Goings on at the Ballinger Neighborhood Garden

Ballinger Community Garden, July 2011

By Joyce Lingerfelt

In spite of the weather, our gardeners have already harvested lettuce, peas, peapods, turnips, beets, chard, kale, broccoli, strawberries and a variety of herbs. 

One of the gardeners mixed sweet peas in with her peapods and the fragrance spreads all over the garden.

Wildlife sightings include a pileated woodpecker feeding off an old stump, a large group of crows in aerial combat with a hawk. It went on for close to an hour. We think that the crows have nests that they are protecting. Three of us actually saw a humming bird take a bath in a small spray of water.  

We now have close to 1,000 square feet of space dedicated to the food bank. This is planted mostly in beans, with some squash, carrots and onions.

The garden is such a lively place that some of us are bringing food to share and having our dinner there on Wednesday nights from 6pm to 8pm.  We hope to have more gardeners join us.

Diggin’ Shoreline is going to do a presentation Saturday July 23 from 10an to noon on different aspects of urban gardening. 

The presentation will be given in a classroom of Mars Hill Church, where the Ballinger Garden is located.  2800 NE 200th Ave, Shoreline WA 98155.

The garden has grown enormously since its beginnings on a weedy hillside behind an empty elementary school.