starts?
South Park’s greenhouse usually hands out garden starts to our food bank clients in September. (These have been chards, kales, winter lettuces and herbs to grow on a windowsill). This year, because of the heat & water challenges I’ve deferred beginning these until August 2. I know that I’ll need to have these as big as possible before the cold…
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Planting quantity verse harvest quantity
Ever wonder how much produce your plot will produce when you plant seeds or seedlings? Diane Brooks from Delridge Giving Gardens sent us the results from their garden last year. Here’s some numbers from Delridge P-Patch Giving Garden that might help new gardens understand what they can expect from their plantings. The list is the plant, start or seed quantity…
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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…
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P-Patches in Seattle
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Interbay Giving Garden story on video!