I have learned a lot about growing vegetables in the last year. Until recently, I was feeling very frustrated because I didn’t have a space of my own, to practice the things I had been learning theoretically. I did find, at one point, a whole lot with sparse grass, just across from the Burke Gilman and the canal in Fremont. I found the owner on the seattle.gov accessories website, and was excited to find out that she is an environmental artist who lives close to the Good Shepherd Center. She never responded to my hand-written letter, though, and I figured it wasn’t meant to be.

Janice, a staff gardener at SU Grounds (where I work as a student gardener) suggested that I sign up on the Urban Garden Share website. This is a place where Seattle gardeners in want of gardening space can create profiles and meet people in Seattle who have unused garden space (Urban Farm Hub did a piece on them in January  - you can read it here.

My experience on Urban Garden Share was much easier than I expected it to be. I e-mailed the people with garden spaces in Ballard, and even got some people contacting me, wanting me to garden in their space. Nothing seemed to fit until Eric and Alice, from Ballard, e-mailed me about what they called “The Microfarm.”

I went to meet them one Saturday in April. Eric ushered me out to the Microfarm, which turned out to be an entire lot they own - which, according to them, has never been built on. It’s a huge place, and I was unsure why they had contacted me, because most of the space seemed to be planted and cared for. It turns out that Eric and Alice do grow veggies there, as does their neighbor. But there was a whole corner that remained unplanted, and if I wanted it, I could use it all. I accepted, of course. It was way more space than I had dreamed of, and I couldn’t believe my luck.

 Here is my space on the Microfarm!

 

Erick and Alice's lot on the upper level. You can see my part behind the Super Cloche.

The Super Cloche and the raspberry patch. My space is behind these two.