New Community Garden at Calvin Presbyterian bears bumper crop

Ribbon Cutting Tuesday, July 5 at 6 pm in the garden with members of the Shoreline City Council, the Mayor, and members of the Calvin Garden community.

by Anne-Marie Heckt, Manager, Community Garden at Calvin

If you drive by the corner of Third Northwest and Richmond Beach Road regularly, you may have noticed the vegetable beds bursting with snap pea blossoms. Maybe you've seen a volunteer pulling a giant radish, or a group of third grade girls planting tiny carrot seeds. The seeds may be a bit randomly planted, the girls may do more running and rolling down the hill than planting, and the concrete border may be only half done, but this garden is growing.

In February, a coalition of volunteers broke ground on a new community vegetable garden, hoping to lease out plots to the local community and encourage growing and eating healthy food. The plots have filled slowly with a variety of gardeners, but in the meantime, volunteers have sown crops for the foodbank: a handful of lettuce here, a few rows of radishes there. Imagine their surprise when the first picking yielded ten gallon bags of mixed greens, soon to become fifteen per week.

A rich weaving of relationships has sprouted as well, with the City of Shoreline and Hopelink partnering with the managers from Calvin Presbyterian. Several regular volunteers belong to the church, but many are from the local community. One group of families from Madrona K-8 school in Edmonds has adopted a plot to grow for the foodbank, another gardener has taken on an extra plot for Hopelink in addition to his own, and a helpful renter across the street comes over with her children once a week to help with the watering.

Over 90 pounds of organic produce have been delivered to Hopelink since mid-May.

The youth at Calvin made the garden their first stop for a summer of local service projects, and a number of retirees helped dig, break ground and haul turf at the first work day. Teens have flexed their muscles with hauling mulch, and the head pastor wielded a pick-axe to break up compacted ground for the raspberry patch alongside elders and children.

One thing is certain, things and people will continue to grow in the garden at the corner of Third and Richmond Beach NW. Stop by and say hi - or come on a Monday afternoon and we'll put you to work picking peas for the food bank, or planting a crooked row of seeds, or two.

If you want to rent a plot the fee is minimal. Stop by and chat with us, leave your contact info with the church secretary, 206-542-6181, or send at email attention: Anne-Marie, the garden manager.

Calvin Presbyterian is located at 18826 3rd Avenue, Shoreline, WA 98177.  The Garden is on the corner of 3rd NW and Richmond Beach Road.