Riding on the wings of a food/farm movement that is sweeping the country, organic gardens are popping up in backyards everywhere this spring, including the White House.  Interest in sharing the experience through community gardening is also growing, as we saw in the large turnout at a Sustainable Bainbridge meeting on the topic in early March.  With p-patches filled at Battle Point Park and Eagle Harbor Congregational Church, people have been talking about how and where to expand local community gardens, and in just two months, there has been considerable progress. 

City-owned Johnson Farm, managed by the Trust for Working Landscapes, has opened up 14 new community garden plots and all were spoken for gardeners who attended the March meeting.  The new garden space has been plowed and new beds are being constructed.  Deer fence has been erected and last week, children planted Marshall strawberries, a variety which was once widely grown and well-loved on Bainbridge.  Thanks to the energy and efforts of TWL members and other volunteers, the community garden at Johnson Farm looks like a prime location for participation, enhanced by the Harvest Fair celebration in the fall.  Johnson Farm is just west of Fletcher Bay Road near the Island Center Road turnoff.  If you're interested in future p-patches at Johnson Farm, contact Christy Carr at This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it . 

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Enthusiasm for community gardening on Bainbridge is blooming. 

A meeting hosted by Sustainable Bainbridge last Monday night drew a standing-room-only crowd at Bainbridge Commons, where an asssortment of guest speakers and information tables offered support, ideas and inspiration - even some lettuce sprouts.  When the evening concluded, over a dozen folks had signed up for new community garden plots at the city's Johnson Farm on Fletcher Bay Road, and a spearhead group had been formed to look at creating a community garden for the residents of Island Terrace, the city's low-income housing site on High School Rd. and Ferncliff. 

Seattle pea patches have become magnets for neighborhood connection, education, original artwork, even music events.  At their best, Pernitz said, a community garden can provide a place for people to meet and create all kinds of new growth - in all kinds of ways. 

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Athough Kitsap County is known for its rural character, many of its residents do not have room for their own vegetable gardens, and with condominiums and scaled-down lifestyles on the rise in this area, community gardens promise to be one the best ways to insure access to -- and enjoyment of -- locally-grown food. 

This article is the first in a series that will take a look at community gardens.  Where are they and who operates them?  Who can participate, what are the rules?  How are community gardens evolving?

We begin with a tour of the best-known public program on Bainbridge Island, the Pea Patches at Battle Point Park. 

With 28 people on the waiting list for a Pea Patch plot this year, the Bainbridge Park District's Battle Point program remains the most well-known and high-profile local community garden.  Located at the southwest edge of the park's 90 acres, these 35 garden plots offer year-round activity, color, creativity and entertainment for those who pass by on the park's pathway -- not to mention the many varieties of fresh fruits and vegetables they provide to the gardeners and their friends and families on a extended-season basis.

Measuring approximately 15' x 30' (450 square feet), each plot in the Battle Point pea patch seems to offer its own special character. You may see tomatoes growing in huge tractor tires.  Other gardeners tend carefully measured rows and neatly divided squares. Still others approach their plots with the gusto of an painter, splashing colorful flowers across the canvas of their pea patch plot. Perennials, annuals, fruit trees, and every kind of gardening technique are on display at Battle Point, and passers-by enjoy not only a visual treat, but often, an educational experience.

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