Let’s Support a Locally Grown P-Patch for Silverdale
July 10th, 2009 by jeffbrodyWarning: constant() [function.constant]: Couldn't find constant TT_TH8US_LEN in /home/psblogs/public_html/wp-content/plugins/tweet-this/tweet-this.php on line 1821
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I would guess my house in the Ridgetop neighborhood is pretty typical of most of the houses that could be considered to be in Silverdale. I’m sure there are some Silverdale houses with significant land around them, but most were developed as part of subdivisions that feature lot sizes barely larger than twice the footprint of the house that sits on them.
That’s why I am so supportive of the news that there is to be an effort to create a community P-Patch garden on county park land where the old Markwick farm used to be. Most houses in the Silverdale area simply don’t have a large enough spot for a vegetable garden, it the owner would like to plant one.
I’ve got my garden in containers now, with lettuce on the deck, a couple of large pots with tomato plants, and some smaller pots with carrots that are struggling to grow. I’d love to be able to plant a larger garden, but the area of my yard with good southern exposure is pretty limited.
I’ve thought in the past about renting a garden plot at the Poulsbo P-Patch at Raab Park, or at the Bremerton P-Patch at Blueberry Park. Both have been popular, and both are a little far from my house to make it easy to tend the garden. And I know from experience that if you don’t tend the garden, it will be weed infested and unsuccessful.
The Markwick property is a great location for a P-Patch, close to where people live and to the center of Silverdale. There is a significant expanse of level land on the property behind the house, and it looks like pretty good soil there, too. I imagine a P-Patch could be created there without a lot of problems.
According to the news brief in the Silverdale Life publication of the Kitsap Sun, the Kiwanis Club of Central Kitsap and Kitsap County are partnering to push the project. They are seeking volunteers to help with planning and preparing the patch and creating rules for the people who will rent the plots. This isn’t rocket science. The Kitsap Master Gardeners program has created a process to govern the P-Patches at Raab Park and in Bremerton, so it shouldn’t be too hard to come up with quality governance of the Silverdale garden.
If you’re interested in being involved, contact Bruce Van Woudenberg, (360) 697-1026.
— Jeff
Tags: Silverdale P-Patch
Scripps Interactive Newspapers Group
July 10th, 2009 at 6:49 pm
Wonderful news!
July 11th, 2009 at 7:34 am
Count me (a resident of Eldorado Hills) in!!! My yard is very steep and the soil is poor.
July 14th, 2009 at 6:44 am
If anything worth eating is produced, it will be stolen or vandalized before it can be picked by the grower. I have seen this happen in many communities, it is always the same.
July 14th, 2009 at 11:26 pm
I’ve never seen a garden plundered, cynic.
I gardened and grew delicious crops for years..no one caused a problem – only the visits by nibbling deer and racoons and coyotes and Blue Heron and … never a human.
I had trees critters plundered year after year and could strip a tree in a day. The Black Walnuts were the exception…
I didn’t net the trees so a bird or other critter wouldn’t get trapped in the net.
Sharon O’Hara