Sustainable Queen Anne is hosting its next meeting, focused on practical ideas for sustainability in the home, on Monday, February 7. Here are the details:

“Practical Ideas for Sustainability in your home” with special guest and local sustainibility expert Jacquie Powers. Monday, February 7 from 6:30 to 8:30 p.m. Location: 2501 Westview Dr W (corner of Wheeler). Dinner will be provided.

Remember when we asked community members for suggestions on potential P-Patch sites in the neighborhood back in August? Thanks to funding from the Parks and Green Spaces Levy, the Seattle Department of Neighborhood’s P-Patch Community Gardening Program is planning to build a new P-Patch somewhere in QA.

According to Sustainable Queen Anne, an ideal location would be publicly owned (or easily lease-able for low or no cost), mostly flat and sunny, and approximately 5,000 square-feet in size. From Sustainable QA:

The P-Patch Program’s primary goal with new garden development is to increase community gardening opportunities in Seattle, especially for underserved communities.  At least 15 new or expanded P-Patch Community Gardens will be developed with Levy funds by 2013. Like all P-Patch community gardens city-wide, the new Queen Anne garden will be a public resource that builds and sustains community as it’s imagined, built, and cared for into the future. Community suggestions for a garden site are the first step.

Suggestions for possible sites, or for information on getting involved with this project, contact Laura Raymond at laura.raymond@seattle.gov.

In the past two months the FRIENDS of Gilman Urban Gardens have converted a regular old median into a community-run cooperative garden, garnering attention from urban gardening author Darrin Nordahl and King County Councilmember Larry Phillips, who both dropped by the garden this week.

Nordahl, Councilmember Phillips, and Gilman Urban Gardens founder Charlie Hoselton help plant a tree. (Photo courtesy of Charlie Hoselton).

Tomorrow Saturday, May 8, the garden will entertain another special guest, Seattle Tilth‘s Natural Soil Building Program Manager Laura Matter. Laura will be at the garden from 10 a.m. to noon to chat with gardeners and community members about the project, soil building, plant watering, pest and weed control and anything else related to the art of gardening, according to Hoselton.

The Gilman Urban Gardens is currently working to install a sprinkler and watering system, and is planning on applying for a Neighborhood Matching Fund grant in the coming year.

Over the weekend the FRIENDS of Gilman Urban Gardens broke ground on a 20-plot community garden at the medians along Gilman Drive W. and 13th Ave. W., removing trees, growth and tilling the area.

Residents interested in securing a plot dug in from 9 a.m. well into the afternoon both Saturday and Sunday. Project head Charlie Hoselton praised the help in an email sent out to volunteers today.

We accomplished an amazing amount of work this weekend, thanks to all who pitched in, in helping build the infrastructure of our garden.

Charlie said he will continue working in the garden for a few hours each morning (10 a.m. to noon) Tuesday, March 30 through Friday, April 2 and welcomes anyone interested in volunteering to join him. There will be work parties again this weekend, beginning at 10 a.m. on both Saturday, April 3 and Sunday, April 4, during which Charlie plans on finishing up the remaining work.

This coming weekend we can cut in remaining paths, plant the trees, put the rain barrels in and by Sunday afternoon, start assigning plots so that gardeners can start gardening!

And aside from stellar volunteers of all ages, Charlie is still looking for a few more supplies from the community, specifically cinder blocks, retaining wall blocks or bricks that could be used to construct a strong base for the garden’s rain barrels. If anyone would like to donate these or other items to the Gilman Urban Gardens, or get more information on how to volunteer, contact Charlie at friendsofgilman.urbangardens@hotmail.com. Want to learn more about getting a plot at the garden? Download the FRIENDS of Gilman Urban Gardens user agreement (.pdf).

(Photos courtesy of Charlie Hoselton).

Just a few weeks ago we got wind that one Queen Anne resident, Charlie Hoselton, was working to turn two large medians along Gilman Drive W. and 13th Ave. W. into a 20-plot community built urban garden. Yesterday, Wednesday, March 24, Charlie got the necessary permits from the city to build what will soon become the FRIENDS of Gilman Urban Gardens, and eager to get planting, plans to break ground this weekend!

There will be work parties on both Saturday, March 27 and Sunday, March 28 beginning at 9 a.m. to however long volunteers choose to stay. On Saturday Charlie envisions two work parties, one tackling tree removal and chipping, the other working on tilling and removing grass and other growth. On Sunday he plans to cut the garden pathways and spread mulch, which we be delivered directly to the site.

And if you’re interested in getting a plot at the new garden, it might behoove you to put in an few volunteer hours this weekend. Charlie writes,

Out of fairness, when it comes to site selection, those who are able to put in the most time in helping to prep the site will move higher up the list for picking the site that they want for their garden. Once the pathways are all cut in, we can start working out site selection, and gardeners can get busy on their own hunk of dirt.

Volunteers should bring a set of gloves and whatever tools they can carry over (rakes, shovels, wheel barrow if possible, etc.).

Truly a community built and tended garden, Charlie is working hard to develop a garden user agreement over the next few days (we’ll keep you posted). And due to the high cost of building the gardens, he will also be accepting donations this weekend from anyone who can (all donations, he says, will be applied to the site fee, which hasn’t been set yet but ranges from $50 each for a plot up to 50 sq. ft. and $150 for 150+ sq. ft. Charlie envisions these initial plot purchases to be a one-time fee for the funding of the building of the garden).

Charlie is also looking for donations of landscape rock, boulders, brick, non-chemically treated lumber (preferably Cedar or Redwood), retaining wall blocks and anything else that could be fit into the garden landscape.

Anyone interested in volunteering and having a plot at the Gilman Gardens should take a look at the garden site plan (.pdf). For questions or to coordinate for the work party this weekend, email Charlie at friendsofgilman.urbangardens@hotmail.com.

Charlie Hoselton has a vision for an urban garden on the west side of Queen Anne hill where neighbors can share organic growing space. He’s been working with the city on getting the permits necessary to begin work on 20 garden plots on two large medians along Gilman Drive W. and 13th Ave. W. and is looking for community members interested in helping to build and use this community garden. He wrote,

How would you like your own little plot of dirt to organically grow vegetables, berries, herbs and flowers.

I am looking for cohorts in creating a living, functional, beautiful oasis…Want to get your hands in some dirt?

He’s holding a Friends of Gilman Urban Gardens planning meeting tomorrow, Saturday, March 6 at 9 a.m. at the medians and encourages interested parties to drop by and discuss the future of the organic urban oasis he envisions. For more information, contact Charlie at friendsofgilman.urbangardens@hotmail.com.