Here at Stone Soup Gardens, we’ve had a busy and very exciting start to this new year. With many new residential and community projects on the horizon, our team has dove into educational opportunities to better serve our community.  

Leading the Year with Learning RainWise
Although Jake got to facilitate the inaugural Rainwise Academy last year, 2020 was dry for rain gardens at Stone Soup. So we were grateful to kick off 2021 with an edible rain garden installation! We had a wonderful opportunity for the whole team to share knowledge on the installation of rain gardens on a residential site. Guided by RainWise contractor resources, we went over the why and the how of rain garden construction including plumbing material standards, how to plan a rain garden’s depth and size, how to choose plants, and how to create the best drainage and overflow systems. It was a fun collaborative session co-facilitated by our three experienced installers. This impromptu training has ensured that every single one of our team members has intricate knowledge of the design and installation process for RainWise rain gardens.

Fruit Tree Pruning Workshop
We love getting to care for trees, and we love to further our knowledge of how to do so. As part of our team’s monthly education, we had the awesome opportunity to chat with Barb Burrill, an active orchardist involved in the Tilth Alliance, the Seattle Tree Fruit Society, and other groups that look after our city’s plentiful fruit trees. We had an extensive conversation about specific care regimens for all different kinds of fruits, what time of year is best for different kinds of maintenance, and how best to talk to owners of fruit trees about taking care of them. Some of our team has continued to engage and collaborate with Barb and the Tilth Alliance through consistent pruning sessions.

​Water Brings Life
We are excited to share our ongoing collaboration with Highline United Methodist Church in Burien. In 2018, we began work with Highline UMC to design the Hazel Valley Community Garden, which aims to improve stormwater mitigation, increase food access, bring neighbors together, and build healthy soil. In 2019, we returned to collaborate with the Nature Stewards to design and install two edible roadside rain gardens, with Tilth Alliance Soil and Water Stewards to build 30 raised vegetable beds in the community garden, and with King Conservation District to fill those raised beds with Hugelkultur fill. You can learn about our involvement at Hazel Valley Community Farm on our portfolio, as well as in KCD’s blog. 
This year, we are returning to this site to dive into the next phase of their community installation, a rain-harvesting irrigation system! We will be installing a 6,000 gallon system that will help irrigate the community farm and the growing food forest. ​
See below for photos of our past installation work at this site, or see our portfolio for more. 

​First, these are stressful times in our world. Stone Soup encourages our readers to take precautionary measures to ensure their safety, as we are doing within the company. Please utilize information put in place by medical professionals and the CDC. We care about the community and support the self-quarantine procedures; however, in times of great change we need community and support. Stay connected to your loved ones in safe ways, such as phone calls, video calls, emails, etc.
 
All of the surrounding fear just emphasizes a greater need for destressing activities…like gardening! Spring is here! Spending time in nature is a great way to relax. The sunshine is out and it’s time to start thinking about our yards. It’s still a little cold at night to be planting seeds, but this is a great time to start thinking about what’s needed in the coming weeks. What are some ways that you can play in your backyard? Stone Soup is excited for seasonal changes and would like to pose some questions to consider in the coming weeks.
 
-How did your current plants fair over winter? Do they have buds forming?
-It’s still early and some plants may not be fully awake. A great way to check if a plant is still alive, would be to lightly scratch the bark with your fingernail. If you see green under the first layer, the plant is ALIVE and still sleeping. Be patient. Just like people, not all plants are ‘morning’ early risers. 
 -Is there standing water anywhere in the yard?
-Is there any moss or mold forming in unwanted places? Ie. Gardening sheds
-Are there areas that need fresh compost?
-Do you have any potted plants that need to be repositioned away from their safe zones?
-Do you have a greenhouse that can be stored away?
-Don’t forget that in the coming dry months, some plants will need watering. Do you need a watering can, new hose or drip irrigation?
-Are there bare spaces in your yard that can be filled with new native plants? Even small places  can be filled with native groundcovers.
-The birds, bees and pollinators are waking up. Consider putting out food for these creatures until more flowering plants open up.
-Remember that some ‘weeds’ are helpful for the soil, such as clover and dandelions.
 
Enjoy this planning time. Think about what goals you want for your yard. Have some fun during this process! Start a wish list, to-do list, dream web, doodles, whatever your process is, get creative. Interacting with nature shouldn’t feel like a chore. It’s an exciting way to care for something beautiful. 

Earth Justice Now!: Building Intersectional Community Spaces
UW Kane Hall - Seattle
1:30 pm, Room 220 - Access and Equity
http://www.northwestgreen.org/single-post/2018/10/06/Earth-Justice-Now-Building-Intersectional-Community-Spaces

Tahmina Martelly, World Relief Fund 
Kyla Rynard, Alleycat Acres 
Jake Harris, Stone Soup Gardens (moderator)

Join Kyla Rudnik of Alleycat Acres, Tahmina Martelly of World Relief Seattle and Jake Harris of Stone Soup Gardens to learn about two community development projects focused on Social Justice and Food Access.

Wetmore Community Farm:

Wetmore Ave was a dead end S-DOT street covered in knotweed that Alleycat Acres opened up and developed into a community farm and food forest. Wetmore Community Farm now is a food hub of an elementary school, the food bank, low income senior housing and a neighborhood in the rapidly changing Rainier Valley.

Paradise Parking Plots:

A recently de-paved church parking lot in Kent is being transformed by World Relief Seattle into a habitat space, a GSI demonstration site and a welcoming community farm for over 50 refugee families.  

Both projects had ribbon cuttings this year, and both projects are taking a whole systems approach to their development.

Learning Objectives:

• Understand how two amazing organizations are achieving their goals of creating spaces that engage currently marginalized communities while bettering the planet.
• Recognize the challenges and successes each organization had in engaging the community and making these projects real for them.
• Understand the challenges and successes around developing two neglected spaces: through funding, permitting, networking, and construction.
• Understand and feel empowered to incorporate equity, justice and whole systems thinking for planning, implementation and operation of public spaces into their own projects.

ALLEYCAT ACRES CELEBRATES COMMUNITY FARM AT FALL FESTIVAL
​by Carolyn Bick
October 18, 20218
Link to article

Beneath a tent along the little lane at the back of South Estelle Street, children painted freshly picked pumpkins, as others eagerly fed and petted chickens in a mobile coop a few feet away. Though neither the coop nor the tent were permanent, greenery surrounding the was: the lane is the site of Wetmore Community Farm, and Saturday saw the farm’s official grand opening.

Run by Alleycat Acres, the free community farm has been open since 2015, but, as Farm Coordinator and Program Director Kyla Rudnick explained, this year marked the end of any major projects on or clearing of the land.

The City of Seattle grant-funded farm originally opened, because a family who lived next door was tired of seeing the derelict land and got in contact with the organization.

“We started holding community meetings in the neighborhood to see if people were interested in a community garden, and what they wanted to do with the space and went from there,” Rudnick said. “We’ve been holding events here for about three years. … Now, we just have some more planting to do, and start maintaining the site.”

The farm is run in partnership with the Rainier Valley Food Bank, Senior Housing Assistance Group, the Downtown Emergency Service Center, and Stone Soup Gardens. In the years to come, Rudnick said they hope to get more of the community itself involved. Having the space serve as a community garden is important, she said, because there isn’t any green space like it in the immediate area. While that isn’t necessarily a problem for younger people, it can be a problem for seniors.

“We have a lot of senior citizens who live in the neighborhood, so having that green space where they can walk is really important,” Rudnick said. “Of course, all the food that we grow here is going directly to neighbors. … There are grocery stores around here, but having free, fresh produce is, of course, a boon to any neighborhood, and especially here, where we have such a dense neighborhood.”

Garden neighbor Plekeo Douangdara said she and her husband enjoy gardening, and that she walks around the community garden “all the time.” She’s been gardening for 30 years, she said, and is excited to contribute seeds and plants to the space.

“I have a lot of seeds, like Asian corn, Asian pumpkin, eggplants,” Douangdara said. “She said, ‘Okay, you can plant!’ … Very cool. Before, nobody wanted to go in here … but this year and last year is better.”