Resources

How to Start a Giving Garden

All kinds of wonderful people and organizations have created useful documents to help you start a giving garden or run one more efficiently. Rather than re-invent the wheel, we thought we’d just direct you to a few of these excellent resources. Hundreds of articles and guides can be found by searching online. More information on starting a giving garden

How to Create a Volunteer Network

As every overworked giving gardener knows, it’s difficult to run a Giving Garden by yourself – nor should you! Volunteers are essential to your effort: you need them to help with garden tending, deliveries, and other tasks, but even more importantly, they create a community that feeds everyone who participates. And we don’t mean literally. Build a team of volunteers, and you will teach people how to grow food, a valuable skill they will have with them forever and hopefully share with others. Mentoring promising volunteers is also critical to the sustainability of your program. After all, who will take over when you move on? More information on creating a volunteer network

Gleaning Tips

One of the most common problems Giving Gardeners have is getting others in their P-Patch (or other community garden) to participate in the Giving Garden program and donate their extra produce. We all know how frustrating it is to see beautiful produce bolt or rot on the vine instead of being harvested for people who could really use it! More information on gleaning

Useful Links

Local Organizations:

Department of Neighborhoods P Patch Community Gardening Program (P-Patch Program)
GROW Northwest
Garden Hotline
Tilth Alliance including Unity Food Groups
American Community Gardening Association
Seattle.gov’s “Growing Food in the City”
Seattle University’s Edible Campus

For Youth:
FEEST: This youth-led organization offers programming for high schoolers to cultivate young leaders who can enact change in their communities by advancing health, racial equity, and food justice. Their weekly community dinners bring together youth aged 13 to 18 years to cook an improvised meal from scratch and to discuss topics such as health inequity and social justice. In additional, their year-long internship program allows youth the opportunity to lead their own food justice campaigns.
Urban Gardening Exploration Guide for middle-schoolers

Seattle Public Library:
Edible Gardening List
Books to Cultivate your Green Thumb

Washington State University:
Tip Sheets (websites, publications, new gardeners, local resources, edible gardening, container gardening, growing tomatoes, growing herbs, pest and disease control, and more!)
Master Gardener Program

Review Lab has additional information about gardening and garden planning apps. We’ve only tried some of these, but perhaps there will be something useful?  (eg last frost dates, seed saving, etc.)