It’s market garden day in Seattle

It’s market garden day in Seattle. Wendy and her husband (behind the lens) and their Italian greyhound Sophia walk to the garden in their neighborhood to buy organic vegetables and fresh flowers for the week.

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HGxwAdayxfQ]

There are two kinds of community gardens in Seattle – a “p-patch” is a garden plot a resident can rent for their own gardening use for the year, a “market garden” plot is reserved for cultivation by low-income residents living in one of the Seattle Housing Authorities “garden” communities. Garden communities is a national term that was sourced from affordable housing communities that supported agriculture for the sustenance of its residents.

In Seattle you can buy a subscription every year to get a guaranteed weekly bag (or two) of vegetables on a certain day of the week based on that garden’s harvest schedule. It can cost several hundred dollars for the year, all due in advance. If you can’t find a family or two to split your CSA share with, going to the garden on its Farm Stand Day is a way to stock up in quantities and with the kinds of produce YOU will enjoy. Not everyone likes beets.
CSA = Community Supported Agriculture

The farm stand concept was tested lightly in 2008 and went into full effect beginning in July of 2009, at least in High Point in West Seattle. There are market gardens in several other communities in Seattle, Wendy was a strong supporter of the farm stand concept. She hates beets and has a limit as to how many vegetables she can eat and hates to waste food by letting it spoil.

Meet High Point’s neighborhood farmer, Hien Nguyen
More about the produce grown in Seattle’s market gardens
More about Seattle Market Gardens or volunteer
Get your own p-patch plot in a community garden near you

Interested in living within walking distance of a market garden? Check out these current High Point homes for sale. Wendy bills herself as the “Resident Green Agent” in High Point. She is a Built Green Certified Professional Real Estate Agent living in a Built Green Certified Home in a Built Green Certified Community. That is called a triple play! Wendy will talk more about what living “Built Green” is all about in a future episode.

Background info:
Wendy was a p-patch gardener from 2000 until 2005 and served on the Board of Directors of P-Patch Trust for three years, 2004-2007. She began to garden at home on her 1/4 acre lot until she and her husband sold the too-much-work house and land and moved to a townhome up the hill in the Built Green Certified Community of High Point. Now Wendy gardens in containers quite successfully, both edibles and ornamentals in addition to several native plant varieties.

See “Are you playing with a full deck?” for Wendy’s experience in converting from a 1/4 acre lot with garden and native plants to a townhome successfully and happily.

This is Wendy’s 2nd video blog (vlog) post. She and her husband Steve are still getting the hang of their equipment and editing software – and until they can learn to edit their clips together you will have to wait in suspense for their weekly visit to the West Seattle Farmers Market. She also is trying to learn how to think and speak at the same time (these cuts are first takes and not rehearsed outside of 4 am wakefulness) and Wendy’s noticed she seems to scowl when she thinks. She hates how her face pulls in these videos. She has vowed to work on this – along with Natalie Coughlin, Olympic Gold Medalist swimmer currently competing on Dancing with the Stars, who also pulls her face when she concentrates, especially when underwater.

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