Seattle Community Gardening History Project

The bulldozers are closin' in now o n my back garden No one can explain why I came to be chosen The bulldozers are closin' in They've ripped up all the trees Soon the lorries will be zooming through me  cabbages and peas (The Motorway Song, Black Family) Seattle's p-patchers and community gardeners have often witnessed bulldozers closing in, both metaphorically and in reality. Threats to these edens, external and internal, have served to push those engaged in peaceful pursuits to take action, organize, fundraise, and learn to work together for common goals. Here are some of the stories: Bradner Gardens: Protecting Parks Bradner Gardens was originally set up by the City of Seattle to provide space for Mien refugees from Laos in the 1980s. A few years later, the Mount Baker garden overcame a serious threat. Long-time gardener and activist Joyce Moty described how the neighborhood banded together to protest the city’s decision to sell the land to a housing developer in the...

Sundial at Bradner Gardens Park. An old landfill, an abandoned airstrip, reclaimed wetlands, a public utility right-of-way, the top of a parking garage! All these are bits of the urban landscape repurposed for the growing of fruits, vegetables, and flowers. One of the fascinating aspects of Seattle's community gardens is the variety of landscapes adapted for their use. Whether "interim" use or permanent, the gardens and p-patches have managed to find homes in odd and interesting places. In its own way, the story of locating gardens is one of waste not, want not. Dumping grounds Several p-patches have found a home on old dump sites. Dumps, both sanctioned and not, have typically been sited on undesirable land -- low-lying and perhaps swampy ground that is unsuitable for building. Such was the huge municipal dump and later landfill at Interbay, as well as the Montlake landfill, the latter on land reclaimed after the lowering of Lake Washington in 1916. Today the Interbay P-...

"Inch by inch, row by row, someone bless these seeds I sow."  (The Garden Song, David Mallett) Today the landscape of Seattle is dotted with tiny gardens called P-patches, as well as several larger urban farms and orchards. Rainier Valley is no exception; a number of vacant lots and underutilized spaces have been converted to meet the growing desire for freshly-grown produce and the need for food security. Some of these spaces are dedicated to the newer groups of immigrants and refugees who have settled in the valley. The City of Seattle, through its P-patch program, and the Seattle Housing Authority have made concerted efforts to provide gardening space for newcomers. Many of these families come from farming backgrounds and a space to plant and harvest familiar foods is a way to ease the transition to their new home.  Rainier Valley also boasts a demonstration orchard in Hillman City, as well as the Rainier Beach Urban Farm and Wetland, developed on the site of the city’s ol...