SEQUIM — This could be the year when 15 Sequim households emerge victorious.
And well-nourished.
As they ramp the town up for a grand celebration of the 40th anniversary of Earth Day on April 22, city officials are proposing a pilot project they call “victory gardens,” to be planted in early spring.
The country’s first victory gardens, of course, were planted during World War II, when Americans were coping with food rationing.
President Franklin D. Roosevelt urged city dwellers to do as farmers did: grow their own fruits and vegetables, and preserve whatever was left over at summer’s end.
Some 20 million people responded, providing an estimated 40 percent of the nation’s produce.
Families and communities gardened together, and enjoyed the nutritious fruits of their labor and patriotism.
Today, Sequim Mayor Laura Dubois and associate planner Joe Irvin see their city in a new kind of battle against multiple enemies: the stubborn recession, limited water, the spread of diabetes and junk-food dependency.
One act can defeat all of the above, they believe.
So as Dubois spearheads Sequim’s preparations for Earth Day in April, Irvin is promoting a new kind of homeland security in Sequim.
Tonight, he’ll deliver a plan for a pilot victory-garden project for the new decade, during the Sequim City Council meeting to begin at 6 p.m. in the Transit Center, 190 W. Cedar St.
It goes like this: The city will invite 15 Sequim households to plant vegetable gardens — and some berries, herbs and flowers if they like — and take organic gardening classes with local expert Pam Larsen
Larsen is part of the volunteer team that established the Community Organic Gardens of Sequim, which are located behind St. Luke’s Episcopal Church on Fifth Avenue and at the corner of Spruce Street and Sunnyside Avenue.
Spaces are still available, and would-be growers can phone 360-683-7698 or 360-683-4908 for information about renting a plot.
The victory gardens are an additional venture.
They will be in people’s yards, and each will serve as a kind of demonstration of how lots of food can grow on a little water and land.
To make it easy for the gardeners to conserve water, Irvin is working on an arrangement with a local hardware store to provide discounted drip irrigation systems.
And Larsen, in her classes, will teach about things like mulching, which keep soil moist.
And to provide a small financial incentive, Irvin will ask the City Council to approve $15-per-year rebates on the victory gardeners’ water bills.
That’ll cost the city $225 — a small price to pay, Irvin said, for changing Sequim’s culture just a bit.
To his mind, growing one’s own not only saves money and provides flavorful, wholesome food; it can also beautify the city on several levels.
Organic gardeners, he has noticed, are a neighborly bunch. When they get together in Larsen’s classes — and on summer evenings and weekends — they tend to share tips as well as tomatoes.
Growing organic fruits, vegetables and herbs “is really very easy,” Larsen added, “because you’re working in conjunction with nature,” and natural nutrients such as mulch provide what plants and people need for good health.
Early spring, she added, is an ideal time to start growing things like peas, radishes, lettuce and broccoli.
Irvin, for his part, will be at tonight’s meeting to answer questions from the council members.
Then he’ll put the victory gardens back on the agenda for the Feb. 8 council session, which will also start at 6 p.m. in the Transit Center.
The planner hopes for approval at that point, so he can announce the program on the city’s Web site, www.ci.Sequim.wa.us, by mid-February.
Then the gardeners can sign up for Larsen’s first class on March 6.
This year’s 15 gardens are just a start, “a toe-in-the-water kind of thing,” Larsen said.
And with Sequim being the fertile place it is, she and Irvin are looking ahead to a spreading of vegetables, and victories, throughout the valley.
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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.
