City of Seattle Depart. of Neighborhoods P-Patch

The P-Patch Community Gardening Program, a program of the City of Seattle Department of Neighborhoods, oversees 88 P-Patches distributed throughout the city. Community gardeners grow food on 14.9 acres of the land and in addition steward 18.8 acres for the public for a total of 32 acres.

For the past 40 years, P-Patch community gardeners have been

• Growing community
• Nurturing civic engagement
• Practicing organic gardening techniques
• Fostering an environmental ethic and connecting nature to peoples' lives
• Improving access to local, organic, and culturally appropriate food
• Transforming the appearance and revitalizing the spirit of their neighborhoods
• Developing self-reliance and improving nutrition through education and hands-on experience
• Feeding the hungry
• Preserving heirloom flowers, herbs, and vegetables
• Budding understanding between generations and cultures through gardening and cooking

A community garden is a space where neighbors come together to grow community and steward - plan, plant, and maintain -a piece of open space. Community gardens are gathering places that strengthen networks through cooperative ventures; a source of pride among residents; a visible product of land stewardship and a healthier urban environment. Traditionally, they involve individual gardening plots which community members pay an annual fee for while all shared spaces throughout the garden are cared for together.

Each Garden is Unique

P-Patch Community Gardens spring from the desire of neighborhoods to make connections and improve their surroundings through stewardship. All P-Patch Community Gardens are open to the public to enjoy and are used as restorative spaces, learning/idea incubators, and places to gather and visit. The gardens also provide a way to give back to the community: gardeners contributed over 32,690 hours in 2012 (equivalent to 15.7 full time workers) and show their concern for the value of organic vegetables and community by supplying fresh produce to Seattle food banks and feeding programs. In 2014 alone, P-Patch gardeners donated 41,297.5 lbs of produce to area food banks and feeding programs.

Also, to address the broadening interest in urban agriculture (of which community gardening is a part) and increase the palette of choices available to neighborhoods when they are creating community gardens, the P-Patch Program is experimenting with different models of community gardening. These include large tracts for food growth, collective gardens that do not have individual garden plots, giving gardens and food forests.

In addition to community gardening, the P-Patch Program facilitates and partners on other programming: market gardening, youth gardening, and community food security. These programs serve all citizens of Seattle but with an emphasis on low-income, immigrant populations and youth.