History of Our Garden

Puyallup’s community gardens offer opportunities for growth

Joan Cronk / for The Herald


In 1980, the family of a man referred to as Farmer Brown donated a approximately 17.5 acres of land to the city of Puyallup, said Puyallup Parks and Recreation Manager Dick Weber.

Brown was known to be a quiet man, married to an American Indian, and they had no children.

“He didn’t have much to say,” Weber said, adding that when Brown talked, his intelligence shone through. During harvest time, the Canadian Indians came to the Brown farm to work. Brown and his wife housed them in a shelter on the property and they all lived together during harvest season. When Brown deeded the ground to the city, he stipulated the ground had to be used for either parks or a cemetery.

Thanks to that generous gift, passionate gardeners in Puyallup who were looking for a spot to dig in the dirt and grow fabulous vegetables now have that opportunity.
Seattle has been doing it for years, but the Puyallup valley folks are just now getting on board with community gardens. The Brown tract of ground sat vacant for years, but this year Kathy Powell took up the reins of the project and ran with it. The response has been huge and unexpected, Powell said.

Powell and her husband live in an area of Puyallup that is peppered with trees and moss, so she was looking for somewhere she could fill her need to dig in the dirt.

Their research found no local community gardens, so they signed up for one in Seattle. When they started attending the Puyallup Parks and Recreation meetings, they heard of this plot of ground in Puyallup that was donated more than 20 years ago.

Powell kept nudging the department and finally snagged someone who could till the area. She set 2009 as her target date to get folks involved.

Powell is a Master Gardener herself, and so roped others from her group into the project. With the help of Puyallup Parks and Rec Department, Powell rustled up a bunch of bookmarks advertising the fact that garden spaces were available. Suddenly they had a ball game. All of the 12 plots at Farmer Brown’s garden spot are now rented. Six of the plots are 10-by-10 feet and six are 10-by-20 feet. The rate for residents of Puyallup is $15 a plot and $17.25 for non-residents for the smaller plots and $20 and $23 for the larger ones. The planting season runs from May 1 through mid-October.

“The vision,” said Powell, “is to offer education there, not just for the gardeners, but for other members of the community. There is a bigger picture for the Brown farm.”

A small area is used for the gardens, but other space is available for these larger projects.

Randy Hynek, Sumner City Council member, spearheaded their community garden project in Sumner.

“When I first got on the council, there was a piece of property the City had that I thought would be a nice community garden,” said Hynek.

He spent some time driving around with one of the city shop guys who showed him every single piece of property the city owned. They found a tract the city owned and had been leasing for 20 years as a horse pasture. Hynek went to the council and got the go-ahead.

That piece of ground is on Valley Avenue East, adjacent to Hesselgrave Bus Service. Stacy Ota of Ota Farms rototilled it for them. Sumner Tractor also donated time and equipment to help on the project. When folks rent a plot at the community garden located on Valley Avenue behind Christ the King Lutheran Church, they will have access to this other space as well. That area will include corn and pumpkins and gardeners from the community garden can share in the bounty by donating just a little bit of time in the garden, such as weeding or planting.

The area behind Christ the King Church used to be a sheep farm. This garden area is 1.2 acres. Each plot is 6-by-12 and rents for $10 for the season. Fifty-one plots have been leased so far.

The sudden interest in growing vegetables seems to stem from the price of food and the fact that people are paying a great deal of attention to products grown organically.

Hynek said they could have waited until the conditions at the sheep pasture garden were perfect, but they wanted to get started. For that garden area, Windmill Gardens donated a tractor with a rototiller and the community has been generous with donations.

Joan Turnbull of Sumner is a master gardener and is over the moon with excitement about the gardens. “A lot of people have been gardeners for years and don’t have a space for vegetables,” she said.

On a recent Saturday at the Puyallup Farmer’s Market, as Powell passed out her bookmarks to advertise the Farmer Brown garden plots that were available, she met a woman who said she had been looking for just that opportunity.

“My husband and I have been praying for this,” said the future gardener. “You are an answer to our prayers.”

Powell said that comment and the woman’s excitement made all her efforts worthwhile.

Reach freelance reporter Joan Cronk by e-mail at editor@puyallupherald.com.

Garden Clean-Up with Parks and Recreation Appreciation Day, April 18th

Bring your gloves and tools and...

GET BROWN AND DIRTY!

At Brown Property, our very own Puyallup Community Garden.

When: April 18th, 2009

Time: 9 a.m. to 12 p.m.

Contact: Puyallup's Park and Recreation for more information at: 253-841-5457 or email Jen at: puyallup.community.garden@gmail.com

Address: 1111 19th Ave SW, Puyallup, WA

For more information on registering for your own garden plot, visit Parks and Recreation's garden website.

August Garden Potluck Pictures

Garden plot holders had a wonderful time gathering to talk about this season's positives and negatives, get to know each other better, eat delicious food from the garden, roast some hot dogs, and pull some weeds.

Those of us who attended (see the pictures below!) loved the chance to network and develop a sense of community, and I, for one, look forward to many more years of garden potlucks!

Thanks to everyone for the wonderful food!

~Jen D.

First BIG gathering at the garden!!!

Joan Cronk is writing an article on Community Gardens for her LIFESTYLES article in the Puyallup Herald. Colleen Carroll, the photographer for the paper, came out to the garden on Thursday, May 29th to take gets some photos. She took alot of pictures of DIRT!We had a great turn out of people for the photo op. Thanks to all that came:Steve and Jonathan Bjerk, Dolly and Melody Smith, Holly Spaulding, Nicole Martini, Norma Laughlin, Jo Anne Slaybaugh, Clyde and Murphy (our Lhasa Apso) and new gardeners Igor Veremeykin and his wife and daughter. It was so great to look around and see everyone! It is amazing how far we have come in such a short time with the garden! Just think in February I was just meeting with the Puyallup Parks and Recs to speak about getting Community Garden established (again).Steering Committee~ Thank you everyone for making the Puyallup Community Garden possible. It could not be done without your vission and hard work!We have only just begun to make the Brown Property a truly fantastic place for the community to come to.
Kathy Powell

The Puyallup Community Blog is finally up and running! Members can now post items on here, such as growing tips, issues they are having, and gardening events amongst numerous other things.

If you have a plot at Puyallup's Community Garden, and you would like to post here on this blog, please email puyallup.community.garden@gmail.com and let Jen know you would like to contribute to this thread.

If you have ideas for the blog, or would like to advertise your organic garden or store with us, please email the above gmail address.

A few people have already planted this season, including myself (Jen). Yesterday I spent a few hours hunched over, pulling weeds, digging holes, and then planting my tomatos, basil, and parsley. I noticed that a lot of the plots seemed rather dry, so all of us may need to check our spots regularly until the plants can shoot their roots further down.

~Jen D.

PUYALLUP’S NEW COMMUNITY GARDEN

LIVE, LEARN, AND GROW GREEN

Puyallup, WA – May 5, 2008 – Puyallup’s Park and Recreation Department established a Steering Committee, headed by Puyallup’s own Kathy Johansson Powell, to oversee the revamping of the overgrown, 17.5-acre plot located at Brown’s Property in Puyallup. The goal? Provide community access to growing fresh produce and plants while fostering neighborhood improvement, a sense of community, and connection to the environment. With the rising cost of food and the reduction in flavor, people all over the country are taking notice and planting their seeds.

The American Community Gardening Association (http://www.communitygarden.org/) claims numerous benefits to communal gardening. First, New York University recently released a study stating that the value of surrounding property significantly increases. The association also cites a study that greening projects have positive effects on neighborhoods and their residents, such as crime reduction both to property and people, improvement of property and overall appearance of the neighborhood, and increased feelings of safety. The gardens also combat two forms of alienation which plague modern urban life: breaking down societal isolation by creating a social community, and bringing people in contact with the source of their food.

Pierce County Master Gardener’s Program is overseeing this new project by providing research-based information on growing plants, insect identification, and environmentally responsible gardening practices, thereby ensuring the garden’s success (http://www.pierce.wsu.edu/Master_Gardeners/index.htm). Puyallup’s community garden is open to the public and is divided into individual plots with two choices of either a 10x10 or 10x20 with cost ranging from $15-20 per plot plus a $20 water fee. The Steering Committee is encouraging locals to participate in the planning and beautification of Brown’s Property, with opportunities in the near future for social gatherings, education and recreational points of interest, and general beautification of the land. For more information on how to get involved or obtain your own plot, contact Parks and Rec at: 253/841-5457