P-Patch
Hello! Welcome to Seattle. Let me show you something.
Here it is
show footage of a basic P Patch
This is a P-Patch! A Pea Patch you say (show a picture of a pea or bags of frozen peas)
No!
A Pee patch you say? (Show Marcel Duchamp’s fountain)
No! Wrong!
It’s a P Patch (show an image of the letter P)
That’s right P Patch. Short for Picardo Patch. (show image of Picardo Farm sign) But we’ll get back
to that later.
So what is a P Patch? Well. It’s a community garden program run by the city of Seattle. Basically
the city takes what would otherwise be unused, mostly public land and allows people to put small
gardens on it. Each individual garden is a small plot, often with a raised bed, and what grows there
is totally up to the person assigned to that plot. Anyone who lives here can apply to get a plot, with
preference given to low income and minority groups.
So what do people do with these plots of land? Well, some people grow vegetables. (show
vegetables). Some grow fruits (Show fruits). Some grow flowers (show flowers), some make a lawn,
and some grow <insert funny unexpected thing here and show it; maybe the car if I cant think of
anything>
In total there are around 90 P Patches all over the city of Seattle, which is frankly kind of a lot. They
range in size, but for the most part they are fairly small, taking up the space of a small city park
each.
The P Patch program started in the 1973 after the Picardo family graciously allowed some
community members to start a garden on a portion of their farm in the Wedgwood neighborhood.
This project grew for a few years until eventually the city purchased their farm. The project grew
beyond this one site, but the Picardo Farm P Patch remains the largest in the city.
Now, if you’re an insufferable nerd you might ask a question like <nerd voice> “Is this really the
best use of urban space?”, to which I would say. I dunno (Image or video of me shrugging my
shoulders)
But it’s just kinda nice, ya know? Crucially all P Patches in this program are totally open to the
public. You can just walk in and look around. Smell the flowers. Smell the soil. Smell the gardeners,
but only if they give proper consent first.
So they are basically little public parks, open for everyone to come and enjoy. I think that’s a really
good thing.
One of my favorite things about Seattle is taking a walk in a neighborhood I haven’t spent much
time in, seeing a P Patch I never knew about and coming across someone’s little garden project that
they have worked hard on for months or years. It brings a humanity to the city that I really enjoy.
As I wrap up I want to highlight two especially interesting P Patches. The first is the Phinney Ridge
P Patch. It’s on what was previously a very very steep street, and it has terraced gardens beds.
The last one is the UpGarden P Patch in the Lower Queen Anne neighborhood. This is unique
garden is on the top floor of a parking garage right next to the Seattle Center. From the street you
wouldn’t be able to tell anything is here, making it feel like a little secret in the middle of town
where you can see the Space needle and buildings around you.
So what’s the moral of the story here? Public services are good. This program allows people who
don’t have land of their own do garden, and it allows other residents like me to enjoy these
wonderful gardens people spend so much time on. Support public services. They make everything
better.
Thanks for watching!