Olympia restaurant’s guerrilla garden demolished

Lisa Scott Owen loved the herb garden on the side of her building. So did the bees.

“It was also just a nice community thing. People just came by and picked the rosemary,” said Owen, owner and executive chef of The Mark restaurant on Columbia Street Southwest in downtown Olympia. “It was blooming right now, so it was just covered in bees.”

So Scott was disappointed to see landscapers tearing up the plants on Thursday morning. The garden was on a strip of land separating The Mark from the Bank of America parking lot. It was not on The Mark’s property, but Owen said she got permission from bank staff when she started the garden about 14 years ago.

Owen said her gardener maintained the garden, along with others on her property where she grows herbs for her restaurant.

“It was just part of downtown, something sweet,” Owen said. “It’s a guerrilla garden, but (with) permission from people there.”

A manager at the Bank of America branch declined to comment Thursday and referred questions to the property manager, who the manager would not identify.

This story was originally published June 1, 2017 at 1:25 PM with the headline "Olympia restaurant’s guerrilla garden demolished."