Today’s post will be the last of the 2021 calendar year! We have a hodgepodge of announcements to share.
First, the notes from the leadership team’s last meeting October 22nd are available on our Meeting Minutes page. I apologize for the delay - one of the topics we discussed at our meeting was the purchase of gravel for the pathway by the Giving Garden. As it turns out, we missed some important steps in conducting some research about making sure we’re maintaining this pathway in an ADA-compliant manner. After receiving some feedback from one of our gardeners, we’ve postponed moving the gravel until we can coordinate with the Seattle Parks Department. This process began in November and is still on-going. We will keep you posted about our next steps.
Though we were all disheartened to learn that there was more involved with this pathway’s maintenance, there was still some good to come out of this experience. Thanks to the constructive feedback of a couple gardeners, we have an opportunity to revisit the decision-making and communication processes we use at our P-Patch to help ensure that we have as much information as possible before making a decision. We’ve done a little bit of digging, and we’ve found both the Solstice-specific P-Patch handbook and additional helpful resources from the Seattle P-Patch Program website. These are resources that our current leadership team have not been acquainted with, and during our winter hibernation we’ll take the opportunity to familiarize ourselves with these documents so that we can start the 2022 gardening cycle fresh.
In other news, preparations for the Spring P-Patch Plant Sale are still underway. Sandra made a purchase of native bare root plants, as approved in our debrief from this year’s plant sale. The bare root plants sold very well, and we’re looking forward to having more to offer. In addition, my mother-in-law has adopted the P-Patch even though she does not live in Seattle, and is sewing some beautiful quilted bags for us to sell next spring!
The Giving Garden had another successful season thanks to the time and effort donated by a number of dedicated volunteers and under the wise leadership of our Giving Garden Coordinator, Sharon Schrenzel. This wonderful team helped ensure this was a highly productive season despite the challenging growing season - approximately 1,633 pounds of produce donated to the West Seattle Food Bank, up from 1,175.50 pounds in 2020 and 1,491 pounds in 2019. Many many thanks to Ginny C., Essie C., Jim C., Kathryn F., Robin R., Julia P., Lisa T., Valerie T., Bess W., Sandra W., Kirsten W. Our gratitude too for the seed contributions from GROW and seedling starts from our gardeners. What an impressive accomplishment!
Some of you may have made it to our Autumn Harvest Fest at the end of October. It was a delight to be together at our P-Patch, enjoy yummy treats, decorate pumpkins, and be social together! Thank you so much to Robin Rice for leading the effort and to all of the volunteers who assisted her and brought goodies to share.
Lastly, you may notice when you visit the P-Patch that there is a new temporary fence near the orchard. Our Orchard lead, Sandra, approached the leadership team with a request to consider installing the fence as a measure to protect both the orchard and people who might enjoy sledding down the hillside if we get some snow this year. Past attempts to warn sledders to steer clear with flags were note successful, and we need a better solution. After getting the initial support of the leadership team, Sandra consulted with the Seattle Parks Department for their input and received their support before purchasing these materials (total cost was $77.32).
Please don’t hesitate to reach out if you have any questions or concerns, and looking forward to seeing you all in the new year!
We wish you a wonderful holiday season!