My Neighborhood is GROWing

We’ve got a old/new garden in the neighborhood, and we’re thrilled.

Margi Beyers, former Beyers’ Bulldog Garden owner, and Joyce Moty GROW board member with canine companions. Photo: courtesy of GROW

The new: Beyers’ Bulldog Garden is named for the Beyers family who for generations owned and gardened the undeveloped West Seattle property a few doors down from my house. The property was left to a local nonprofit in partnership with the Seattle Department of Neighborhoods P Patch Program. GROW, a 501(c)(3) organization is dedicated to preserving existing gardens and coaching neighbors through the process of creating new community gardens, orchards or open space. As a land conservancy that can own property, GROW is able to hold these valuable spaces in perpetuity. Our neighborhood hit the jackpot!

The Old

For decades, Bill Beyers Sr. tended his big sunny plot, working the chocolate rich soil, putting in fruit trees, scores of raspberries, and planting vegetable beds which included generous rows of ‘Early Girl’ tomatoes.

Oh, how Bill Sr. used to scoff at my romantic attempt to grow giant beefsteak and heirloom tomatoes in my small backyard plot. “I like to eat my tomatoes,” he scolded. I used to watch him trundling back to his house across the street, his wheelbarrow filled with ripe red tomatoes. A lifelong vegetable gardener, Bill Sr. knew better than I that growing conditions in my Pacific Northwest garden would never produce a tomato crop that would rather be rooted in the steamy Midwest or anywhere with hot summers. He was right.

Growing up in the garden

Every summer, Bill Sr. along with the elders in our neighborhood hosted an annual summer picnic in his garden. A slightly feral tribe of kids, my own included, would romp through the beds. Tables would be loaded with the usual summer fare. And pies. But my strongest memory, other than those pies, are rows and rows of bright red, ripe tomatoes.

Years later, when Bill Sr. passed, the plot was taken over by his son Billy who tended the garden in his father’s footsteps. Even more so than his father, Billy was a bit gruff and wildly protective of the garden. There were no more picnics or grazing on raspberries. What had been a generous sharing space became shut off and proprietary. I’m not going to kid you, he scared me, but I was thankful that the garden remained intact.

Beyers’ Bulldog Garden before.

Beyers’ Bulldog Garden in process

The New

When Billy died, his wife Margi took over, single handedly caring for the berries, the giant fig tree, salad greens and the best carrots I’ve ever tasted. Once, when Margi showed up at my back door with a fistful of roots, I confessed that I couldn’t grow a carrot to save my life (I still can’t). “You don’t have to,” she said. “Here.” Sharing and generosity was restored. However, the greatest gift from the Beyers family was leaving the property to GROW ensuring its future as a community garden space.

Neighbors Erinn, Jack and Henry Ellig and little Rex tackle weeding in the Beyers’ Bulldog Garden. Photo: courtesy of GROW

Unlike an allotment-style P-patch where plots are assigned to individuals, Beyers’ Bulldog Garden is following a collective model. A group of us, from the neighborhood and beyond, have signed on to help create and tend the new garden that’s emerging from the weeds that have choked the plot in recent years. Already we’re growing in all the best ways as a new generation of neighborhood littles romp through the garden and “help” pull weeds. Growing new gardeners may be our most important crop.

The massive artichokes are producing, which is a very good thing because my plants died in a recent hard winter. The garden’s greenhouse is filled with hundreds of baby tomatoes; most will be shared with another nonprofit who distributes free vegetable starts and coaches people on how to grow their own food. It feels good to do something to empower families and help combat food insecurity.

Of course, some of those tomatoes will remain in “our” plot — no doubt ‘Early Girl’ will be among those varieties. I sure Bill Sr. would approve. Every time I stop by the garden to drop off seeds or tools and other miscellaneous garden “stuff,” I run into neighbors going about their tasks. Last weekend a garage sale raised more than $600 that will be donated to the garden to put towards refurbishing the plumbing.

Months from now, ripe fruits and vegetables will be shared among those of us who have signed up to support Beyers’ Bulldog Garden and a portion will be distributed to regional food pantries. But to my mind, a more immediate harvest already well underway is cultivating our community. Recently I spent several hours pruning the espaliered pears back into shape with dreams of red, ripe raspberries still warm from the sun. We’re planning to all gather for a summer picnic. I’ll bring the pie.