8/8/2019 Community gardening thrives at Battle Point pea patches

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Community gardening thrives at Battle Point pea patches

Written by Cathy Nickum

Sunday, 11 January 2009 11:35

Athough Kitsap County is known for its rural character, many of its residents do not have room

for their own vegetable gardens, and with condominiums and scaled-down lifestyles on the rise

in this area, community gardens promise to be one the best ways to insure access to -- andenjoyment of -- locally-grown food.

This article is the first in a series that will take a look at community gardens. Where are they

and who operates them? Who can participate, what are the rules? How are community

gardens evolving?

We begin with a tour of the best-known public program on Bainbridge Island, the Pea Patches

at Battle Point Park.  

With 28 people on the waiting list for a Pea Patch plot this year, the Bainbridge Park District's

Battle Point program remains the most well-known and high-profile local community garden.

Located at the southwest edge of the park's 90 acres, these 35 garden plots offer year-round

activity, color, creativity and entertainment for those who pass by on the park's pathway -- not to

mention the many varieties of fresh fruits and vegetables they provide to the gardeners andtheir friends and families on a extended-season basis.

Measuring approximately 15' x 30' (450 square feet), each plot in the Battle Point pea patch

seems to offer its own special character. You may see tomatoes growing in huge tractor tires.

Other gardeners tend carefully measured rows and neatly divided squares. Still others approach

their plots with the gusto of an painter, splashing colorful flowers across the canvas of their pea

patch plot. Perennials, annuals, fruit trees, and every kind of gardening technique are on display

at Battle Point, and passers-by enjoy not only a visual treat, but often, an educationalexperience.

 

For the park resources of earth, water and path maintenance, Battle Point pea patchers pay $25

a year. They do their own cultivating and assume the chores involved in keeping their plants

from providing gourmet meals to the local critter population. Plots are assigned with priority

given to the previous year's participants, and renewal notices are sent early in the year so that

any free space will become available to those on the waiting list on a first-come, first-served

basis.

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8/8/2019 Community gardening thrives at Battle Point pea patches

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Community gardening thrives at Battle Point pea patches

Written by Cathy Nickum

Sunday, 11 January 2009 11:35

The Battle Point program is operated on an organic basis (no pets allowed) and aside fromthese guidelines, there is only one important mandate: Use your plot!Pea patches are a popular form of community gardening because they allow each gardner theautonomy of tending their own plot. And because park departments often have suitable space tooffer (sunny, level, water available), many pea patch programs flourish within these publicstructures.Locally, the city of Bremerton's Park and Recreation Department runs a pea patch program atBlueberry Parkon Sylvan Way. Poulsbo's Park & Rec offers 50 pea patch spaces atRaab Park, on Caldart Ave., along with a children's garden and gardening demonstration sites. Classesare offered at Raab Park in topics such as composting and vegetable gardening by local MasterGardeners, andyouth programshave helped harvest produce for local food banks.One of the most impressive urban community garden enterprises is Seattle's own Pea Patchprogram, which offers 2500 plots, serving over 6,000 gardeners on 23 acres of land. Thismeans 75 Seattle area neighborhoods are growing fresh produce - some of these in the heart ofthe inner-city, where fresh food is often unavailable because of a lack of grocery stores.The Seattle Pea Patch program , operated through the city's "Department of Neighborhoods,"is impressive in its depth, breadth, and vision, and can serve as inpsiration for othercommunities. Like many pea patch programs across the nation, Seattle's began in the 1970's,when a "back to the land" movement took place. In those days, a cultural revolution served asthe spark to eat more fresh, wholesome food, giving birth to organizations like the PCC foodco-op.

In 2009, we have as many compelling reasons -- if not more -- to give community gardeningnew energy and inspiration. Economic, environmental and health concerns all point toward theproblems of eating too much food grown far away from where we live.And even if we didn't have all those good reasons to create community gardens, there are thesimple joys they offer. Neighbors work alongside one another, sharing thoughts, experiencesand community news. Children are naturally attracted to the color, variety and activity in peapatches. The simple, cooperative energy of a community brought together for such a goodpurpose as delicious, nutritious food is hard to beat. The benefits radiate far and wide -- topeople who may never consider gardening.Still, nothing beats arriving at a pea patch plot on that first lovely, warm spring Saturday,greeting your garden neighbors, and finding another cycle of life beginning. A Seattlepea-patcher put it this way: "Gardening is one of those wonderful aspects of life that levelseveryone. It doesn't matter what your income is or your status, you're just there to garden."(For another look at the pea patch experience, see Maradel Gale's article about her plot inWinslow.)Photos from top: Battle Point pea patches include f lowers among the veg etables; tomatoes grown in huge (lined) tractor tires; Blueberry Park, in Bremerton 

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