July garden club tour report

Eastern side of the large community garden, complete with nosy club members.

We toured the community garden at the North County Food Pantry (40015 N. Collins Road, Elk) on the evening of July 11. Twenty-four of us ooh-ed and ahh-ed over the many cool gardening features, and we mercilessly harassed the garden staff with our many questions and demands.

Club members and garden staff trading time-tested gardening techniques,
or maybe just laughing about the impossibility of raising food in Elk, Wash.

The community garden is only three years old, but already produces TONS of high quality food for Food Pantry clients. Dedicated volunteers (including Sandi, Joe, Mark, Kathy, Chris, Lisa, the Two Mikes, Lester, Ellen, Kathy, Dee, and Virgil) grow healthy, good-looking plants that are covered with fruit and veggies.

Coveted garden club gnome tightly clutched by garden staff.

The community garden is watered using drip irrigation to save time and water, and the crop locations are rotated each spring to discourage permanent pests and diseases.

Other features in the garden include a large compost operation, a garden-wide mulch of barnyard straw and wood shavings over heavy kraft paper, and rows of sunflowers grown on the south and west fence lines to provide shade, protection from wind, and to hold humidity at the drier garden edges. Large, tall-sided raised beds line the east edge of the garden - those tall beds are SO much easier on tired backs!

Tall, well-designed raised beds

The community garden receives donations from local individuals and organizations including Catholic Charities, All Around Rentals, Ponderay Newsprint, Ziehnert's Dairy, Northwest Seed and Pet, and North 40 to name only a few.

A big "thank you" to the garden staff and Food Pantry helpers for allowing us to cruise the garden, and for their efforts to assist our community.

Be sure to mark your calendars for the 2018 Garden Fest on the first weekend after Mother's Day, sponsored by the Food Pantry, and held in the community garden: kids' games, plant sales, delicious food, and much more.

It was also fun to see a bunch of long-time garden club members (from the beginning days of 1998) all in one place: Pat, Barbara, Linda, Tim, Carolyn, Virginia, and yours truly). 

Also, if you still have garden space available, club member Joe Gannon is looking for more volunteers to grow sunflowers (Joe will provide the seeds) for his daughter's wedding late in the summer.  You can call me at 509-292-0326 for contact information.

jim