Community Gardens Provide Soil, Fellowship for Redmond Residents

Marymoor Park is widely known as a popular spot for Redmond's joggers, picnickers and pet-owners. But some may be surprised to learn that gardening is also high on the list of the park's top recreation activities.

On a sunny Saturday morning at you might see 40 or 50 gardeners tooling around a 2.1-acre garden in the park's western end. Some might be growing standbys like lettuce, peas and beans; others could be cultivating hops for home-brewed beer or a patch of seven kinds of basil.

Allison Brucker, president of the Marymoor Community Garden Association, says the all-organic public garden has been around for more than 30 years, and the independent non-profit association that runs it now has administered it for the last eight years.

This year, there are about 150 gardeners who have claimed Marymoor's 400- and 200-square-foot plots. Some are new this year; some have been gardening in the space for more than 20 years — gardeners of both varieties make up the inclusive community that resides there, Brucker said.

“They’re very friendly,” she said “They loan tools; they give advice. We do our best to build a community with those who are interested in being a part of it.”

Being part of the community also means lending a hand to help those in need. For each plot a gardener has, he or she must donate eight hours of volunteer time to working on an eight-plot section near the center of the garden. All of the food grown there gets donated to the food bank in Redmond. Five to seven tons of fresh food are distributed each year, Brucker said.

Saturday also marks the kickoff of the “grow a row for hunger” campaign, where gardeners can use provided seeds to grow food for Hopelink in their own patch.

Full plots are still available for a cost of $65 for the year. On May 1, any open plots will be made available to current gardeners. The application form can be downloaded on the association’s website.

New gardeners are limited to one plot initially, but that can be plenty, says Brucker, who currently has three.

“I just come down here and keep weeding,” she said.

Elsewhere in Redmond, a new community garden has sprung up at . The city-run garden is only in its second year, but parks and recreation deputy director Greg Byszeski said it’s hopefully just the beginning of more community gardens across Redmond.

“It looks like the energy is moving in the right direction,” he said. “We had to start somewhere, but we’re certainly thinking about the broader picture.”

The garden at Juel is 15,000 square feet with 38 10-by-10-foot plots. Around 24 gardeners have claimed all the plots for now, but there is a waiting list, Byszeski said. An expansion to accommodate those on the waiting list is currently being considered.

Like the Marymoor garden, gardeners must donate eight hours a year toward working on the common areas of the garden. Included in plans for expansion is the development of a system to provide food to others, Byszeski said.

“It’s sort of our next area that we’re going to expand into,” he said.

Byszeski said he realizes that the city isn’t inventing anything new with the concept of community gardens, but he hopes it can develop a plan that can be easily duplicated to see the number of gardens grow. In addition to public land, the city’s planning department is also in talks to include language in its development guide to promote community gardens on private property, he said.

In a suburban community, these gardens allow people to have an outlet to grow food and control the quality, Byszeski said. Cultivating them as gathering places has other benefits, too.

“It provides a really good social setting to meet other people, and (there are) recreational benefits of digging in the soil,” he said.

The cost for a plot at Juel is $40, and all produce grown must be organic. The City of Redmond’s Recreation Guide has more information on the garden. To sign up for the waiting list, call 425-556-2300.