Eastside Community Garden Meeting

Last Saturday, May 8th, there was a meeting about our Eastside Community Gardens, here's a recap of what went on. Attendance was good, some 15 - 20 people showed up. Kristen McIvor representing the city was also on hand.

By-Laws and Garden Rules were discussed and Design of the Gardens, and each person had a chance to talk about there vision of the garden.

Small groups were formed to come up with garden designs and two designs were presented to the city for consideration. The Puyallup Tribal property was discussed and it was suggested that we do raised bed on the edges of 32nd Street and along Portland Avenue on the high spot. Basically not trying to do too much this first year.

Next Community Garden meeting is scheduled for Saturday, May 15th at 8:30 a.m. the location will be the Portland Avenue Community Center. Please join us if you are interested in gardening or making our neighborhood better.
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Eastside Community Garden Work Party

Successful work party to clean-up the new Eastside Community Garden, April 27th. A Special thank you goes to Bellarmine High students and teachers, and to Habitat for Humanity for organizing the garden clean-up.

We have two community garden sites on Portland Avenue. For this work party we primarily worked on the property at 32nd Street, owned by the Puyallup Tribe. They're working with the community and neighbors to help make a successful garden.

This work was focused on removing blackberry roots as well as bricks and cement on the property. The tree planters along Portland Avenue were weeded and are ready for some beautiful plants. The grass was also cut in the parking area between our two gardens.

There's still work to be done, if you have time stop by the garden and grub out a blackberry root or two. No need to wait for a work party, however rumor has it that on Friday morning, May 7th, you might see some neighbors out working at the garden site.
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Pictures of Garden meeting 4 April 2010

Neighbors and Garden Experts gather to discuss our two new Community Gardens. It was a wet and cold day.

The gardens will be located on Portland Avenue at Wright Avenue and 32nd. At the meeting we discussed the upcoming Innovative Grants and what we might want to accomplish with one.

Important meeting on Wednesday April 21st, 6:30pm, Evergreen College – Tacoma campus. There will be a city and county wide meeting for anyone interested in gardening. The City of Tacoma is fast tracking the new community garden sites and community feedback is needed at this meeting. Please attend if you are hope to garden in any of the city sites.
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Eastside Community Garden / Pea Patch

The Eastside of Tacoma has a new Community Garden / Pea Patch that will be planting this Spring. The Puyallup Tribe has given approval and is helping to create a large garden on their property located at 32nd and Portland Avenue. This will be a joint effort with the Neighbors on the Eastside and the Puyallup Tribe.

We need to get started soon. If you know of anyone wanting to garden on the Eastside, we need let them know so they can get involved. Also, we're looking for planning committee members and a garden leader.





The property is listed on http://govme.org as 0.30 acre with another section on Portland Avenue listed as 0.10 acre. The official addressese are: 1610 East 32nd and 3205 East Portland Avenue.

The garden space will be approximately 100' x 150'
There's also plenty of room for flowers and some fruit trees.

The Puyallup Tribe will be hooking up the water and paying for it. Plus we have a group of AmeriCorps volunteers to help with some of the initial clean-up. We need community members and gardeners to get involved right away.

We also, need to come up with a name for the garden, if you have any ideas please send them. Any ideas or interest would be appreciated.

Send email to danfear@hotmail.com and let him know about your interest. It's time to get started so don't delay.

Additional information will be provided at the April meeting of First Creek Neighbors at 6:30, Wednesday, April 7th, at the Portland Avenue Community Center, located at Portland Avenue Playfield.
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