Community Projects
We have been so lucky to work alongside many Seattle organizations and volunteers to create beautiful, functional, and sustainable landscapes which foster and engage our communities in the region. We love to help get folks excited about getting connected to their food and to the natural processes at work around us. Below, we've highlighted some of our favorite community projects we have contributed to, which show the diversity of services we can offer your group.
Black Panther Park
We are collaborating with Nurturing Roots, King County Parks, and residents of the Skyway neighborhood to bring a new public green space to this community. This project is the product of years of effort from community groups in and around the Skyway area to bring food and recreation resources and public space beautification to an unincorporated, culturally diverse and systemically under-resourced part of King County. Panther Park will work to capture, honor and uphold the commitments of the Black Panther Party - Seattle Chapter by exemplifying values of mutual aid and community care, abundant knowledge and education, free community resources, expression and education through art, and focusing on the youth. As of late 2035, we have passed the permitting process for Phase 1 of this project, which will include community gathering space, mural space, a community pantry and lending library, sculptural elements, and edible, medicinal and culturally relevant plantings. We plan to break ground in Spring 2025 with the help of community members and many local minority-owned contractors and businesses.
We are collaborating with Nurturing Roots, King County Parks, and residents of the Skyway neighborhood to bring a new public green space to this community. This project is the product of years of effort from community groups in and around the Skyway area to bring food and recreation resources and public space beautification to an unincorporated, culturally diverse and systemically under-resourced part of King County. Panther Park will work to capture, honor and uphold the commitments of the Black Panther Party - Seattle Chapter by exemplifying values of mutual aid and community care, abundant knowledge and education, free community resources, expression and education through art, and focusing on the youth. As of late 2035, we have passed the permitting process for Phase 1 of this project, which will include community gathering space, mural space, a community pantry and lending library, sculptural elements, and edible, medicinal and culturally relevant plantings. We plan to break ground in Spring 2025 with the help of community members and many local minority-owned contractors and businesses.
Kent Meridian High School
In 2019, Stone Soup Gardens was contacted by students of Kent Meridian High School's Environmental Club, who had the dream of hosting a student-designed and maintained rain garden as well as a cistern on their campus to provide both environmental and educational benefits. With the students taking the lead, we assisted the club in creating the design and choosing plants that best suited the site. Stone Soup then constructed the rain garden, installed the cistern and helped to host a garden party with the students to install the plants in 2022. This was a community-building opportunity that will serve the students and broader community in Kent for years to come, and was an example of what is possible through community and youth organization.
In 2019, Stone Soup Gardens was contacted by students of Kent Meridian High School's Environmental Club, who had the dream of hosting a student-designed and maintained rain garden as well as a cistern on their campus to provide both environmental and educational benefits. With the students taking the lead, we assisted the club in creating the design and choosing plants that best suited the site. Stone Soup then constructed the rain garden, installed the cistern and helped to host a garden party with the students to install the plants in 2022. This was a community-building opportunity that will serve the students and broader community in Kent for years to come, and was an example of what is possible through community and youth organization.
After the excitement from our rain garden installation, KMHS was offered more grant funding to design and install one more green space on their campus! Once again, we worked with Environmental Club students to identify another site to improve, centering green stormwater infrastructure and native plantings. We decided to create a garden at the main entrance of the school which would highlight the surface runoff that flows directly into a nearby stream, to which. a drain exists at this site. We created a design which included picnic tables, three trees, a dry stream bed and a fun wavy bath emanating the flow of water. This space provides students with an outdoor space to gather, engage and watch as it grows in the years to come.
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Martin Luther King Jr. Elementary Rain Garden
An educational rain garden installation at the South Seattle elementary school. Students were involved in design and plant selections. Classes can now be held outside to learn about the plant and water processes at work around us at home in Seattle! |
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Highline United Methodist Church
Stone Soup Gardens collaborated with Highline United Methodist Church in Burien, along with several organizations and many volunteers in the community, to install a community farm as well as two rain gardens. We worked with the Tilth Alliance Soil and Water Stewards as well as the King Conservation District to design and install 30 raised vegetable beds at this site and fill them using Hugelkultur, a technique which uses decaying wood and other composted plant material to create a raised mound. Many volunteers from the community, the organizations above, and Nature Stewards joined us in the construction of the beds and the rain garden installations. This site has helped to improve storm water mitigation in the neighborhood, and has provided opportunities for neighborhood residents to access food resources and interact with their community. We also installed two 2000-gallon cisterns with a pump to harvest rainwater from the church roof and help irrigate the community garden. |
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Paradise Parking Plots
Paradise Parking Plots is hosted at Hillside Church in Kent and is a project with World Relief Seattle. This project aimed to transform 2 acres of paved parking lot into a community farm for the surrounding refugee population to become a hub for community building through food. Designed by Stone Soup Gardens, and with the help of community members through design workshops, Paradise Parking Plots is be a powerful demonstration space; it is home to the first rain gardens in Kent, it captures part of the church's 30,000 square foot roof into a large cistern system, and it has helped to turn a natural spring into a habitat pond (the stream previously ran across the pavement and into a storm drain.) |
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Wetmore Community Garden
We worked with The Common Acre (formerly Alley Cat Acres) to design and install this urban farm space at the dead-end of Wetmore Ave S. This undeveloped right of way, owned by Seattle Department of Transportation, was primarily a huge overgrowth of invasive species including knotweed. With the help of the Moore family (long time residents of the neighborhood) and a long list of volunteers, The Common Acre is creating an accessible entrance, garden beds, and a winding pathway through the space. We recruited community members from Senior Housing Assistance Group, Rainier Valley Food Bank, Homesight WA, and the Estelle Street P-patch to help design the space, and assisted in leading volunteers on an invasive species removal work party. |
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DIRT Corp and Carleton Grocery
Through evening classes and field experience, Stone Soup Gardens taught students how to design and install two cisterns, an arborduct, and a raingarden at Carleton Avenue Grocery in the Georgetown neighborhood. Stone Soup Gardens, through a partnership with Urban Systems Design, DIRT Corp, King County Wastewater Management, and Seattle Public Utilities, provided an educational opportunity for DIRT Corp students, and the residents of Georgetown. The classes taught the critical importance of storm water management and its relationship to the Duwamish River. |
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Judkins Park P-Patch
Judkins P-Patch is a perfect example of what Stone Soup Gardens can provide for local, community-based organizations creating public spaces. We were approached by the Judkins Park Community Council and the Department of Neighborhoods to create an ADA accessible patio and raised beds, two urbanite retaining walls, and a lovely stone mosaic to welcome folks into the P-Patch. For the design, we worked with the organizations to create a plan that was functional and cost-efficient. As part of the installation, we led a volunteer work party to install the ADA accessible garden plot. It was a great way to create engagement with the Judkins Park Community, while also developing quality public space. |
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Lakewood Seward Park Community Center
Lakewood Seward Park Community Center reached out to Stone Soup Gardens in order to take advantage of the RainWise Rebate Program through Seattle Public Utilities. We were able to install two cisterns and an arbor duct which will help manage storm water runoff into Lake Washington, while helping cut down on costs of maintaining the landscaping by using the collected water during the summer months. |
