PORT ANGELES — As spring begins, so do plans for Port Angeles’ second community garden: an experiment, an urban farm and a shared space.
The garden, about one-third of an acre on 11th Street between A and B streets, is on land the city is lending to the PA Community Gardens volunteers, several of whom have worked on the Fifth Street Community Garden established in 2011.
But the 11th Street garden will take shape in a different way.
Instead of the pea-patch format with gardeners cultivating separate plots, the new garden will be shared by all of its members, said John Danks, a volunteer organizer.
“We’ll have twice as much planting area,” Danks said, adding that the members will decide together which vegetables, herbs and fruit to grow.
Instead of being on your own, Danks added, you have a chance to learn from your fellow gardeners.
He and Jane Vanderhoof, co-owner of the WestWind Farm in Joyce for many years, said this model, in which everybody pitches in and then picks what they need, is used in other cities.
“Whether it will work in Port Angeles is a big experiment,” Vanderhoof said.
They’re eager to attract people who want to help construct the garden and become members. An irrigation system needs installing, a deer fence needs building and plowing needs doing.
Danks encourages potential volunteers and gardeners to contact him at 360-809-3301 or john.danks@gmail.com.
The new garden’s membership fee is $100 per household per year to cover water, building materials and other costs.
Danks, Vanderhoof and a small group of volunteers are aiming for a May 2 grand opening of the 11th Street Garden.
The land has already been tilled and planted with cover crop, and architect Hank Gibson created renderings of how the garden could look when it’s fully planted.
Those images, along with more information about both the Fifth Street and 11th Street gardens, can be found at www.PACommunityGardens.org.
Corey Delikat, the city of Port Angeles’ parks and recreation director, sees this as a good thing for the west-side neighborhood.
“It wasn’t really a park; it was more of an empty lot,” he said of the land.
“The Fifth Street Garden was so successful that we wanted to find something on west side of town. This is perfect.”
“I’m excited and nervous,” Danks said.
“There’s a lot to do” on this project, which will include a children’s garden and, in future years, fruit trees and greenhouses for heat-loving crops such as tomatoes and basil.
Danks, who works at Peninsula Behavioral Health in Port Angeles, got involved with the Fifth Street Community Garden when he saw a newspaper notice about a volunteer work party there.
In the four years since, he’s learned a few things about urban farming and people.
“Growing food is easy. Growing community,” Danks said, “is challenging.”
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Features Editor Diane Urbani de la Paz can be reached at 360-452-2345, ext. 5062, or at diane.urbani@peninsuladailynews.com.
