Interbay P–Patch Foodbank Garden
- 15th Ave W and W. Armour Street
Seattle WA map - 206-234-2861
- Contact: Deb Rock or Jude Berman
The Interbay Food Bank Garden is a specially designated section of the Interbay P–Patch, one of a network of 70 community gardens in the city of Seattle. Food Bank gardening in Seattle started over 30 years ago to help provide better nutrition for persons with terminal illness. At Interbay, we are famous for growing 4,000–5,000 pounds of organic produce every year for local area food banks, meals on wheels programs, transitional housing and women and children’s shelters.
The Interbay Food Bank Garden is one of the school gardens in the King County Master Gardener Youth Education Program. As such, we serve as a kind of “outdoor classroom,” primarily for students at Ballard High School. Many of the seedlings that turn into edible produce are started in teacher Toni Bukowski’s horticulture class at BHS. The students earn community service credits by coming to the Food Bank Garden, where they learn all about planting, weeding, harvesting, composting, plant identification and the general rules of organic gardening. Some of them have never seen vegetables outside a supermarket, and it’s really something when they get to plant a seed, transplant the seedling, then harvest – and eat – the produce!
“ I had no idea how beautiful it was going to look! ”
The students’ parents note that their kids want to turn part of the family’s back yard into a vegetable garden. In fact, at the end of the last school year, every single tomato start (that couldn’t be squeezed in at Interbay) had a home in an excited new gardener’s pot, balcony or yard. Toni Bukowski is confident that she is raising a new group of future gardeners. This classroom-community relationship we’re building at the Interbay Food Bank Garden helps sustain our program and is making our dreams come true.
The program at Interbay is unique because we have a strong team of volunteers — mostly certified Master Gardeners — who meet every Tuesday evening from 5:30 to dusk. If you would like to learn more about organic gardening techniques or have a passion for teaching, feel free to join us! We are located just south of the Interbay Golf Course on 15th Avenue between Queen Anne and Magnolia. The cross streets are Gilman and W. Wheeler. We could also use volunteers to help build a better website and to manage a worm bin. People of all ages and interests are welcome to visit and tour the garden.
