By Janet Horton, Carol Homanics, Linda Shepherd (2017)
“Thanks SO much for the donations of your produce! It is the highest quality fresh food that we receive from any-one!” we frequently hear upon delivering our weekly har-vests from Mirrormont Pea Patch to the Issaquah Food and Clothing Bank.
For the past five years, our team of 15 gardeners has planted, tended, and harvested organic veggies in four to six raised beds dedicated to the Food Bank. Other Pea Patch growers also contributed some of the abundance from their personal plots. In all, we’ve donated 2438 pounds, including 459 pounds in 2017!
Have you heard about our rabbit rodeos? Despite our best efforts at quickly closing the garden gates when we enter and exit, lurking bunnies bound in if we’re not careful. Once inside, they’re incredibly difficult to catch, and we look quite ridiculous chasing them down. Havaheart traps caught nary a rabbit. What can we use as bait once they’ve entered the ultimate buffet? In the past two years, we evicted nine bun-nies—and fortified our rodent fencing.
To learn about how our community garden was created in 2009 from a $10,000 King County Community Partnership Grant, see mirrormont.org/creating-our-pea-patch/. Each year, 22 to 24 families garden together and hold bimonthly potlucks. It’s a wonderful place to meet your neighbors! Our annual dues of $25 for a 4’ x 8’ raised bed, plus proceeds from our annual plant sale, make the garden a self-sustaining project of the MCA.
The carrots, bok choy, cucumbers, green beans, kale, lettuce, mint, mustard greens, oregano, rhubarb, Swiss chard, tomatillos, tomatoes, and zucchini we’ve donated to Issaquah Food Bank are just a sampling of what we can grow in Mirrormont. Contact peapatch@mirrormont.org by February 1st to get on the waiting list for a Pea Patch plot in 2018.
Everyone is invited to come visit our marvelous Pea Patch garden; all we ask is to restrain yourself from nibbling—and close those gates quickly! Deer and rabbits are waiting outside for a chance to chow down at the ultimate buffet.
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