Community gardens are sprouting up all over Washington as more and more people choose to live in cities and want to connect to their environment, food supply and each other. Urban dwellers are learning how to grow their own food and live closer to their neighbors all while reaping the rewards of a ripe tomato fresh off the vine. 

Spurred by their residents’ desire to plant, cities are placing aside land for community gardens. The gardens are as diverse as the neighborhoods in which they reside and often contain organic vegetables, flowers, fruit, wildlife habitats, composting and much more.  They increase access to healthy food, reduce crime, strengthen bonds between neighbors and offer educational opportunities about recycling the organic waste that cities produce.

Forterra recognizes that by creating great communities where people choose to live, we can protect rural working and natural lands from development.  Urban gardening is one of a variety of programs we’re advancing that improve the quality of life for our urban residents across the region. 

"Namaste": A new garden in Tukwila

In 2010, Forterra collaborated with the International Rescue Committee--a national nonprofit that resettles refugees--and the St. Thomas Church to build the 55-plot Namaste Community Garden on the church grounds. Parishioners, neighbors, students from next-door Foster High School and local refugee families elsewhere spent the past year planning, organizing and fundraising for the site.  Finally, in April 2011, they broke ground.

The produce will help create food self-sufficiency for new refugee families from Burma, Bhutan, Somalia and elsewhere; stock the church’s food bank; and feed other Tukwila residents who lack ready access to fresh, healthy food. Forterra has been talking with teachers at nearby Foster High School to use regular field trips to the garden as an experiential learning tool to teach biology, nutrition, math, life skills and more. 

Farming is in garden leader Dal Diyali’s blood. His mother and father were farmers. He was a farmer before he came to Tukwila from Bhutan.

People are very interested in producing the kind of food they used to garden in their homes. At the same time, it's an opportunity to share their cultural setting to build a greater community that connects them to their new home.

“People are very interested in producing the kind of food they used to garden in their homes. Food that's healthy, food that they have a hard time finding in the local grocery,” said Diyali. “At the same time, it's an opportunity to share their cultural setting to build a greater community that connects them to their new home.”

Tacoma: Gardens around the city

In 2010, Forterra partnered with Pierce County and numerous local environmental and health groups to create a Community Gardening program for Tacoma and Pierce County. Today, there are 42 community gardens throughout Pierce County, up from 13 gardens in 2008.

The Green Thumb Community Garden in Tacoma embodies the spirit of this program.  The community members here have kept themselves busy with not one, but two community gardens. During the summer of 2010, they worked nearly every Saturday to build the garden on City of Tacoma property. It’s home to a diverse collection of gardeners happily growing everything from collard greens to Asian mustards.

Neighborhood demand was huge and quickly outgrew Green Thumb’s capacity. Through a partnership with the Puyallup tribe, neighborhood residents are working on building a second garden a block away on tribal land. Aptly named the “Good Medicine Garden” it will house a medicinal herb garden with traditional tribal crops in addition to the individual plots assigned to residents. 

In Tacoma, Tukwila and beyond, community members are working together to make their visions of the ideal neighborhood into a reality. With the help of community gardens, neighborhoods are becoming livable communities where people know each other, work together and enjoy a few sun-ripened tomatoes along the way.