Show All Answers

1. Who will benefit from the food grown in the garden?

Northshore School District students who need food security will benefit from the food grown in the garden. In partnership with the school district, the Northshore YMCA is a Totes to Go program hub where school nurses and social workers can come to pick up discreet bags or backpacks containing meals for students enrolled in the free and reduced lunch program. In addition to non-perishable food, students will now also have access to fresh fruits and vegetables.

The food grown here will also help support students in the YMCA's afterschool programs. By involving youth in the growing and harvesting of the garden, they will become more connected to where their food comes from and get a better understanding of urban agriculture.

2. Who will care for the garden?

YMCA staff will oversee the garden maintenance, which will mainly be done by youth enrolled in the YMCA's afterschool and summer programming.

To reduce maintenance, drip irrigation will help reduce the amount of labor involved in watering the plans, and the gravel surrounding the raised garden beds will reduce the weeds germinating in the soil of the raised beds. 

Snohomish Conservation District will provide technical assistance and guidance when needed.

3. What components are necessary for a healthy garden?

A healthy garden requires a combination of these components:

• Healthy soil
  • Adding compost and soil amendments helps keep soil nourished.
  • Rotating crops helps reduce fungal and bacterial issues for vegetables.
• Sunlight
  • Most vegetable varieties need 6-8 hours of direct sunlight in the growing season.
  • Leafy greens and root vegetables can often survive with less sunlight, but it depends on the specific variety.
• Adequate moisture
  • Most plants do best with at least 1" of water per week in the growing season.
  • You can determine how much time it takes to water 1" by doing the tuna can test: Place an empty tuna can near your plants. Turn on your regular watering source (drip irrigation, sprinkler, watering can) and time how long it takes to fill the tuna can. However long it took to fill the can is how long you should water your plants each week.
  • Adding compost to the soil surface will increase water retention.
  • Watering as close to the root systems of plants as possible will increase the absorption rate. This also helps reduce the chance of blight* affecting vegetable varieties like tomatoes.

*Blight is a disease or injury of plants marked by the formation of lesions, withering, and death of parts (such as leaves and tubers).

4. Where did the garden's raised beds come from?

To focus on natural resources conservation, the eight wooden raised beds were made from materials that used to be shipping containers. The practice of using reclaimed materials in a garden space is part of reducing waste, an element involved in permaculture. Using harvested rainwater to feed the plants is also another way to conserve resources.

The garden also has two metal raised beds (similar to animal troughs) that were already part of the garden space before the wooden beds and rain barrels were added. When using metal planters with bottoms that are flush with the ground, be sure to drill some holes in the bottom to allow water to drain and soak into the ground. This helps prevent soil from becoming fungal from too much moisture.

5. How do the garden's rain barrels work?

The garden has two 55-gallon rain barrels that harvest rainwater collected from the roof of the building during rainstorms.

The rain barrels provide multiple benefits:

• They conserve water by storing it to use on plants when they need it
• They limit stormwater runoff during a storm surge
• They help prevent contaminants from entering local waterways
• They help reduce erosion issues and keep water away from the building's foundation

Based on the size of an average roof, a 1" rainfall could fill approximately 10 55-gallon rain barrels!

Learn more about rain barrels.

6. How does the garden's irrigation system work?

The garden is equipped with drip irrigation using soaker hoses, which work best for low-pressure irrigation systems like rain barrels. Elevating the rain barrels on something like cement blocks increases the pressure generated from gravity.

7. What can be grown in the garden?

Bothell is located in Planting Zone 8b. Planting zones help determine what vegetable varieties will be the most successful for each month. This takes into account the first and last frost dates for that region. In this zone, we have a long growing season. Most vegetable varieties are able to mature before the first frost date of December 1. The last frost date is April 1.

Use this chart to determine what grows best in our region and when, and visit the vegetable planting calendar guide for more details.

8. How long do certain crops take to grow?

Growing times depend on the vegetable variety. Beans, lettuce, spinach, summer squash, broccoli, cucumber, radish, and beets can take about 70 days. Peppers, carrots, cauliflower, peas, cabbage, garlic, tomato, winter squash, onion, and pumpkin usually take about 120 days.

Starting your vegetables by seed indoors will quicken the growing process once you transplant them outside. Typically, most seeds will germinate (sprout) within two weeks if you start them indoors.

9. What is "overwintering" and why is it important?

Overwintering involves adding a cover crop like certain kinds of clover varieties or crops from the legume family (beans, peas, etc.) to your garden beds during the non-growing season. Doing so helps provide nitrogen to the soil to keep it healthy for the upcoming growing season.

Adding compost or mulch to the soil surface during winter can also help improve soil health because it makes it harder for nutrients to leach out of the soil during extreme weather conditions.

10. Where can I learn more about the YMCA Community Food Garden?

Check out this educational video we made with Joe Crumbley, Snohomish Conservation District's Urban Agriculture Program Coordinator.

11. What is the Lawns to Lettuce Program?

Snohomish Conservation District’s Lawns to Lettuce program provides education and support for landowners who want to convert their lawn and grow edibles in a way that builds healthy soil, protects pollinators, minimizes pesticide use, reduces runoff, and conserves water. 

If your garden space grows more vegetables than you need, consider donating them through the Plant A Row campaign.

12. How can I learn more about the Lawns to Lettuce Program?

Visit Snohomish Conservation District's Lawns to Lettuce website to learn more about the program.

13. What do I need to consider if I want to start a community food garden?

Community food gardens are volunteer-led initiatives that require internal processes and communication systems to function well. The following questions, created by Pierce Conservation District, will help you develop a framework for working together to manage the garden long-term. It is important that as many stakeholders as possible contribute to the formation of this framework to ensure that it represents the collective wisdom of the group. Your guiding document will be something that is updated over time as the group learns and evolves. 

Once you've considered the questions below, contact your local conservation district if you have a location in mind that you think could successfully host a community garden. 

Vision/purpose 

Goal: Allow every participant to voice their ideas and hopes for the space (i.e. what is calling each person to participate?). This will inform the way you develop the project. 

• What type of community project does the group want to create?
• What is the purpose of the project? 
• Who will the project serve? 

Organizational structure and leadership 

Goal: Agree upon a system for how participants will work together to manage the project and make decisions in the future. 

• What type of organizational and leadership structure makes sense? 
• What type of decision-making structure will we use? Who makes decisions? 
• If we form a leadership team or committee, which decisions are made by the smaller group and which decisions are made by all gardeners? 
• How will leadership be transitioned over time (and how will new leaders be encouraged to come forward?) 
• How will we change the rules once we've made them? 
• How will we ensure that maximum participation is encouraged to shape the garden moving forward? 
• What roles do we need to be successful? (People can perform multiple roles.) Common examples of roles: 
  • Site Coordinator (point person for entire project) 
  • Maintenance Coordinator (keeps an eye on physical site) 
  • Plot assignment and management of a waiting list (if appropriate) 
  • Communication (keeping participants in the know about events, etc.) 
  • Money management (collecting fees, managing budget) 
  • Additional roles (you can come up with your own, too!) 
    • Food Bank Plot Coordinator
    • Education Coordinator
    • Children’s Area Coordinator
    • Outreach/Events Coordinator
    • Compost Coordinator

Participation/maintenance 

Goal: Clarify systems for maintaining the site and how that work will be accomplished – make sure to be specific about standards of care at both the individual and communal level. 

• What level of participation do we expect at both the individual level (maintaining individual plots weed-free) and the communal level (participating in the maintenance of communal areas)? 
• How will we provide opportunities to participate (assign tasks, hold work parties)? 
• How will we manage if people don’t participate at the expected level? What are the consequences?
• How will we manage the site in times of high demand as well as low demand (how are extra plots assigned?) 

Communication 

Goal: Successful projects maintain maximum participation in decision-making. Agree upon tools and practices that the group will use to make sure that all participants and stakeholders are able to communicate so this can happen easily over time. 

• What is the best way for the group to communicate and ensure no one is left out? 
• When should meetings take place? How often? Where? 
• How will other people and organizations know about the group and the garden? How do we involve the neighbors that aren’t here? How do we maintain communications with the nonparticipant stakeholders over time (i.e. neighbors)?

Conflict resolution 

Goal: Develop a system for managing conflict so that disagreements can be processed in a way that strengthens the group. 

• How will we handle issues where people do not agree? One idea is to meet in a smaller group with the interested parties and a neutral facilitator. 
• How we will ensure that our garden is a welcoming place for all to contribute ideas? 
• How will we ensure that our decision-making process is transparent? 

Group processes 

Goal: Develop any necessary procedures for managing the administrative or other supportive processes. 

• Tracking money: Will we collect money from participants? How will we make decisions about spending it? How will we maintain transparency in the management of money? Will there be a sliding scale or other system to ensure money is not a barrier to participation? 
• Fundraising: Will we write grants or request donations to support projects at the site? How will the grants be processed (who is your 501c3?) How will the money be managed? 
• Water access: How will we gain access to water and who will be responsible for the bill? 
• Insurance: Is additional insurance necessary? Who will be responsible? 
• Neighbors: Developing and maintaining good relationships is critical. Think also of local business and community groups as well – they often have resources and ideas to contribute.