TODAY: Come check out Tacoma's community gardens

In case you hadn't heard, today is your chance to check out four of Tacoma's community gardens, get a free plant and get 50% off local food specials at The Hub: It's the 2nd annual Tacoma Community Garden Tour! You can choose to take the self-guided tour by getting a passport map, or meet up at the Proctor Farmers Market at 11 a.m. to join in the group bike tour.

Here's the details:

Passport maps for self-guided tours will be available at the Proctor Farmers Market the day of the event. You can also click here to download a map at GrowLocalTacoma.com.

The bike tour, guided by the Tacoma Wheelmen’s Bicycle Club, will depart from the Proctor Street entry of the Proctor Farmers Market at 11 a.m. Please come at least 15 minutes early to fill out a waiver. The route is approximately 10 miles over mostly flat terrain with a few moderate hills. Helmets are required and please bring your own snacks and water.

Get your passport map stamped at all four gardens and receive a free plant at the tour’s final garden stop (Neighbors Park at 8th & I), courtesy of the Pierce Conservation District.

Tour participants will also get a 50% discount on special local food dishes at The Hub on Saturday when they show their passport maps.

Tour stops include:

• Proctor Farmers Market, South 27th & Proctor – bike tour meet-up and/or pick up your map
• North Proctor & 21st
• Franklin Park, South 12th & Puget Sound Avenue (far south corner of park)
• Guadalupe Land Trust’s La Grande garden, South 18th & G
• Neighbors Park community garden, South 8th & I
• The Hub, 203 Tacoma Ave. S.

If you don't have a map already, you can find them at the Proctor Farmers market, N. 27th & Proctor, between approx. 10 a.m. and 2 p.m. Or, click here to find a downloadable version.

Now that's a Gritster: Check out them apples ... err, apple and carrot

There were a couple crazy chickadees at the Broadway Farmers Market today handing out maps for this weekend's 2nd annual Tacoma Community Garden Tour. Kristen and Sarah not only brightened up a gray market day, but they were also good sports when folks asked to take their picture, and had fun with the kids who ran up to check out the produce.

Details of the Saturday affair ...

What: 2nd annual Tacoma Community Garden Tour

When: 11-3 p.m. Saturday, Aug. 23

Cost: Free!

Self-guided tour: E-mail growingconversation@gmail.com to request a map, or pick one up at our booth on the Proctor Street side of the Proctor Farmers Market that morning.

Bike tour: Led by the Tacoma Wheelmen, the group bike tour leaves the Proctor Street side of the Proctor Farmers Market at 11 a.m. Please show up at least 15 minutes early to fill out a release. Helmets are required and please bring any water or snacks you might require.

Keep your map! Get your map stamped at all four gardens at get a free plant at the final stop, Neighbors Park at 8th & I, where you can also enjoy the garden, the playground, and several community booths. Also, no matter how many gardens you visit, bring your map to The Hub when you're done and get 50% off local food specials (and bonus: Happy Hour drink specials too!)

Who's in charge? A group of folks. This tour is a collaboration of an array of folks representing the Pierce Conservation District, the City of Tacoma's TAGRO program, the Tacoma-Pierce County Health Department, the University of Washington and Exit133.com.

Questions? E-mail growingconversation@gmail.com or visit www.growlocaltacoma.com

Gardens grow, and so does this conversation ...

Too ... tired ... to .... write ... much. So instead, I point you in the direction of a little event I'm helping coordinate, the Growing Conversation II. This began as a conversation last spring among those interested in community gardens, and it continues along the same vein though incorporating the bigger picture. You don't have to be a community gardener, or any kind of gardener, to get something out of participating. Got questions? Just ask.

WHAT: Growing Conversation II
WHEN: 1-5 p.m. October 20, 2007
WHERE: University of Washington Tacoma, Carwein Auditorium

DETAILS: Hear from local scholars, community gardeners and organizers as we discover how community gardens fit into the bigger picture of sustainability, urban green spaces and local food.

Explore how community gardens play a role in so many conversations, including:

• the health and safety of our community's food supply
• the way we treat our environment
• making sure resources are shared and everyone has enough to eat
• creating spaces for neighborhoods to come together as communities
• making sure children have access to healthy nutritious food
• vibrant urban spaces that thrive economically and socially
• where your food comes from and who grows it

Snacks and beverages to be provided!

Questions? Plan to come?
info@tacomagardens.com
253-278-3609
www.tacomagardens.com

This growing conversation is a collaboration of the Pierce Conservation District, the City of Tacoma, TAGRO, the Tacoma-Pierce County Health Department and Exit133. For more information, e-mail info@tacomagardens.com.

Because I'd like to have something left of the environment when my kids grow up ...

I'm not usually an event-poster, but below is a volunteer event that's easy and can do a lot of good -- basically, you wander around the East Side with some friends, eat pizza, oh, and glue curb markers onto sidewalks near storm drains so that folks are alerted to PLEASE keep icky things out of the street (such as cigarettes, oil, car wash soap, lawn chemicals, and anything anyone might think is safe to dump into the street but is not) as whatever goes down that drain goes right into Commencement Bay, the Puget Sound ... you get the picture.

The notice is short, but if you have a morning to spare, you could make a big difference, so even if you can't do it ... spread the word ...

Citizens for a Healthy Bay need you ... to help mark curbs (and eat pizza)

WHEN: 9:30 a.m. to 12:30 p.m. Saturday, Aug. 18 (yes, this Saturday)

WHERE: Meet in the athletic field across from Gault Middle School, corner of Division and East L St.

PIZZA LUNCH PROVIDED between approximately noon and 12:30 for those who participate.

Help keep our local waters clean by marking storm drains Saturday morning. The durable, non-fade markers help let people know that what goes down their neighborhood storm drains flows directly to our local waterways. (Think oil, soap from car washing, lawn chemicals, etc.)

Help keep only rain in the drain; come out and mark some curbs!

Anyone who can pitch in, please contact Jeanine Riss, Citizens for a Healthy Bay's new volunteer coordinator, at 253-266-2081 (cell), 253-383-2429 (office) or e-mail her at jriss@healthybay.org.

For more information about Citizens for a Healthy Bay, go to www.healthybay.org.

Living large on the cheap in T-town - yard edition

Being on a budget can really suck. But after a dear also-budget-grumpy friend commented today that she was secretly envious of how I'd been able to fix up my yard this year, I realized all the many ways I've been able to rehab my yard this year, locally and on the cheap. So, a few tips to share ...

Fixing your lawn is easy. I hate dandelions. I even wrote a poem about my hate for dandelions last year. I've learned that adding soil ammendment, overseeding, and mowing regularly can work WONDERS. Mega-wonders. Sod might be an easy fix, but it comes with its own clay-laden, raccoon attracting mega-problems, so I say, get yourself a load of TAGRO Mix, a big bag of lawn seed (region appropriate!) from GardenSphere, apply in fall and spring, and reap the rewards. Oh yeah, and TAGRO is dirt cheap. Get it? DIRT?! CHEAP!? Ok, it's not dirt, it's soil amendment, but it's still funny ...

Find a friendly fairy gardenmother (or father) in your neighborhood. I've been blessed with an outspoken neighbor who if she hadn't had kids would have been an extremely type A CEO and making millions, and probably she would have been dead of a stroke by now. But she has a kid. She has two. And she's taken to motivating the kids and the neighbors to be better, be better, be better. I say this with love, and gratefullness, and with the knowledge that she or one of her kids could easily be reading this blog ... she's found it before. And you know what: She's a great leader. She literally gives us the tools to make our backyard something more pleasant for her to look at. She can hone in on free things like nobody's business. She knows who's getting rid of what, and who else in the neighborhood just might be able to use that what. Our garden is full of cuttings from her bodacious dividing flower bed, our raised garden bed is fenced thanks to her salvaging, and our projects are done thanks to her prodding. And we're all the happier for it. I so owe her a bottle of wine ... good wine.

Save your seeds. Did you know you could do that? Has it ever occurred to you that the seeds in the center of whatever you're eating could grow you your own whole plant that you don't have to pay for? I'm a farm girl and I hadn't even taken the time to make the correlation. My husband this year, genius that he is, started saving seeds from melons and other foods and starting them for fun in the windowsill. And we might just reap the fruits of our labors ... if not this year, then quite possibly next when we kind of maybe know a little about what the heck we're doing. And if you have a garden, there are many, many more sources to save those seeds from. Apparently you don't have to buy new ones every year. Who knew? Carrie Little at Mother Earth Farms knows what she's talking about in this regard, and keep an eye out at www.tacomagardens.com for a possible seed saving workshop in the near future!

Need a cheap plant? Then you really should check out the local Native Plant Salvage project. For a bit of effort, you can do a good deed and get cheap or free plants. That's awesome. And you can usually find their events posted at www.tacomagardens.com as well.

I think that's enough for now ... but a quick disclaimer: I ain't a gardening guru, I'm a gardening idiot learning as she goes. Don't expect to see my yard in any magazine anytime soon ... but I'm having fun, and taking it one step at a time. And I'm enjoying the journey.

Our awesome urban wilderness ...

Sometimes I forget about all the wildlife that can be found in Tacoma. Sure, opossum, squirrels, raccoons and plenty of birds -- but at least for those of us who live near our fair city's number of canyons and other urban wilderness areas, have you ever really thought about the deer wandering past your bedroom window in the middle of the night to nip at the rosebuds in your neighborhood? Well, I hadn't really until now.

I live a few blocks from the Stevens Street canyon/overlook in North Tacoma, near Ruston, and I'd heard from many friends who'd gotten their rosebuds stolen in the dark of the night. Robust, about-to-bloom rosebushes suddenly looking sad and forlorn. Young apples being munched on by impressively antlered bucks and a bevy of beautiful does. I've heard them fret about ways to disuade them from nibbling all their garden's wares. I've heard about how male urine is supposed to be a good deterrant, and offered up my own 4-year-old son as an inoffensive neighborhood pee-er. No takers yet, but it seems I'll have to use him in our own yard quite soon ...

The other morning, after weeks and months of being asked, "Did they get your roses?" and being able to say, "Why, no ... whatever do you mean?" Well, it had been a long couple weeks, and I got home and noticed that one of the rose bushes had odd looking pruned parts that were NOT just above the five-leaf branch that they should be. So then I wondered if my husband had tried to be helpful, or if the kids had gotten ahold of the clippers to make a bouquet or help me in my pruning chores. And just as I was about to help "HONEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE ..." to inquire as to who was in trouble, well, then I remembered that we'd been lucky until now. The deer had finally expanded their circle to our yard, or perhaps finally came by when we had a plethora of buds (I'd really been looking forward to that explosion of 6-8 new roses at once ... grrr ...). So, well, at least my household was not in trouble.

So, while I'll have to wait another couple weeks for that particular bush to bloom, it got me realizing that there was a deer. Right outside my window. Within 10 feet. And I live in the city.

You see, I grew up on a farm. Sixty-two acres of mostly woods and a few fields and a big pond. I'm used to wildlife. But we had dogs, so the deer usually kept their nibbling to the fields. I don't think I ever considered a deer outside my window. They were always sparkling eyes in the middle of the field, or out in the orchard.

But here I am, in the city. And there's a deer outside my window. And I realized that I love being in a City that has a huge park like Point Defiance, several areas of local wilderness that are still mildly untamed. I have occasionally run across a small mini-farm-sized piece of property in some parts of East Tacoma. My former midwife, who lived in East Tacoma, had goats and chickens.

Stuff like that makes me smile. And makes me love my city. And want its green spaces to still be there when my children are old enough to wonder what happened to their rosebuds in the middle of the night. And lucky for me, and generations to come, there are many groups and organizations out there that are helping keep our green spaces green. A couple I know of:

Pierce Conservation District
TacomaGardens.com
Cascade Land Trust
Green Tacoma Partnership

Finding community in gardening

Tis the season where we start to look at our backyards and dream of bodacious gardens, tasty eats and visual treats. But what about those who live in apartments, condos, or whose backyard just isn't so diggable? Or what about those who like their backyard just fine, but want to be part of something, well, bigger?

What about those looking for community. As in community gardening?

Community gardens can:

• Supply fresh veggies for food banks
• Host amazing parties at harvest time
• Provide space for neighborhood classes and workshops
• Provide opportunities for outdoor art
• Be beautiful places to play with kids and take a walk
• Serve as a tangible way for neighbhorhoods to create something positive

Seattle does it. Tacoma kinda does it. But what happens if we take the P-Patch concept and put a T-town twist to it?

Hear from a panel of experienced gardeners and community gardeners as part of the Tacoma community gardening movement's "Growing Conversation" at 7 p.m. Thursday, April 19, at Commencement Bay Coffee Co.

Read more at exit133.com.

The LID of Love?

Wow.

When we signed the LID petition, now years ago, to pave the alley on our block, our intentions were to cut down on dust and get rid of the massive puddles of rain and mud that accumulated during the rainy seasons.

Well, apparently paved alley, especially ones with a bit of a hill on one side, equals instant neighborhood block party, and impromptu neighborhood skate park.

The kids and I were outside, beginning Project Lawn -- the first of many gardening projects I'm determined to begin this year now that the kids are all old enough to play while I dig, or dig in themselves.

They got out their trikes and other wheeled objects and began to increasingly scare the heck out of momma me as they sailed down the steep-ish slope, down the straight-a-way, almost end-to-end with just one "go!"

And before long, my three became five as the neighbor girls joined in. Then seven. Then 10. Then I think 13 -- possibly all the kids on the block not including the ones who are barely walking. Then a few other kids from nearby brought skateboards. Then parents and pals were out with the kids. One dad showing off that he still new how to handle a 'board. Another playing catch with this daughter and a couple other neighbor kids. Parents teaching kids to ride bikes. Chasing. Playing tag. Laughing. Sharing. Talking.

Everyone ready and willing to clear the way for a neighbor making his or her way out of a backyard driveway or garage to places unknown, or welcome them back in. And conversely, those same neighbors were cautious to drive slow and not squish any munchkins.

Which made me think, if this is what a bit o' pavement can do, just imagine what a bit o' paradise can do ...

A Vote for Green Spaces in Urban Places

I grew up on a farm ... running and playing hide-and-go seek in the corn rows; occasionally running into getaway cows in the parking lot; watching foxes play tag; spotting the sparkly-eyed deer grazing in the fields; spying on great blue herons in the pond. And while I would not trade the last decade-plus of my life that's revolved around Tacoma ... sometimes I miss nature's simpler pleasures.

I toured Metro Parks' three community gardens today. There was the one at Kandle Park, sleeping silently for spring preparations and gardeners to awaken the soil from its slumber. Then the one most folks will recognize, located at the corner of North 21st and Proctor, where it looked forlorn and forgotten as it awaits its seasonal tenants' return. Then there was Franklin, the one at the far corner of the park at South 12th and Puget Sound. The larger of the three ... it seemed like an oasis of farmland in the middle of Central Tacoma.

So today, as I approached the third and final garden on my afternoon tour, when I spied a large bird perched on the fence, I assumed it was a fake. A decoy meant to keep the other, smaller birds at bay. Away from the bounty of this bodacious garden.

But my, oh, my, it was realistic. Whoever created that there decoy was good. I can usually spot a fake owl or whatnot from blocks away, but that. That was a work of brilliance.

Then it moved. The large brown and white-flecked bird with dark, hooked beak moved.

And something told me that batteries were not included.

It moved, stood there elegantly in front of us as we pondered its breed (we assume falcon, but could have easily been a juvenile eagle, I'm guessing -- hey Tahoma Audubon, I'm now officially hooked), the big bird stretched its wings and soared slowly over the luscious garden's goods and into a nearby tree. And we stared; still unbelieving.

Urban awe set in.

I look forward to the day Tacoma reclaims even more of its urban spaces with community gardens, green walls and roofs, rain gardens, native landscaping, and the growing number of tools that developers and urban planners now have in their toolboxes to create urban spaces that invite nature's natural wonders to coexist, and thrive ... even in an urban jungle.