Information for:

Garden Landmark Event

The UW Tacoma made its first donation to the Good Neighbor Cafe, which included spinach and radishes. We will continue harvesting throughout the summer and into the fall.

Another Successful event

Our Earth Day event resulted in over 50 volunteers of all ages expanding the garden to 8 raised beds and installing some native plants nearby, as well. Thank you Garden Volunteers! Click here to view pictures from our events...

UWT's Giving Garden in the News

UW Tacoma Giving Garden Featured on Huffington Post

There are two blog entries about the UW Tacoma Giving Garden found at the online newspaper site, Huffington Post:

• The Giving Garden
• Obama's Call to Service - The Garden We're Growing

Giving Garden Featured on Front Page of Tacoma Weekly

• A Garden for a Good Cause at UWT

About Our Garden

The University of Washington Tacoma is an urban campus located in downtown Tacoma with a strong commitment to our surrounding community. For the past few years, there has been much discussion around the installation of a garden on campus. In December 2008, The Environmental Program at UW Tacoma applied for a mini-grant through the Green Partnership Fund to establish an Institute for Service to the Community and Environment with 3 goals for the 08/09 Academic Year, these include:

• Funding the installation of a "Giving Garden" on campus
• Installing 2 Rain Gardens to treat stormwater run-off
• Lake Stewardship Monitoring at Lake Wapato

The Giving Garden project includes several raised bed gardens, which will grow fresh produce. This produce will be harvested and donated to Tacoma's Good Neighbor Café, a facility providing breakfast and dinner to homeless and low-income individuals.

Our Giving Garden will serve as an example of affordable urban gardening, an educational research plot for determining best practices, and as a community resource for fresh produce.

Designing the garden

Through years of volunteering with Garden-Raised Bounty in Olympia, we knew they had a model that worked so we followed their free, online how-to guide from GRuB's Kitchen Garden Project. We researched the cost of lumber, and though cedar would last the longest, we decided that demonstrating affordability was more important. Cedar costs 5 times the amount of Douglas Fir and even untreated Douglas Fir will last several years.

Our first planting will consist of the following:

This plan was designed to have crops that grow well together planted in the same bed. The vegetables were chosen to ensure a bountiful harvest for the Tacoma Rescue Mission with some raspberries and strawberries added for a special treat.

Cost of a Raised Bed Garden

There are a few ways to keep costs low:

1. If you are building several beds, buy Topsoil/Compost mix in bulk
2. Weed barrier fabric is not necessary and will double the cost of your beds, but may save you work in the long run. A combination of cardboard and newspaper will keep the grass and other weeds out and will break-down over time
3. If you do not own basic hand tools, borrow them from friends or neighbors

In addition to the items below, a shovel, hand saw, and hammer are needed and a wheelbarrow will make the work easier.

At the UWT Giving Garden, we've also installed a basic trellis. For this, all you need are a few nails, 4 - 8 footlong 2" x 2"s, and some twine. A trellis costs just under $15.

Upcoming Giving Garden events

Spring Work Parties: Stay tuned, events coming soon!

Stay Informed

For more information about our Giving Garden or to recieve periodic emails about the UW Tacoma Giving Garden, please contact our Service Learning Coordinator:

Kayomi Wada

Email: kayomi@u.washington.edu

Telephone: 253.692.4551

Our Partners in Service

The UW Tacoma wishes to acknowledge the grant support provided by the Green Partnership Fund, which is drawn from the Pierce Conservation District and administered by the Greater Tacoma Community Foundation. For more information, please visit www.gtcf.org or call 253-383-5622. The UWT Giving Garden is just one of many community projects this funding supports.

Greater Tacoma Community Foundation	Pierce Conservation District

All produce raised will be donated to Tacoma's Good Neighbor Café, a facility providing breakfast and dinner to homeless and low-income individuals.

Tacoma Rescue Mission

Pictures

Click on Thumbnail to view album:

MLK Day 2009	Earth Week 2009

Garden Timeline

Janaury 19th, 2009: Over 80 people showed up for our Kick-off event. The first 4 beds were completed and all of the remaining invasive species were removed in just 2 hours! This amazing display of volunteerism demonstrated the huge amount of work that can be accomplished through the efforts of committed individuals.

April 18th, 2009: Nearly 50 volunteers showed up for our Giving Garden expansion event. The garden now has 8 beds and is planted with a variety of delicious fruits and vegetables for harvesting and donating to the Tacoma Rescue Mission.

May 29th, 2009:The UW Tacoma made its first donation to the Good Neighbor Cafe, which included spinach and radishes.

help wanted!

The UWT Giving Garden is in need of some volunteers for watering, weeding, and watching the garden grow! If you can help, please contact kayomi@u.washington.edu

We also need planters and pots for demonstrating container gardening. We are hoping for used wine barrels (cut in half) or something similar. Please contact Kayomi at kayomi@u.washington.edu if you can help!

Special thanks to the following people for their donations of starts for our garden:

Kimberle Shaw - Rhubarb and strawberries

Jessica Dvorak - Onion Sampler

Gardening Links

Building your own Raised Bed Garden:

• A how-to guide from GRuB's Kitchen Garden Project

General Gardening Information:

• Gardening in Western Washington

Organic Gardening:

• Organic Gardening Guide