For many city-dwellers, gardening is not as easy as just stepping out your back door. For those that live in apartments, gardening is an out of grasp dream.

Or is it? Take a look around Seattle and you will see dozens of fenced sites, teeming with fresh vegetables and colorful flowers. P-patches!

A P-patch is a community garden separated into individual plots. In Seattle alone, there are 36 P-patches. The 36 sites provide 1,600 plots used by over 4,500 gardeners. Situated all over the city, the P-patches provide space for gardeners who either don’t have the real estate to do it on their own.

Community gardening in the United States has existed since the late 1800s when high unemployment and increased industrialization pushed citizens to find a means of subsistence and a release for urban stress. Detroit took the lead, allocating $5,000 to purchase 455 acres of gardening plots. Other cities followed. Through economic and social highs and lows, the community gardening movement waxed and waned. Since the 60s and 70s, community gardening has grown slowly and steadily in most urban areas.

Seattle’s own P-patches got their start in the early 70s when a University of Washington student started a project to teach children to grow their own food. Fortuitously, a truck farming family named Picardo was leaving the business and donated 2.5 acres of land to the project.

In 1974, the City of Seattle initiated its own community gardening program, calling it the P-Patch Program to honor the Picardo family’s generous donation. Since then, the P-Patch Program has grown steadily with a surge in the 90s as urban gardening reached unprecedented heights.

Seattle’s P-patches are situated in all areas of town, from Ballard to the Rainier Valley. Each site has its own particular attributes; ranging from raised beds serving people with disabilities, specially assigned food bank plots, garden art, or picnic areas.

The sites are split into plots ranging from 10 square feet to 400 square feet. Gardeners purchase the use of a plot for an annual fee of $21-$53. Gardeners are also expected to contribute at least 8 hours of volunteer time to the P-patch.

The P-Patch Program is operated in conjunction with a nonprofit group “Friends of P-Patch” which provides financial and volunteer support to the P-Patch Program.

P-patches are started when: 

1) either a plot of land becomes available or a neighborhood group comes together and 

2) the garden group applies for a neighborhood matching grant. The neighborhood matching grant allows any community to start its own P-patch, irrespective of income level. The grant matches city funds with a neighborhood’s own funds or sweat equity or goods of equal value. The grants can be either small or major depending on a plot’s need. For example, plots on steep slopes will need larger grants for terracing and walls.

The P-Patch Program has several unique components. For one, all Seattle P-patches are organic. In addition, most P-patches provide produce to area food banks on either an informal or formal basis.

Larger P-patches participate in the “Lettuce Link” where P-patches allocate community gardened plots for food bank distribution. On a given day each week a truck picks up produce at each participating P-patch and delivers it to a food bank. 

A number of other P-patches are either too small for pickup (these gardens usually bring their produce to a largerP-patch for “Lettuce Link” pickup) or choose to donate to their neighborhood food bank (for example Interbay P-patch donates to the Fremont food bank).

Food bank plot crops are chosen based on their universal appeal and their disease-resistance. Crops like tomatoes, which are subject to late blight, are avoided.

According to Barbara Donnette, a P-Patch Program staff member, the contributions were recently tracked for a total of 7—10 tons of donated produce each year. The produce, Donnette says, is particularly appreciated at the food banks, where processed and canned is the norm.

Another unique P-patch project is the Cultivating Communities program, operated in conjunction with the Seattle Housing Authority. Cultivating Communities focuses on establishing P-patches in four Seattle housing projects; Rainier Vista, Holly Park, High Point and Yesler Terrace.

The program, so far, has been a resounding success. Since establishing the first of the nine community gardens, the plots have been in almost full use.

Community residents have been very enthusiastic. Many participants in Cultivating Communities have been Southeast Asian refugees and the gardens have served as more than just a way to provide extra food. “It’s a way for the older generation to make a contribution to the family.” says Barbara Donnette.

One of the P-Patch Program’s newest projects is a Community Support Agricultural (CSA) enterprise recently started at Rainier Vista. The CSA allows gardeners to cultivate individual plots then pool their produce and sell to “produce subscribers,” splitting the profits equally among themselves. In its first year the CSA did well, with positive response from both the subscribers and the gardeners.

The P-Patch Program also provides a “Gardenship Fund” for low-income citizens interested in obtaining a garden plot. The P-Patch Program is committed to providing opportunities for citizens of all backgrounds

“Everyone comes to the garden on the same footing” says Donnette, “Whether you’re very well educated or not educated, you may have excellent gardening skills.” “One of the benefits of the gardens,” Donnette asserts, “Is it makes room for anyone that wants to put forward the effort.”