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.
Follow Us
Noir Lux Lights Up Fourth Avenue
The Seattle candle brand’s new two-level pop-up brings workshops and community gatherings downtown through September.
It’s often said that good things come in threes, and for Colina Bruce, founder of the lifestyle and home fragrance brand Noir Lux, that’s certainly proving true. With a flagship shop in Belltown and an outpost in Ballard, Bruce is rounding out a Noir Lux trio with the opening of the Noir Lux Collective on…
Better Together: This Take on Co-Housing Emphasizes Quality and Community
The Seattle project presents an out-of-the-box model, where investors are also residents, and the design focuses on longevity and tenant retention—not profit.
Growing up in rural Detroit, Chad Dale spent many after-school and weekend hours playing with neighborhood kids in an open lot near his house. It’s an experience he always hoped his children would have someday, but by the time he became a father in Seattle, land was at a premium: either already developed or prohibitively…
A Different Kind of Mattress Store
Photos courtesy of Bedrooms and More. If you’re looking for the best mattress shopping experience in Seattle, the right choice often comes down to materials, transparency, and expert guidance – not just price or brand names. Bedrooms & More specializes in natural and organic two-sided mattresses and offers a no-pressure showroom environment where customers can…
Craft Value: The Founder of Henrybuilt Reflects on What He’s Learned in 25 Years of Business
In 2001, after 15 years of working in publishing—where I was a founding team member of two venture-funded technology companies—I decided to start a different kind of company: one that made physical products. This company, Henrybuilt, would combine product innovation and craft under one roof and sell directly to the end user—the homeowner—so that we…