White Center Now: The blog about White Center

From Aviva at Community Harvest of Southwest Seattle:

Interested in gardening, but lack the space? Come to Drop-in-Garden-Night Thursdays 6:30 PM – dusk, throughout July and August at the St. James Community Garden – 9421 18th SW. Help weed or plant, then go home with some of the harvest.

Garden Helpers – Interested in
getting some hands-on advice in your own garden? A Garden Helper, trained by Seattle Tilth, can provide suggestions for starting a garden, or help with your existing garden. Read more about the program.

For more information about any of these programs: info@gleanit.org

So now you know; dig in!

Noon-5 pm. We’re told it should be sunny by then! Here’s our original preview. Pick up your map at McLendon Hardware any time after noon and start walking!

Now that July is here, it’s time for an avalanche of events. Jubilee Days is bigger than ever this year – and part of it will be the White Center Jubilee Days Garden Walk. Here’s the latest:

The White Center Jubilee Days Garden Walk is back this 2010 with generous support from this year’s Title Sponsor – McLendon Hardware, White Center. The walk will be held on Sunday, July 11th from 12 noon to 5:00pm. The event will start in White Center McLendon Hardware parking lot, where tour maps will be provided.

This will be a FREE Jubilee Days and Seafair sanctioned event that will be open to all ages. There will also be a vote for the favorite garden as well as prizes for those participating in the treasure hunt.

With the help of Garden Walk veteran Peggy Weiss, co-chair volunteers Donnie McDermott and Heather Huling will do their best to make this year as great as years previous.
~
For those interested in joining the fun just meet us at McLendon’s at 12 noon on Sunday, July 11th. For questions or more information, please visit us at: http://www.jubileedays.org/garden/gardenwalk.html
Hope to see you there!

Two notes from Vera at Village Green Perennial Nursery – first, she’s looking for anyone interested in a White Center Garden Tour – second (we think these are separate – if they’re not, we know Vera will correct us!) she points out the White Center Jubilee Days Garden Walk on July 11th – full details here. (Village Green, by the way, is at 10223 26th SW.)

If you’re on the Seattle side of White Center (and vicinity – hello, Highland Park! etc.) and you’re not going to use the two bags of free Cedar Grove compost that everyone in the city has been offered for the next few weeks, you can donate the coupon to the White Center Food Bank for use in its gardens. Details on the WCFB website.

Got this announcement from the folks behind the Master Gardeners program – note they’ll arrive in White Center earlier than West Seattle – mark your calendars!

The King County Master Gardeners will have their table set up at the West Seattle Farmer’s Market every Sunday beginning April 25th until September 26th (with the exception of May 2nd, May 30th, July 4th, and September 5th) from 10:00 AM until 2:00 PM. They are there to answer your gardening questions, give gardening advice, and help diagnose gardening problems.

They also have a clinic at McLendon Hardware (in White Center) on Saturdays, beginning April 3rd until September 25th (with the exception of May 1st, May 29th, July 3rd, & Sept. 4th) from 10:00 AM until 2:00 PM. Please stop by and “Ask a Master Gardener!”

(Photo courtesy White Center Food Bank)
That’s Long Nguyen with his raised-bed garden at White Center Heights Park – and now you might be able to have one too, according to this announcement, which includes a call for community-garden volunteers:

Together with the White Center Community Development Association, the White Center Food Bank is announcing that applications for raised beds at White Center Heights Park are now available.

The garden is located at 102nd SW and SW 7th across the street from White Center Heights Elementary School. Community members will have an opportunity to use a raised bed to grow their own garden. Raised beds are free to garden for the season. Gardeners can also contribute a part of their harvest to feed the clients of the White Center Food Bank.

Now In its 3rd year, the garden will be a place where residents can come together as a community to grow food with neighbors, family and friends. White Center Food Bank is excited to be able to provide an opportunity to the community to increase self-sufficiency and celebrate the diverse cultures that make White Center a wonderful place.

Applications are available at the White Center Food Bank. Contact Audrey Zemke in person, at audrey@whitecenterfoodbank.org or (206) 762-2848 for an application. Applications are due to the White Center Food Bank by March 30, 2010. A lottery system will be used to pick the 16 individuals or groups who will receive a raised bed.

The White Center Food Bank is also looking for people to help with the community garden. Volunteers are needed to help with composting, cleaning up before and after the season, educating gardeners, planning the kick-off garden event or year-end harvest celebration. If you want to be connected to a great community of gardeners, contact Audrey Zemke to volunteer.

This Saturday, noon-3 pm, you can buy fall vegetable starts at Community Harvest of Southwest Seattle‘s sale at St. James Place, 9421 18th SW (map). Bring produce for the food bank if you have some – taste heirloom tomatoes – and celebrate locally grown food. Need to know more? 762-0604 or info@gleanit.org – and at the CHoSS website, gleanit.org.

The Nature Consortium is working to restore the West Duwamish Greenbelt.  As part of their efforts, they are clearing Ivy, which is an invasive species that chokes and kills native vegetation.  This Thursday is the Nature Consortium’s second official foray (first Thursday!) into the Greenbelt to start tackling the Ivy.  Per, organizer Kathleen Dowd-Gailey, “We made great progress on the Saturday event two weeks ago and cleared almost an acre of ivy and made 12 ivy rings on some great big trees! Good stuff!  Since this will be a separate event, not piggybacking on a regularly scheduled Nature Consortium event, I need to know for sure how many people will be able to make it. Please RSVP to me by Wednesday at noon so I can confirm with Nature Consortium staff. I will send out directions to those who can make it after I get your RSVP.”

Contact Kathleen at:  kdowdgailey@gmail.com

A new “edible garden” has sprouted at the White Center Food Bank; volunteers from Community Harvest of Southwest Seattle and SeattleWorks spent several hours Saturday clearing ornamental plantings from the plots where vegetables will now grow. Read more about it on partner site West Seattle Blog – including the need for one more volunteer – somebody to set up and tend a new worm-compost bin! Meantime, hours after we stopped at WCFB, it was off to the first open house at the artists’ studios on the east side of the old skating rink:

The party inside and upstairs was a little too crowded and dark for good pix but we had a great time wandering from room to room, viewing some of the artists’ creations, including paintings, sculpture, even a striking bench with an inset eagle-head carving. Next weekend, the artists will be involved in the first Rat City Rummage event – remember, you can look for the entryway from 16th:

Rat City Rummage is set for next Saturday, 10 am-6 pm at the old skate rink.

From Aviva at Community Harvest of Southwest Seattle:

Community Harvest of SW Seattle in partnership with the White Center Food Bank will be removing some grasses and other ornamentals to make room for a food garden. This demonstration garden, designed by a SSCC horticulture student, will have sections for traditional Asian greens, square foot gardening, northwest berries, and containers. The intention of this garden is to inspire and educate on the possibilities for growing food, even in limited spaces.

Seattleworks volunteers will be digging up existing landscaping on February 21st, and we would like to offer some of these lovely grasses and bushes in exchange for compost (or $$ to buy compost!) All donations of time or money will be happily accepted and will go toward this project and other projects which encourage food growing amongst low-income residents of West Seattle and White Center.

Contact: info@gleanit.org

EVERGREEN HIGH SCHOOL FOOTBALL: Tough year for the team, which lost Saturday night to Renton, 40-8. One more regular-season game to go, an away game against Lindbergh on Friday night, 7 pm.

VILLAGE GREEN PERENNIAL NURSERY: Today’s the last scheduled day for the nursery to be open. Proprietor Vera Johnson is having a sale on Vietnamese pottery for the grand finale (50% off). Vera also notes she’s offering consultation/design/installation services, $50/hour, and adds, “Just a heads-up, we will be reorganizing over the winter. I am planning some changes with the use of the land.” Next year, she’s planning the usual spring opening, but then a July closing of the retail operation, not sure about “regular” hours after that, but definitely “more design and consulting work, allowing our creative skills to be more useful in designing beautiful gardens for clients, plus garden maintenance.” She’s also planning to offer plants for real estate “staging,” as well as using the Village Green land to grow more food, with more “demonstration edible gardens” and more workshops on “edibles/herbals.” One final note – she’s planning on keeping goats, and might even rent them out for blackberry removal. Vera promises more details to come; meantime, Village Green‘s hours today are 10 am-4:30 pm, 10223 26th SW (map)

Today’s the last scheduled day of the year for the Master Gardener program to have its weekly clinic at McLendon’s answering your questions (“what IS this weird plant I found?” and more), 10 am-2 pm.

Now you can say you’ve seen a 200-pound halibut. Posing with it, Seattle-based fisherman Bill Curtin, husband of Village Green Perennial Nursery proprietor Vera Johnson. He’s back home from fishing in Alaska, and Village Green is selling some of the catch – plus inviting you to a halibut barbecue next month. They’re also selling red snapper (rockfish) – we stopped by for some today and followed Bill down to the basement freezer:

More of the story, just ahead: Read the rest of this entry »