A bumper crop: Seattle's P-Patch Gardens

Gardening has the potential to hit on a range of health and well-being outcomes including:

• Healthy eating – through growing and eating fresh fruit and veg.
• Physical Activity – gardening can be hard work and requires physical exertion!
• Mental Health – gardening can bring people together to work together and share skills and knowledge - increasing confidence, skills and self esteem and reducing social isolation.
• Improved social networks - Gardens can be a social space for people to meet up and connect with new people through a shared interest.

In order to increase gardening opportunities and encourage the development of these related outcomes - Seattle has over 75 ‘P-Patch’ gardens across the city, serving around 4,500 gardeners. Overseen by the the P-Patch community garden team at the Dept of Neighborhoods and the P-Patch Trust, the gardens are managed by the communities they serve. The P-Patch scheme is similar to the allotment system in the UK -  although people usually rent out  a smaller ‘patch'.

I visited quite a few P-Patches during my time in Seattle – all slightly different both in terms of size, locations, who uses them and what is grown there – but all had a burgeoning array of fruit, vegetables and flowers blooming. I was mightily impressed (and made hungry!) by what I saw.

I visited the Interbay P-Patch which is on the site of an old dump. It sits by the side of a highway but provides an oasis of calm with its glorious colourful flowers and abundant vegetable crop. 

Some of the gardens have kitchens so people can cook together, others have playgrounds so that kids can play while parents garden. The Coleman garden also has a children section to the garden so that children can learn about plants and growing stuff from an early age.

Gardeners at High Point preparing produce for the Market Garden

The people who use the gardens tend to reflect the community where the garden in based and this in turn influences what is grown there. In one area in South Seattle, there is a large Somali population and they grow the kinds of things they might grow at home - so – it’s not always the more traditional veggies you might expect to see…
Julie Bryan of the P-Patch Community Gardening Programme told me how she has had tried to learn the names of plants in a multitude of languages so she can help the gardeners in different communities. Julie has a role in supporting people to make best use of the gardens – providing advice where needed on growing and harvesting but also dealing with the management of the gardens when needed.

Many of the PPatches have an area that is dedicated to providing produce to local Food Banks. So, the gardeners are helping out their neighbours who may not have access to fresh produce easily.

Some of the gardens also have ‘bumping spaces’ (in the form of a shared seating area, a meeting room, a gazebo) - areas where the gardeners can get together maybe over lunch or for a meeting about garden planning or just for a chat. So they are also a potential breeding ground for  improved social capital!

It's easy to see how the P-Patch scheme is helping communities to help themselves in a whole range of ways.

For the past 37 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

Children's Play Park at Coleman P-Patch

You can read more about P-Patch Gardens here.

Community gardeners preparing vegetables for sale at the Farm Stand.