SEQUIM — If you’re in the mood to grow food this spring, the city of Sequim has a new, old idea for you.
Victory gardens — named after the patriotic pea-patches of World War II — are making a comeback here, thanks to a resolution that won unanimous approval from the Sequim City Council this week.
The Sequim Victory Gardens Program, conceived by Carlsborg organic gardener Pam Larsen, invites 15 households to grow produce in their yards using water-saving drip, soaker or hand irrigation.
The gardeners also will be asked to join Larsen’s free Saturday classes to start in March.
Information and an application form are available now on the city’s Web site, www.ci.Sequim.wa.us, and would-be victory gardeners must turn in their forms by March 1.
For more details, phone the city Planning Department at 360-683-4908.
Fresh vegetables
The victory of the garden, said associate city planner and resolution co-author Joe Irvin, will be in the fresh, wholesome vegetables, berries and herbs grown in Sequim soil.
The project’s forerunner: victory gardens grown across America during the early 1940s. Some 20 million people produced prodigious yields on backyard plots, enriching their meals beyond what wartime food-ration books could provide.
Irvin, who’s known around the Planning Department as “the garden guy,” wrote in his report to the City Council, which considered it Monday night, that minimal city-staff time would go into the new project.
Larsen and other volunteers will work with the households as they prepare to plant and again at the end of the season, to assess how well their gardens grew.
Each victory gardener stands to receive a $15 rebate on his or her water bill — not a huge prize, but an acknowledgement of the water-saving aspect.
On Monday night, however, council member Don Hall questioned how far this growth will reach.
Already in place are the two Community Organic Gardens of Sequim, off Fifth Avenue behind St. Luke’s Episcopal Church and on the corner of Spruce Street and Sunnyside Avenue.
“I’m in favor,” Hall said, but “I am just wondering how far we’re going to go with community gardens,” and with city spending on them.
City expenditures
The city is investing $19,000 on picnic tables, parking spaces and other improvements to the June Robinson Memorial Park.
The Victory Gardens Program will cost up to $225 for the rebates plus about 25 hours of staff time, Irvin estimated.
Larsen and other city-appointed volunteers will do much of the coordination of the project, he said.
“This project is in many ways symbolic, as long as we don’t spend a lot of money and staff time on it,” City Manager Steve Burkett told the council.
Irvin also sees victory gardens as a potential example for other communities. They’re illustrations of how good food can be grown with little water.
And in the Saturday classes, participants can not only learn useful techniques but also bounce ideas — and perhaps zucchini, gently — off other gardeners.
Burkett added that this aligns with Sequim’s mission to protect its water supply.
Any gardener can conserve that resource by watering in the early morning instead of during the warmer midday hours, and by using mulch and compost, which keep soil cool and therefore less thirsty.
At the end of this year, Burkett emphasized, the Victory Garden volunteer coordinators will present a report on the project’s pros and cons, so the council can decide whether to green-light another season.
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Sequim-Dungeness Valley Reporter Diane Urbani de la Paz can be reached at 360-681-2391 or at diane.urbani@peninsuladailynews.com.