A group of about a dozen community members were out cleaning up the long-vacant lot at 22nd & Union today, preparing it for a new community garden. Project organizer Bryan McLellan told me that they’re hoping to get everything cleaned up, tilled, and ready to plant by summer.
It’s the second project by Alleycat Acres, which hopes to turn vacant lots all over town into working community gardens. Their other garden is already growing up on Beacon Hill across from the golf course.
Here’s how the project was described in a Seattle Times article back in February:
Ultimately, Alleycat envisions running such gardens as community-supported agriculture outfits — known as CSAs — in which low-income residents would pay not on a traditional monthly basis but on a more affordable weekly, sliding-scale basis. The group hopes to take its green efforts one step further by using bicycles to deliver the fruits and vegetables of its labor to those residents — hence the name Alleycat, a term used by bike messengers.
Anyone who wants to get involved can hook up with Alleycat Acres on their website or Facebook.
Is that plot really safe to grow food on? It’s right behind a gas station and they are known to often be major polluters of soil and ground water. Isn’t one of the most toxic sites (an article you just published) a former gas station?
a cheap soil and water test can verify
http://wsprs.wsu.edu/AnalyticalLabsEB1578E.pdf
if that proves to be the case, raised beds can solve the issue at hand of unhealthy/polluted soil.
Great to see this lot being looked at for a community garden. Is there someone I can contact to volunteer time on the cleanup?
Wasn’t there an old apartment building there years ago, and it just about fit the lot? I beleive it had a piller and post foundation, so may have or have had a buried oild tank for heat. Not sure how to check on that, but as you note, oil run off from the ajoining gas station could be an issue of consern.
Linda, the last line of the story has two links to facebook or the Alleycat Acres website. Click the clicky.
Is this a city-owned lot or what? It’s not listed on Zillow, which is my first stop for finding ownership records. If there’s any way to find out, I’d love direction.
Via King County Parcel Viewer, it’s owned by the same folks that own the gas station property next door:
http://www5.kingcounty.gov/kcgisreports/property_report.aspx
yeah, test the soil – but there’s lots and lots of ways to work around that. And in many cases having plants on ground like that is a good first step toward detox.
Thanks, Scott. You’re the best!