West Seattle, Washington
18 Thursday
On Sunday, we shared news of two language courses in West Seattle starting early in the New Year – Spanish and Lushootseed. This morning, 2 more announcements of chances to learn something new:
GREEN CLEANING: On January 6, CoolMom invites you to a Green Cleaning Demonstration event at Bridge Park in High Point. From the flyer: “Make, get recipes, and take home a few Green Cleaning products and other tips to use with peace of mind – all while saving money and the planet! Please bring empty glass jars with lids and spray bottles for yourself or to share!” Suggested materials fee is $5; RSVPs are requested – you can do it via Evite.
LEARN BASIC FRUIT TREE PRUNING: City Fruit sends word that John Reardon (left), vice president of the Seattle Tree Fruit Society, will lead a class “at his home orchard in the Delridge neighborhood on Saturday, January 9, 10 am to noon. This is a rare chance to learn pruning techniques on well-maintained fruit trees and (fuzzless) kiwi vines.” In the City Fruit announcement, he is quoted as saying, “My goals are to encourage easy picking and to create productive plants. I encourage lots of questions and believe in learning by doing.” The class is $15 for City Fruit members, $20 for nonmembers. You can register by following this link to Brown Paper Tickets.
With interest in edible gardening growing like mad, Community Harvest of Southwest Seattle, sponsors of the West Seattle Edible Garden Fair and Edible Garden Tour (among other things), is looking tonight for your opinion: 
They’re exploring partnering with Seattle Tilth to offer some classes in West Seattle next year. Aviva from Community Harvest says, “The location would be at the St. James Annex, close to Westwood Village (map). The Community and Food Bank Garden which is forming at this location would provide the space for hands-on learning. In addition to Tilth classes, there is a possibility for classes in food preservation, cooking, and fruit-tree care.” Take a quick survey to let them know if you’d be interested: Go here.
We published the West Seattle Weekend Lineup earlier than usual yesterday – so in case you missed it once all the other big news of the day started sweeping in, check it out here. A few highlights:
GREEN SEATTLE DAY: Volunteers will converge on greenspaces in West Seattle and elsewhere to do planting, restoration and pre-winter cleanup. Full list here.
DELRIDGE ADOPT-A-STREET: Join the North Delridge Neighborhood Council at Delridge Community Center, 9:45 am, for this quarterly cleanup – all gear/supplies provided.
GREEN UP YOUR OWN YARD WITH NATIVE PLANTS: The West Seattle Wildlife Habitat Project‘s selling native plants to continue raising money for the demonstration garden at Seacrest. 3223 47th SW (map), 10 am-4 pm.
DON’T LET IT SLIDE: Timely, to say the least. Lots of information on landslide prevention is available — and answers to your questions — at a city-sponsored meeting at South Seattle Community College (WSB sponsor) with engineers, geologists, arborists and more expertise, 10 am-noon at the Judge Warren & Nobie Chan Education Center near the Arboretum (park in the northeast lot).
SOUTHWEST LIBRARY ART AND ANNUAL MEETING: The annual community art show is under way at Southwest Branch Library (map) – today, meet the artists at an afternoon reception with refreshments, 2-3 pm, including a sculpture demonstration by Heidi Henry. Then you’re welcome to stay for the Friends of Southwest Library‘s annual meeting, 3-5 pm.
OPERATION CHANO: The Westenders Scooter Club folks are sending out one more reminder – tonight’s the pasta/movie/raffle fundraiser for the family of Cafe Revo‘s Chef Sean “Chano” Goff – full details at westenders.org.
Lots of entertainment options too – including Twelfth Night Productions (WSB sponsor) with the second performance of “The Diviners,” final West Seattle High School performance of “Invasion from Mars” — again, here’s the full WS Weekend Lineup list.
All three of these are coming up this Saturday:
First, that Google Map from greenseattle.org shows the West Seattle spots where you can join in GREEN SEATTLE DAY – which means special Saturday work parties in parks and green spaces all over the city – lots of info here, including how to volunteer! Second, it’s NORTH DELRIDGE ADOPT-A-STREET — meet North Delridge Neighborhood Council reps and neighbors at Delridge Community Center by 10 am Saturday, have a cup of coffee, get equipment and head out to clean up the area. As Nancy Folsom put it, “The city supplies bags, gloves, reachers, and safety vests (very fashionable!), we supply the civic pride.” Third, WEST SEATTLE WILDLIFE HABITAT PROJECT fundraising plant sale! 3223 47th Ave SW (map), 10 am-3 pm Saturday, selling native plants to raise money for the project’s demonstration garden at Seacrest. P.S. You can join the WSWHP’s group on Facebook by going here.
At The Kenney‘s celebration this afternoon of the 100th anniversary of its grand opening, Kaia Hlavacek portrayed the senior-living center’s co-founder Jessie Kenney, in turn-of-the-20th-century garb. Meantime, just blocks away, the Solstice Park P-Patch hosted young gardeners and their adult assistants:
A group of students from the Fauntleroy Children’s Center before-and-after-school-care program – headquartered at the old schoolhouse – have a plot at the P-Patch where they are growing produce to donate to food-bank clients. Today, they were “winterizing” the plot, as FCC’s Kim Sheridan put it – with the help of a generous donation of soil-amending material from Burien Bark.
(August photo courtesy of Margaret, taken as a TV crew videotaped a harvest at her house)
The “donated tree” harvesting is over for the year, and Aviva from Community Harvest of Southwest Seattle is sending thanks today to tree donors and volunteers for what she describes as “the bountiful harvest of 2009,” exceeding the goals they set earlier in the year:
6639 pounds of plums, grapes, pears, apples and figs (were) harvested and donated to the White Center and West Seattle food banks. This wonderful local fruit, instead of spoiling in backyards and sidewalks, was distributed to those who could benefit and enjoy it. Community Harvest will not be harvesting any more trees in 2009, but will be continuing activities through the winter.
What’s next?
Monthly meetings of the West Seattle Urban Crop Circle – a group which meets to learn and share about food gardening. Next meeting: Sunday, November 1 – Native Edibles – Kimberly Leeper (Mariposa Naturescapes), 6:30 – 8:30 PM, Duwamish Cohousing Common House, 6000 17th Ave SW.
*Planning for a Community Garden in West Seattle
*Planning for next year’s fruit harvestPlease contact info@gleanit.org if you would like more information, or would like to participate in our projects.
The new community edible garden behind C & P Coffee – built today by CoolMom– and Sustainable West Seattle-organized volunteers as part of the worldwide 350 Day of Action – was taking shape in a big way when we stopped by around noon – four raised beds behind the coffeehouse. And lots of help, including the very young:
If you see this before 3 pm or so, there’s still time for you to get to Seattle Center and be in the big “350” photo by the International Fountain. A SWS contingent planned to bicycle there; here’s the bicycle that SWS president Bill Reiswig was going to ride:
If you don’t know what the “350” is about – it’s explained here. ADDED 7:02 PM: We got to Seattle Center just as those gathered for the photo finished counting down to 3:50 pm — here’s the group finishing the countdown and cheering/waving:
Here’s how it looked from above (the people we video’d were at the bottom of the photo, just before the big blue banner on the ground). ADDED EARLY SUNDAY: We’ve received one of the aerial photos, and permission to use it, from Terri Glaberson of CoolMom (who was among the speakers at, and organizers of, Saturday’s big event):
Organizers say about 500 people participated.
(WSB photo from 2008 Fauntleroy Fall Festival)
FESTIVAL TIME! Pumpkin-painting is a Fauntleroy Fall Festival tradition – one of the activities you’ll find during the FFF 2-6 pm today. A schedule of other highlights is here, including musical performances and the Seattle Civic Dance Theatre.
NATIVE PLANT SALE: Fall is the perfect time to plant – and natives are the perfect choice. You can buy some 10 am-4 pm today at a plant sale that the West Seattle Wildlife Habitat Project is helping to host, with a portion of the proceeds going toward the group’s purchase of plants for the wildlife garden at Seacrest. The sale site is near West Seattle PCC (WSB sponsor), at 3223 47th SW (map).
WEST SEATTLE FARMERS’ MARKET: 10 am-2 pm, today and every Sunday, 44th/Alaska. Here’s the latest Ripe ‘n’ Ready fresh sheet, featuring kiwis!
(WSB photo from 10/1, by Kathy Mulady)
The folks at High Point Market Garden (32nd and Juneau; map) had said that their Tuesday farm stand might be open a little later into the fall than first planned – and indeed, Wendy Hughes-Jelen e-mailed to share the news that the farmers told her the stand will be open today, 3-7 pm.
We’re still more than nine months away from next year’s West Seattle Garden Tour, but the gardens for next year are chosen much sooner – and organizers are inviting more people to apply right now, since they tour prospects during October. (The photo above is used by permission of WSGT, showing one of last year’s highlighted gardens.) This page on the WSGT website has more info on the tour and how to find out if your garden might qualify.
(EPA’s Ann Carroll, red coat, and Oklahoma City mayor Mick Cornett, crouching, check out the garden)
The U.S. Conference of Mayors‘ Leadership Committee is in town – and more than 20 of them came to High Point for a visit this afternoon (before it started to rain!). WSB contributing journalist Kathy Mulady was there – she says the High Point Market Garden (32nd/Juneau; map) was one stop on a tour Mayor Nickels (who is the Conference of Mayors’ president) was leading while the visitors were here. He posed with some of the gardeners:
Hien Nguyen is the Market Garden Master at High Point:
He told Kathy that neighborhood residents are welcome to stop at the garden any day (bring cash) to purchase whatever vegetables are ready to harvest. The farm stand has been open Tuesdays from 3 to 7 pm; Julie Bryan from the city’s P-Patch program, which manages the market gardens, tells WSB that next Tuesday is scheduled to be its last official day. (The market garden also offers produce subscriptions with weekly pickups – find out more here.)
That’s a simulation of what West Seattle CoolMom and other area environmental groups hope to muster enough people to create at Seattle Center in a month, as part of the 350.org Day of Action. And CoolMom’s Terri Glaberson says her group is looking for the perfect spot to do something smaller, closer to home, too:
In recognition and support of 350.org International Day of Action taking place on October 24th, West Seattle CoolMom is trying to locate a plot of land that could be home to 350 square feet of garden. The idea is to create a new garden space for a local business, school or church so that the community can benefit from an ongoing working garden. Instead of CoolMom trying to locate this land by searching ourselves, we thought of asking the community for help.
What we would like is to have the community raise their hand in offering this plot of land to CoolMom so that we may establish a garden, but with understanding that this land would be maintained after October 24th by the owners of the land.
If you can suggest a site for this garden, e-mail Terri at admin@coolmom.org. And she invites you to make plans to be part of the big “350” at Seattle Center, 2 pm October 24:
The event includes exhibitors, speakers, live feed of neighborhood action events, the cities new carbon calculator-created to be user friendly for families, and a large photo op of a “three”, “five” and “zero” near the fountain. We are going to need a lot of folks to come out to form these numbers, but more importantly we want people to get involved and learn about climate change and what each individual can do to make a difference in his or her community.
Thanks to Rachel Jackson at ArtsWest for the photo from last night’s West Seattle Garden Tour Awards at AW. The WSGT is a fundraiser as well as a great day of garden-wandering, and the photo shows WSGT president Lee Kramer (left) presenting a symbolic check for the fundraising proceeds to this year’s beneficiaries: Junction Plaza Park, Seattle Youth Garden Works, Transitional Resources, Plant Amnesty and ArtsWest (where the second week of AW’s season-opener “Dead Man’s Cell Phone” starts tonight). Jane Watson reports that the total amount raised this year was $22,500, adding:
Begun in 1995 as a fundraising event for the ArtsWest Theatre, the West Seattle
Garden Tour has evolved into an annual fundraising event for a variety of non-profit and educational organizations in West Seattle and surrounding communities. We would like to take this opportunity to thank this year’s sponsors, gardeners, volunteers and the West Seattle community for supporting the Garden Tour and for making the 2009 tour our most successful yet!We would also like to extend an invitation to anyone interested in joining the WSGT as a volunteer. The WSGT committee meets every second Wednesday of each month at a members home for a group potluck and to plan the upcoming Tour. For additional information, contact us via our website www.westseattlegardentour.com.
From the Camp Long mailing list:
We’re still looking for an appropriate site in West Seattle to do pruning. Do you know of a church, institution or yard that could use some major pruning that would be done for free? The only thing is, it has to fit the qualifications below.
Here’s the updated site requirements info for the Oct. 1st workshop.
Site Requirements for PlantAmnesty’s Spanish Language Pruning and Renovation Workshop
Thursday, October 1st, 2009, 8 am – 4 pmThis workshop is a classroom and hands-on all-day event for Spanish-speaking landscape professionals. Pruning and creative solutions to an overgrown landscape will be taught as a landscape is renovated during the workshop. In the morning George Ortiz of Signature Landscape Services will give a lecture at Camp Long. Then in the afternoon everyone moves to a location where professionals work in small groups with the workshop students, practicing pruning methods. For the afternoon portion of the workshop we are looking for a site that meets the requirements below.
Site Requirements
– A private home, church, library, commercial landscape, school or park located in West Seattle.
– Large enough so that it is maneuverable by a group of 20-30 people.
– It is preferable for us to work on different groupings of overgrown, neglected shrubs and small trees that are as old as 15 years. And a diversity of types of shrubs (i.e. not just a landscape of mostly Rhodys).
– Nearby parking for as many as 20-30 vehicles.
– A place to leave pruning debris.
– A bathroom for use by potentially muddy workers.
– A representative of site should be present during the workshop.
– A small monetary donation to PlantAmnesty is required, unless it is a public property.
– This type of work will NOT be done: hedge shearing, a lot of blackberry and weed removal, and work on steep slopes. Only one large tree can be pruned by a certified arborist. Several smaller or younger trees are preferable for this class situation.Benefits to the Site Owner
– A pre-workshop consultation with author-expert Cass Turnbull, and the benefit of several professionals’ insights into possible solutions to existing landscape problems.
– Pruning and renovation work done by approximately 8 landscape professionals and 15-20 students.
– Opportunity to attend the workshop (taught in Spanish) and receive all workshop materials (a pruning DVD and handouts on pruning topics, in Spanish or English).
– A beautiful landscape at the end of the workshop!If you are interested in having the workshop held at your residence, business, church, library, school, or park, contact PlantAmnesty, 206.783.9813 or info@plantamnesty.org
Just back from the West Seattle Chamber of Commerce monthly lunch, where Bill Hibler of West Seattle Internet mentioned that the West Seattle Garden Tour – which included his Gatewood home this past July (photo above) – is inviting people to join the committee, and there’s a meeting tonight, which he described as part party (that’s where the food comes in – wine too) and part meeting – as Bill puts it, “One member suggested that the committee was actually a gourmet cooking club masquerading as a garden committee!” If you’d like to investigate the possibility of helping out the WS Garden Tour, be at 1300 SW Webster (map) at 6:30 (phone numbers if you get lost: 206 225-6508, 206 225-4109). If you just can’t make it, but are interested in being on the WSGT committee, contact Clay Swidler at 206-669-4653. (The tour is a nonprofit annual event that raises money for nonprofit and educational organizations in West Seattle and vicinity – more info at westseattlegardentour.com.)
We took that photo of the parking-strip garden at Chris‘s house in Admiral (39th/Lander) after he e-mailed this report:
Last night our parking strip garden was vandalized.
For the past several years my wife and I have planted a parking strip garden and with the exception or a few tomatoes being snatched, they have been relatively undisturbed. One of the highlights is growing pumpkins for our kids. Over the years, many toddlers in our neighborhood have spend time counting our pumpkins and watching them grow. Our kids take great pride that they grow their own pumpkins for Halloween. This year we were fortunate enough to have an Atlantic Giant pumpkin that we have been nuturing along with a handful of jack o’ lantern pumpkins. The Atlantic Giant though not enormous was over 60 pounds.
This morning I was greeted with three of the pumpkins in the street. One was smashed, another undamaged and the 60-pound giant damaged. The giant was not broken open and looks like whoever perpetrated this was frustrated enough that they used a knife to cut several gashes along one end. Both my children are very upset and I am disappointed that this happened. The impact stretches beyond our family to the families in the neighborhood who take the time to walk our the garden to watch the pumpkins grow.
If you saw anything, contact police, to whom Chris says this has been reported.
(WSB photo from this year’s West Seattle Garden Tour)
Just a month and a half after the West Seattle Garden Tour, Gail from the WSGT Selection Committee says they’re ready to harvest the next round of participants:
ATTENTION ALL GARDENERS
Do you have the most beautiful garden on your block? Would you love to show it off? The 2010 West Seattle Garden Tour would love to have you on the tour. We are NOW selecting gardens for the summer of 2010. Call 206-935-9217 and leave a message if you are interested in sharing your garden. Thank you, cannot wait to see your garden.
Several West Seattle Crime Watch reports to share … First, if you haven’t seen it in the WSB Forums already, Jennifer reported what you might call the “stolen car swap” – her car was stolen, and someone else’s (similar) stolen car left in its place. Read her story, and see a photo, here. Now, to the P-Patch pilfering at Longfellow Creek, as reported by Shannon, who says the same thieves keep returning:
They have been spotted four times now in the past few weeks and confronted at least twice. They are two men driving a blue Isuzu truck with Washington license plates A35–3U. We would like to first warn other gardeners in the area to be on the look out for these folks. Second, we would appreciate any help with stopping these people by reporting them to the police immediately. If you see this truck anywhere, call the police.
Not only are these men stealing from the gardeners who work so hard on our plots in the Longfellow Creek P-Patch, but they are stealing from the food bank plots we maintain there as well. The P-Patch is on city property and is marked as a city P-Patch. There is no reason for confusion on their part as they have been confronted and told this is not open to the public.
Just to reiterate what police have told us and say publicly at every crime-prevention meeting we attend – do NOT hesitate to call 911 if you see a crime, or something suspicious, in progress. Possible life-threatening situations are their first priority, police note, so you may not always get instant reponse.
One more Crime Watch report, went by Thomas on Friday, that we didn’t get the chance to share till now:
I wanted to let you know about a break-in that my wife and I just discovered. It happened on 46th between Raymond and Graham [map] sometime between 9:30 and 1:30 [Friday].
As far as we can tell they took a playstation, 3 laptops, about 45 DVDs, 75 CDs and some costume jewelry. No obvious signs of forced entry. The front door was wide open when we got home. Thankfully our cats stayed inside and are safe.
“CROW PLANET” REVIEWED BY NEW YORK TIMES: The NYT Sunday book reviews comprise arguably the most prestigious showcase in America for an author – and Gatewood author Lyanda Lynn Haupt‘s new book “Crow Planet” has just made it there. Here’s the link to this past weekend’s review. We wrote about Haupt and her book just last month – here’s our story; you can also follow her more-frequent writings at her site The Tangled Nest.
COMMUNITY HARVEST PLUM-PICKING STORY ON TV: We’ve also featured Community Harvest of Southwest Seattle and its “donate your tree” volunteer fruit harvests, and now they’ve made it onto TV too – the story resulting from the KING5 visit to Margaret‘s house last Monday finally aired Friday – here’s the link (video). CHoSS is still seeking volunteers, so they can pick even more of the fruit-laden trees that have been “donated” (the fruit goes to local food banks) – here’s how to sign up!
A memorial service is planned next Sunday, Sept. 6, at Highline SeaTac Botanical Garden’s Celebration Garden for West Seattle rose gardener Lori White, who died this week at age 49. Rainy Rose Society president Sue Tiffany asked that we share that information along with Ms. White’s obituary; she says, “Lori White belonged to many rose societies including the Valley Rose Society, the Seattle Rose Society, the Heritage Rose Society, the Rainy Rose Society, and many more. Through her volunteer work Lori helped to fund the continuation of the Celebration Garden. Even when she was horribly ill, Lori would still go to the garden and volunteer her time.Her beautiful smile and valiant spirit will be sorely missed by so many, many who loved her. Lori had the ability to make each person that she spoke with feel like he/she was the most important person in the world. I called her ‘Precious’ and indeed she was.’ The photo above shows Ms. White with local gardening expert Ciscoe Morris and broadcaster Meeghan Black. Read on for her obituary:Read More
It’s been a big week for Community Harvest of Southwest Seattle since our last report on their fruit-picking season, in more ways than one. For one, they’ll be featured on TV later this week – KING5 shot CHoSS volunteers harvesting plums at Margaret‘s house earlier this week. The story is tentatively scheduled to air tomorrow morning and noontime, according to Aviva from CHoSS, who adds:
Community Harvest would like to thank all the tree owners who have been donating their trees for picking. Since the posting last week, we have harvested over 1,000 pounds of fruit from 12 trees. We appreciate all the new harvest volunteers who have responded as well, and especially those folks who have picked their own trees for donation.
Tree owners do help – like Margaret’s daughter Hazel, walking here with a CHoSS volunteer:
Donated fruit goes to keep local folks from going hungry. If you can volunteer to help pick, and/or have a tree to “donate,” contact info for Community Harvest is on its website, gleanit.org. (Thanks to Margaret for sharing the pix!)
This morning, Steve wrote to share this story:
> So, we have this gigantic plum tree in our yard. Way more than we could ever eat on our own. Way more.
Typically we spend the end of the summer wiping smashed plum off our shoes and depositing plums into the yard waste bin. This year, we got in contact with a cool organization called Community Harvest of Southwest Seattle (in West Seattle). You call them or fill out an online form about your fruit trees. They show up with a bunch of volunteers, pick the ripe fruit, deliver it to local food banks that night. You can help pick or not. Really nice people, super easy to work with. They came and harvested the plums last night, they left us as many as we wanted for ourselves and took the rest. Might be cool to let people know about this — I was vaguely aware of the idea, but finally remembered to track them down this year.
Shortly after Steve’s note, we coincidentally heard from Aviva at Community Harvest, who says they’ve got more trees waiting to be picked – 10 new tree donors this week alone! – but they need a hand – more than one hand, actually:
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