Green Plate Special

Shed with plans & information.

The garden is completed enclosed with fence.

All the planting beds are raised beds of wood.

The public entrance

Wood-fired pizza oven with the Treehouse building in the background

Kitchen.  These photos were taken in October 2014

Green Plate Special introduces middle school students to gardening & cooking fresh produce through after-school programs, summer camps & evening cooking classes. Food growing & cooking are tied to academic subjects like math, science & history. They provide snacks & lunch! Students can take home food they have cooked & produce from the garden. Chickens are also kept here. There are various opportunities for volunteers, such as helping out at the Garden Gala in September, working with the kids, maintaining the garden & tending the chickens. I went to a Garden Gala & it was a lot of fun. It's a wonderful space. Green Plate Special was founded in 2011 & moved to this space nextdoor to Treehouse in 2013.  It is located in the Rainier Valley of Seattle.

Barbie's Garden

These photos were taken in October 2014.

Barbie's Garden is on my street in the next block south of my house.  The house was built in 2013, along with 11 others of the same shape & size (tall & narrow) in the Rainier Vista development in Seattle.  I call it Barbie's Garden because of the candy colors that remind me of Barbie's Dream House.  I spoke to the woman who lives there.  She told me the garden was created by her sister.  Plants in Barbie's Garden include Canna, Dahlia, Lantana, Zinnia & Pink Polka-Dot Plant (Hypoestes phyllostachya) which is just perfect for Barbie.  Many of these are annual plants.  I wonder what will replace them next season.  It is the most interesting & best-maintained garden on that block & perhaps in all of Rainier Vista, which has a lot of dismal landscaping.

Brighton Playfield

Brighton Playfield/Playground in October 2013

Brighton Playfield is a fairly large park with more terrain & changes in elevation than you would expect from a playfield.  It covers more than 12 acres including a tennis court, basketball courts, restrooms, a playground & a large playfield.  It is attached to Aki Kurose Middle School.  This very pleasant space is often used by people in the Brighton neighborhood as a place to walk.   It is located at 6000 39th Avenue S in the Rainier Valley.  

English immigrants who purchased lots here in the 1880s named the neighborhood for a resort town in England.  The City of Seattle annexed the area in 1907. The Olmsted Brothers architectural firm recommended a park for the Brighton neighborhood in 1908.  In 1911, the residents of Brighton petitioned the Parks Board for a playfield. A series of bond issues resulted in the purchase of the Brighton Playfield in 1913. For 20 years, the playfield site was used as a construction camp for street graders, for gardens, and as a garbage dump. Development of the park began in 1930. In 1948, the Seattle School Board selected a site south of the Brighton Playfield for a junior high school. Part of the Olmsted Plan was for schools to be sited next to playfields to provide recreation for students. This information comes from Seattle Neighborhoods: Brighton Beach at HistoryLink.org.
 

Angel Morgan P-Patch

 Rockery & tool shed at the Angel Morgan P-Patch in August 2013

Tool shed at the Angel Morgan P-Patch in August 2013

Grape arbor at the Angel Morgan P-Patch in August 2013

The Angel Morgan P-Patch is a very pleasant surprise to find in the quiet residential heart of the Brighton neighborhood in the Rainier Valley of Seattle.  It has a lot going on.  There is tool shed made stylish with an attached trellis, a rockery filled with perennials, espaliered fruit trees & a grape arbor, all in good condition.  Most of the 26 plots are well-tended.  This p-patch covers 22,650 square feet on land owned by the City of Seattle on 42nd Avenue S, between S Morgan Street & S Angel Place.  It was established in 2004.

Hillside Garden P-Patch

The Route 8 bus stops here.

Martin Luther King Jr Way S. All photos are of the Hillside Garden P-Patch in July 2013

The Hillside Garden P-Patch is one of the most visible community gardens in Seattle.  Terraced upward from the very bottom of the west slope of Mt Baker Ridge, this garden lies along busy Martin Luther King Jr Way S near S McClellan Street.  The gardeners here are all tenants of the Mt Baker Housing Association, which provides low-income housing in a small campus above the garden.  Many of the residents have been southeast Asian immigrants & refugees.  They began terracing & gardening the slope independently, after their arrival in the late 1970s.  The garden became a p-patch under the supervision of the Seattle Department of Neighborhoods in 2001.  Concrete retaining walls were added & plumbing installed.  There are 38 plots on 8,000 square feet, with plenty of space to expand.  The land is owned by the Seattle Fleets & Facilities Department.

Rainier Beach Playfield

 Dunlap Elementary School

Rainier Beach Playfield in October 2013

Playfields are not very exciting places, unless you are actually playing a rousing game of soccer, football, baseball or softball.  But a large expanse of mowed lawn is restful to the eye & promotes a feeling of tranquility.  The Rainier Beach Playfield is particularly attractive, because it is in the secluded center of a super-block, surrounded by large old trees & the appealing architecture of the handsome brick Dunlap Elementary School, built in 1924 & the sleekly modern Rainier Beach Community Center, built in 2013.  Two other schools of unexceptional architecture are also here, South Lake High School & South Shore K-8 School.  Dunlap Elementary School honors Joseph Dunlap, the first white settler of Rainier Beach who built a home on the site in the 1870s. The Dunlaps donated the school site in 1904 to replace the 1898 log cabin school house.  The Rainier Beach Playfield can be found at 8802 Rainier Avenue S, a short walk from the Rainier Beach Station.  

Rainier Beach is located in the southeast corner of Seattle on the shore of Lake Washington. The Rainier Beach neighborhood includes the Dunlap neighborhood, which lies just west, between Rainier Beach & Beacon Hill. Joseph Dunlap built a cabin at S Henderson Street & 50th Avenue S. He brought his family from Iowa by wagon over the Oregon Trail in September 1869. Between the Dunlap claim and the lake was a low swampy area called Dunlap Slough. Those who settled south of the Dunlaps & close to the lake called their community Rainier Beach.  This information comes from Seattle Neighborhoods: Rainier Beach at HistoryLink.org.

New Holly Rockery Community Garden & Market Garden

New Holly Rockery Community Garden & Market Garden in August 2013

New Holly Rockery Market Garden in August 2013 

New Holly Rockery Market Garden in August 2013 

New Holly Rockery Community Garden & Market Garden Tool Shed & Greenhouse in August 2013 

New Holly Rockery Community Garden in August 2013

The best thing about the New Holly Rockery Market Garden is that you can buy fresh produce here during the growing season.  It is located not far from the intersection of Martin Luther King Jr Way S & S Othello Street, & the Othello Station, on S Holly Park Drive between 40th Avenue S & Rockery Drive S. The whole place is a bit of a mess & the community garden looks rather forlorn.  The market garden is approximately 16,000 square feet & has 8  gardeners, mostly southeast Asian & living in Seattle Housing Authority low-income housing at New Holly.  It was built in 2002.  The community garden has 23 plots on 6,000 square feet of land owned by the Seattle Housing Authority.  It was established in 2005 right next to the market garden at the north end of New Holly Central Park, which is a pleasant & ample park space.

John C Little Garden

 John C Little Garden, with John C Little, Sr Park beyond, in August 2013

The John C Little Garden can be found at the north end of John C Little, Sr. Park, located in the New Holly development, at the south end of the Rainier Valley of Seattle.  John C Little, Sr. was a member of the Board of Park Commissioners who developed programs & services for disadvantaged youth & low-income families.  This modest & very rectilinear garden was established in 2013.  The land is owned by the Seattle Department of Parks & Recreation.

Martin Luther King, Jr. Memorial Park

Martin Luther King, Jr. Memorial Park, with Beacon Hill on the horizon, in July 2013

Martin Luther King, Jr. Memorial Park, with Downtown Seattle in the distance, in July 2013

Martin Luther King, Jr. Memorial Park, with Mt Baker Ridge above, in July 2013

The Martin Luther King, Jr. Memorial Park is located at 2200 Martin Luther King, Jr. Way S, covering 4.3 acres on the west slope of Mt Baker Ridge, in the Mt Baker neighborhood.  The memorial sculpture/fountain & surrounding pool sits in the Rainier Valley.  It represents a mountain, which was inspired by the civil rights leader's last speech, delivered in Memphis on April 3, 1968: I've Been to the Mountaintop. 

Robert Kelly designed the sculpture and fountain.  It was dedicated on November 16, 1991.  The land behind the memorial is terraced to form an amphitheater.  Protests, demonstrations & rallies are staged at the memorial.  But it appears to be seldom used or visited.  It is clearly visible to traffic on Martin Luther King, Jr. Way S.  The landscaping here in uninspired & the views are unspectacular.

Martin Luther King, Jr. visited Seattle once from November 8 to November 10, 1961.  He spoke at the University of Washington, Temple de Hirsch, Garfield High School & the Eagles Auditorium.  In his lectures, the civil rights leader stressed creative protest to break down racial segregation & discrimination, & called on President John F. Kennedy to use the executive order to declare all segregation unconstitutional.

 

The Station at Othello Park

Come Dance with Me, an artwork by Augusta Asberry, at The Station at Othello Park in August 2013.  The plantings include Nasella tenuissima (Mexican Feather Grass) Ophiopogon planiscapus 'Nigrescens' (Black Mondo Grass) & Euphorbia x martinii.

Othello Station in August 2013

Hebe 'Champion' at The Station at Othello Park in August 2013

Gunnera & Liriope spicata at The Station at Othello Park in August 2013

Hakonechloa macra 'Aureola', Liriope spicata & Nandina domestica at The Station at Othello Park in August 2013

I lived at The Station at Othello Park from April through October of 2013, after my house in Mt Baker was sold & before the construction of my house in Rainier Vista was finished.  I thought the landscaping there was fairly good for a commercial project.  Much of it is visible from the sidewalks around the 351-unit, 7-floor building on the southeast corner of S Othello Street & Martin Luther King Jr Way S.  The building opened directly across from the Othello Station (light rail) in 2011.