SEQUIM – In a moment of uncommon harmony, the Sequim City Council agreed this week to transform a swatch of land from blank to blooming.
Sequim’s second community organic garden will take root in the Spruce Street Pocket Park, at the corner of East Spruce and Sunnyside Avenue near downtown, thanks to a unanimous council vote Monday night.
The garden, to be composed of 16, 10-by-10-foot plots plus eight, 10-by-5-foot raised beds, will be available to Sequim area residents who want to grow organic produce, flowers or both.
And they don’t need to know how yet, because Pam Larsen, an expert organic gardener from Carlsborg, will teach classes just as she has done for plot-holders at the first Community Organic Garden of Sequim, or COGS.
First community garden
That garden, thriving behind St. Luke’s Episcopal Church on North Fifth Avenue, started three years ago as an idea, “with no money and no land,” said Liz Harper, one of its orchestrators.
Then St. Luke’s agreed to lease the land for COGS for $1 a year, and a flock of local businesses and individuals plus Friends of the Fields, Clallam County’s farmland preservation coalition, jumped in.
They donated materials for the raised beds, wheelchair-friendly paths and other garden features, and now COGS is fairly humming with color and edible yield.
Growing support
And already, the Spruce Street garden-to-be has the beginnings of support.
Sam Schwab, a Sequim High School student aiming for Eagle Scout status, will build and donate the materials for the eight raised beds.
Sequim’s public works crew will keep the place up while the plots, beds, tool shed and picnic tables are put in, using up to $19,000 in city funds authorized by the council.
City parks coordinator Jeff Edwards said work will start next month and continue into October, with plots and beds opening up next spring.
Aid provided
At the first community garden, plot holders pay a $35 annual fee to cover all the water and compost they need plus six to eight organic gardening classes. And if they need seeds, those are provided by donors.
“If you don’t have the $35, we scholarship you in,” Harper added.
Council member Ken Hays, as he voted for the new park plan, said he grew up in Seattle near one of the Emerald City’s first community gardens. As it flourished, so did the neighborhood, he said.
“This will be a great improvement” on the plain lawn that now covers the Spruce Street park, added Mayor Laura Dubois.
A retired budget analyst, she gained experience working the land at the original COGS and “actually learned how to grow some vegetables.”
“We really want to share everything we know about the garden,” said Harper, adding that she and the other COGS coordinators have learned much about community and ecology since planting their first seeds.
“There are a lot of opportunities to share resources.”
John D’Urso of the Sequim Sunrise Rotary Club said his group wants to provide fencing and other amenities, while Lisa Nobbs, who lives on Sunnyside Avenue near the second garden, called the whole idea “fabulous.”
After the council’s affirmative vote, a burst of applause filled the chamber.
This latest development shows what’s possible, Harper believes, when you put a good idea out there and invite the community to cultivate it.
COGS phase 2, she added, “is part of a larger vision I’ve always had, of having a string of organic gardens all over Sequim.”
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Sequim-Dungeness Valley reporter Diane Urbani de la Paz can be reached at 360-681-2391 or at diane.urbani@peninsuladaily news.com.
