See how our gardens grow

OLYMPIA – This summer has seen a surge in South Sound community gardens designed to grow healthful food, help feed the hungry and build sustainable communities.

Sustainable South Sound, formerly known as the Sustainable Community Roundtable, has launched its urban agriculture program in 2009 by sponsoring community gardens in Olympia and Lacey.

The Olympia Kiwanis Club has expanded its garden project from one west Olympia farm location to six gardens throughout South Sound that provide food for the Thurston County Food Bank.

“We should see a 30 percent increase this year in locally grown produce,” food bank executive director Robert Coit said.

In less than three months, the nonprofit group Sustainable South Sound has turned an expanse of grass on Wilson Street into a thriving garden with a bounty of crops that masks its immature age.

“We’ve already harvested 50 pounds of cabbage for the food bank,” garden organizer T.J. Johnson said.

The garden came together quickly, thanks to a lot of community support, starting with the Wilson Street couple who donated the land – Dick and Rosemary Walrod.

Garden-Raised Bounty, Left Foot Organics, Olympia Kiwanis and students from The Evergreen State College provided technical assistance and equipment for the garden.

The city of Olympia donated $1,200 worth of compost from the city’s food waste collection program, and the city also supplied a $1,800 neighborhood sustainability grant to the Northeast Olympia Neighborhood Association to purchase fencing and an irrigation system for the garden.

The Wendell Berry Community Garden, named after a Kentucky naturalist, author and farmer, is a neighborhood attraction, ringed by a solar-powered electric fence and home to such diverse crops as eggplant; 10 varieties of tomatoes; watermelon; quinoa, a high-protein South American grain; lentils; kale; and corn.

In a portion of the garden, plants aren’t harvested; they are allowed to go to seed for a purpose.

“We’re trying to raise as much seed as we can so we can become independent of the big seed companies,” Johnson said.

The 18 volunteers who tend the garden and reap the benefits also are learning how to can and preserve vegetables, including beets, cucumbers and beans, and eat different foods and try new recipes, Johnson said.

“It’s the most exciting thing I’ve ever been associated with,” garden participant Carolyn Scafidi said.

A few miles away, Sustainable South Sound also is sponsoring a community garden taking shape on undeveloped property at Lacey Crossroads, a new shopping center at Yelm Highway and College Street.

The garden, a collection of 12 raised-bed gardens surrounded by a sea of pavement, sits in sharp contrast to the Wendell Berry Community Garden. But they share the common goal of creating a gathering place where neighbors can grow food, friendships and a sense of community, Lacey Crossroads Community Garden coordinator Marie Flake said.

“I’m a newcomer to Lacey who wanted to meet my neighbors,” she said. “Plus, I like growing stuff.”

Located within a stone’s throw of the Lowe’s Home Improvement Garden Center, the community garden sprouted up on a vacant building lot a little late in the growing season – May 30 – but the Lacey Crossroads developer, the Sherwood Group of Seattle, has made the land available for at least three years, Flake said.

“Our primary goal is building community first; the vegetables are secondary,” she said. “Ideally, we can build community gardens all over Lacey.”

The Lacey Crossroads and Wendell Berry Community Garden also are designed as educational tools to teach people how to reduce their dependence on food imported from far away and reduce their carbon footprint, Johnson said.

The gardens complement another Sustainable South Sound campaign, which is to encourage people to buy locally grown food.

John Dodge: 360-754-5444

jdodge@theolympian.com