2nd grader, Flora, with "fauna" visted the garden recently.
Photo by Josslyn Streett

Where are we located?  MAP

Growing, growing, overflowing.

I put my pen in the picture for an idea of scale with these heads of lettuce.

Almost see the fluids moving in the veins of this plant.

Organic Garden's Book of Insect and Disease Control:
http://tinyurl.com/ogzqyn

Safe, homemade weed killers: http://www.thisgardenisillegal.com/2006/05/7-deadly-homemade-weed-killers.html

PICTURES ABOVE WERE TAKEN 6-16

 
Crushed rock on the paths, now, bordered with gray stone.  Very handsome, and easier to walk on. First Federal Bank awarded a $3,300 grant to the Community Organic Garden to lay gravel on the walkways and install a filtration system to remove chlorine from the water supply. 4-26



Chlorine Removal device on spigot.  4-26 - updated, 5-2
The AquaMate RV filter is found at:
http://www.shop.friendsofwater.com/product.sc?categoryId=14&productId=20


Another BLOG posting about the garden, here: http://vegetable-garden-design.blogspot.com/2009/04/earth-day-comes-early-to-community.html

From the Peninsula Daily News (6-30-2009)
http://www.peninsuladailynews.com/article/20090701/news/307019990 (full story)
By Diane Urbani de la Paz
Peninsula Daily News

SEQUIM -- One small, new project stood out among the big, old ones talked about during the Sequim City Council's special meeting this week.

The Spruce Street Pocket Park, a strip of green between Sunnyside and Sequim avenues,
The intersection of E. Spruce Street and N. Sunnyside, Sequim, as mentioned in the PDN article.

could turn into a blooming, food-producing spot, to at least one council member's mind.

Mayor Laura Dubois, a proponent of local produce and other environmentally friendly ideas, envisions Sequim's second community garden in the city-owned Spruce Street space, she said at Monday's meeting.

From the Peninsula Daily News (posted here on 4-19)

PORT ANGELES -- What do you with a big mowing headache?

If you're the members of the Vineyard Church, you donate half of it -- about 12,750 square feet -- to serve as a community garden.

An organizational meeting for the Vineyard Community Garden is set at the Vineyard Church, 3415 S. Peabody St., in Port Angeles at 3 p.m. Sunday.

At least 45 plots, 10-by-10-feet each, are available for gardening.

See October 15 Gazette for the story.

NEWS FROM THE FRIENDS OF THE FIELDS  SITE: Posted:  August 13, 2007
http://www.friendsofthefields.org/news_COGS.htm
Radishes, Snap Peas and Beets, Oh My!  Sequim’s Community Garden Grows…
Many beds of potatoes are in flower, snap beans are coming along, and even corn and tomatoes look like they will make a crop on the 24 plots that were rented this first year of the Community Organic Garden of Sequim (COGS), a special project of Friends of the Fields.  Under the committed leadership of Liz Harper, most of the gardeners are happily enjoying home-grown organic produce.  Radishes were, of course, first off the blocks, and hearty broccoli, lettuces, kohlrabi, beets, cauliflower, snap peas and carrots have been harvested.  The grasses that previously inhabited the site are not giving up without a struggle, but that is expected to ease with each new planting season. 

The garden is looking very permanent and settled since the Sequim Sunrise Rotary Club's recent completion of a fine cedar board fence.  And some folks who had never grown a vegetable before are looking like good gardeners after receiving training in organic crop production techniques and methods by Pam Larsen.   Unrented plots have been planted with the intention to donate extra produce to the Sequim Food Bank. 

What’s next for COGS?   One upcoming activity will be the construction of a pergola to serve as an architectural and social focal point in the garden, and to provide a place to grow roses and other climbing flowers.  Another project is to spend time this winter exploring the possibility of tapping into a nearby irrigation canal in an effort to obtain un-chlorinated water at a lower cost than the current provision by the City of Sequim.  To volunteer at the garden or to obtain a plot, please contact Liz Harper at 683-7698. Posted:  August 13, 2007

Community garden reaps fresh veggies

From the PDN: http://peninsuladailynews.com 
[Source link: http://www.peninsuladailynews.com/article/20080618/NEWS/806180309  ] By Diane Urbani de la Paz, Peninsula Daily News SEQUIM

— Social studies can be delicious. So can socializing. A small flock of sixth-graders and older retirees have tasted those facts at the long-awaited Community Organic Garden of Sequim, behind St. Luke's Episcopal Church on Fifth Avenue.

"Holy Moses, snack on that," instructed Linda Dolan, the paraeducator and garden co-founder who walked over to the small plot with her Sequim Middle School students last Friday morning. The sixth-graders, under the tutelage of Dolan and social studies teacher Carolynn MacDonald, reaped what they'd sown just last month: lettuce, chard and radishes that, plucked from the earth by young fingers, looked like cherries. Brittany Zuck, Lavee Hess and Brandon Payne, all 12, held the blush globes* aloft like birthday gifts. There was a little too much soil on them for immediate eating, but Hess, Zuck and Hector Baylom, 12, obeyed Dolan's orders and munched on some young, fluffy lettuce. Dolan then reminded the students to stay focused. "Pull the weeds out," she said. "They're going to compete with your food."

Two-year effort The community garden — first imagined more than two years ago by Dolan and a group of Sequim High School students — is a place where the preteens put their hands in dirt alongside people such as Elena Karr and Liz Harper, retirees renting 10-by-10-foot plots for vegetables, herbs and flowers.

This productive patch of ground isn't merely a reaction to rising food prices. Rather, it's a place to learn about a lot of things: how plants prosper without pesticides, how food grows and how people can get along. In their social studies and language arts block class, Dolan and MacDonald taught the sixth-graders about ancient cultures and how people built communities around small farms. "We're tying this in with sustainability for our community," Dolan added, "and how we can provide for ourselves."

A few steps from the middle-schoolers' patch, Karr is making the most of her plot, and growing broccolini — a cross between broccoli and Chinese kai-lan broccoli — Swiss chard, Delicata squash, tomatoes, oregano, peppers and strawberries. Karr could have done some of this at her home in SunLand North but preferred the community-spirited spot. Karr, a retired mental health care provider and mediator, admitted that she and the other gardeners have had to be patient with this spring's cold weather. But the tomatoes are finally flowering, and the unofficial slogan here is "keep hope alive," she said with a laugh.

Potluck inauguration

On Saturday, Karr joined the garden's inaugural potluck celebration at St. Luke's, which donated the land for the garden. Since her vegetables aren't quite ready yet, Karr brought her special orange-infused chocolate cake with cream cheese frosting. The event included a blessing by retired St. Luke's rector Bill Sallee, who gave thanks for the soil, the water and the gardeners. He added that since soil is the source of life, "getting your hands dirty is touching life at its core." One of the best prayers of all, Sallee said, is "thank you, Mother Nature."

Sequim Mayor Laura Dubois stepped up next to say that the community garden suits the city's vision statement, which touts "keeping a small-town, community atmosphere." Gardening together, Dubois added, gets people away from their television sets and "spending time with neighbors and making friends." Dubois, for her part, admitted that she can't grow anything. "My husband has the green thumb . . . but I can pull weeds," she said.

'Unofficial president' Harper, a retired school counselor and divorce mediator known as the "unofficial president" of the garden, said the garden's 20 plots are rented to community members for $25. They're all spoken for now, but Harper looks forward to welcoming another season of gardeners next spring. The garden sprang, Harper added, from multiple sources in Sequim. Friends of the Fields founder Bob Caldwell worked with St. Luke's to bring water to the plots and served as an adviser to the garden planners. It all fits, Caldwell said, since Friends of the Fields is a Clallam County coalition striving to protect farmland. "This is not quite a farm," Caldwell said, "but it's going to get people interested in local foods. "It has all come together, and it's really exciting."

Sound Community Bank and Sequim First, an environmental advocacy group, were among those who made contributions even before the church provided the space, Harper added. "We just had this dream. "We didn't have any land, but they just believed this was going to happen."

Local nurseries such as McComb Gardens gave compost, while The Home Depot gave the garden a shed "at a deeply, deeply reduced price." A mix of people is growing in the garden, Harper added with a smile. "I've met people I never would have met otherwise," she said. "This is about as far away from divorce mediation as I could get." For more information, phone Harper at 360-683-7698.
________
Sequim-Dungeness Valley Editor Diane Urbani de la Paz can be reached at 360-681-2391 or diane.urbani@peninsuladailynews.com . Last modified: June 17. 2008 9:00PM
###

It began with the desire of two Sequim High School students to save farmland.

When told how difficult, costly and long-term the process was, they changed their focus to developing a community garden. Linda Dolan, a para-educator and faculty advisor to the Sequim High School Ecology Club, jumped in with a both feet. Linda had participated in community gardens in other communities and thought Sequim might be a good place to have one. Besides, Linda didn't have a place to garden on her own. It wasn't hard to get others to join in. Linda and the students took a trip to Seattle to look at community gardens there - - Seattle is a national leader in the number of community gardens available for local residents to grow their own fresh, local, wholesome produce.

Linda Dolan and Bob Bob Caldwell, Friends of the Fields treasurer. Read the full article of 10/31/2007 on line at: http://tinyurl.com/6eapuf or download it as a .pdf document, here.

The concept of a community garden is that a group of potential gardeners come together to operate a parcel of land as a garden, with each person having a small plot (say 10 foot by 10 foot for starters). Tools, knowledge and work are shared and community gardens typically build citizenship as well as community spirit. Friends of the Fields (FOF) was brought along first, because of its initial contact with the students, but then also because of the fact that people who get accustomed to eating good tasting, wholesome local foods from their own garden were likely to want to buy that same kind of food from local farmers, thereby increasing the opportunity and income of our farmers. FOF agreed to serve as an umbrella non-profit organization, enabling donations to the community garden to be tax deductible. In addition, FOF will be able to handle the liability concerns of the garden under its own insurance program.

The group wanted to locate the garden in the heart of Sequim because of the desire to be able to serve apartment dwellers and students, special needs children and the elderly, all of whom might have some difficulty using a garden at some more remote site. St. Luke's Episcopal Church on N. 5th Street in Sequim was able to handle the location question. They owned a parcel of land bordering on West Fir St. just west of 5th Avenue that they had coincidentally thought that one day, it might be a garden site. The lot is within a few blocks of the Boys and Girls Club, Helen Haller Middle school, and Sequim High School.

It has been named the Community Organic Garden of Sequim or COGS for short. Having a location is not the same as having a garden. The advisory committee governing the effort is already starting to work.

How can you help? The advisory group needs a number of things - - primary is more volunteer advisory persons. Second, and of utmost importance, is having persons interested in gardening a plot. The group will also need donated material such as fencing, piping, faucets, trenching, garden hoses, lumber for raised beds and garden tools.

If you are willing to help, and/or can donate any needed items, Please contact Liz Harper at 683-7698 if you would like to help or to obtain more information. Come grow with us!

Where are we located?  MAP
 

RSS Feed from Twitter for Sequimgarden  jQuery Twitter Badge 1

Links - Related (Gardening, Growing, Etc.):

Organic Consumers: http://www.organicconsumers.org/

Sequim Gazette Article about COGS: GazetteArticlebyOden.pdf

Twitter - Sequim Garden - Click image.

Where are we located?

Click on the MAP for printable image.

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