Sustainable Ballard to Host 8th Annual Edible Garden Tour
A self-guided tour through neighborhood gardens helps inspire creative food production
By Kasee Bailey June 22, 2016
If you live in Ballard and happen to see someone peeking over your fence, don’t fret. It’s probably just Paula.
Paula Jenson is on the board of directors at Sustainable Ballard and a key player in its annual Edible Garden Tour. When she scours Ballard’s neighborhoods, she’s not looking to steal your veggies. She’s simply admiring your garden, an activity her team has humorously deemed “garden snooping.”
After seeking out creative composting, flourishing flowerbeds or lively landscapes, the team in charge at Sustainable Ballard gets to work on their annual Edible Garden Tour, a self-guided excursion through a 10-block-by-10-block walkable area of neighborhoods and food gardens in Ballard. The tour, held this year on Saturday, June 25, features 12 local stops that showcase diverse garden types including traditional raised beds, food forests, and other innovative gardening practices, like heirloom vegetable starts or creative uses for parking strips. Attendees can meet gardeners, ask questions and glean ideas for use in their own gardens.
If you’re not known for green thumbs, rest easy.
“One of the best parts is meeting new people and learning new things,” says Jennifer Mundee, who helps organize the Edible Garden Tour. “We want to inspire people to try to grow their own food and to [show] it’s not a scary thing. There are a bunch of different ways you can do a garden. It’s fun to share what you know with other people.”
The tour begins at the Ballard Community Center, where tour-goers can pick up a map with descriptions and information about tour stops, as to prioritize their stops based on individual gardening interests and questions.
The garden visits last from 10 a.m. to 3 p.m. on Saturday, June 25. Tickets are $10 and can be purchased at the start point of the tour. For more information, visit: sustainableballard.org.
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