Pea Patch Policy Proposal
I ran into Redmond's mayor, Rosemarie Ives, and her husband at the annual Derby Days event earlier this month. She and her husband had just returned from a trip to Boston where they took a “wonderful walk through the Fenway gardens.“ They couldn't say enough good things about the public gardens. I echo that sentiment.
I recently proposed that the Redmond Planning Commission consider adding the following policy to the Parks and Recreaton chapter of our Comprehensive Plan:
- Develop and administer a seasonal pea patch for the non-commercial use, enjoyment, and edification of the residents of Redmond, especially in areas such as the Downtown and Overlake neighborhoods where a majority of homes have little or no garden space.
Gardening is a recreational activity. In the context of a public pea patch however, it becomes something much more. Pea patch gardening is a social, educational, and cultural institution whose value transcends generations and enriches gardeners as well as passers-by in countless ways.
<story>Several years ago, a father and his seven or eight year old son walked by my Pea Patch at Marymoor Park. The father asked me a question about some plant and the boy, standing between us, bent down, picked my largest and ripest strawberry, and at it with satisfaction.
His father snapped, "Johnny, you know better than to eat someone else's strawberries without asking. Now tell this gentleman you're sorry."
The boy looked at me beseechingly and said, "I'm sorry, mister. I didn't know... My a daddy told me this was a public garden."
I explained that, "It is a public garden but my strawberries are private unless I choose to share them. I'll tell you what, since you're such a nice, polite young man, you can pick strawberries from my garden anytime. But," I warned, "you have to get up really early in the morning to beat the slugs to the biggest and sweetest ones". I added that he could grow his own strawberries in his own garden if his dad didn't mind.
The next growing season, I saw the boy and his father again. The father rolled a wheel barrow past me and said with a sideways smile, "Johnny wanted to grow his own strawberries this year. Thank you." </story>
A pea patch is and should be accessible to as many people as possible. No pea patch should be walled-off or "private". I believe that the best place in Redmond for a pea patch would be somewhere between or on the current City Hall site and the Sammamish River trail. Why? Because the site is central, sunny, has ample traffic, great sun and soil (I assume), plentiful water, and is only blocks from the greatest number of condominium and town house residents in the city.
Because pea patch gardening is such a unique activity, I strongly believe that it needs to be identified and dealt with individually in the Parks and Recreation chapter of our Comprehensive Plan. Establishing a pea patch for city residents will materially enhance property values in nearby neighborhoods, especially in the urban centers. I'm as surprised that we haven't created a pea patch program that dovetails with King County's once excellent program as I am determined to see that one gets started in the City of Redmond.
What do you think?
Comments
Anonymous
July 26, 2004
The comment has been removedAnonymous
July 26, 2004
Just to add, the Fenway Gardens are great. Its nice to have such a beautiful place to go and relax right in the city. Didn't want my first story to seem completely negative ;-)Anonymous
July 26, 2004
I'm all for Pea Patch programs, but it strikes me that your little anecdote is essentially arguing for exclusive private use of public property. How are you feeling about oil leases on public lands these days? :-)Anonymous
July 26, 2004
Indeed, I am arguing for the private use of public property when the public good is clear and present. The logic by which you equate oil leases on federal lands to community gardening is a bit of a stretch. Oil field development and extractive mining operations do provide a benefit to the public but permits are not accessible to all citizens and are much more likely to have bad environmental side effects than community gardening.
All that being said, your analysis of the intent of my "little anecdote" is absolutely correct. Actually, it's a parable, albeit a true one.
One of the great things about community pea patches is that they offer an ongoing and invaluable political lesson: YOU don't own the land. I don't own the land. WE own the land and for that reason it's important that we develop and agree to abide by conventions, rules, and laws that help us balance our interests and share the fruits of public resources and/or labor in a fair and equitable way.
In this case, the boy who ate my strawberry owned the land as much as me. However, I provided the plant, watered it, and reserved first rights to the harvest. Every resident, including that boy, had the same right to grow strawberries on their own assigned patch of public land. Implicit in this transaction was a social contract: 'I won't eat your strawberries and you don't eat mine but anyone can grow them.'
In the case of oil exploration and extraction, the division of public resources and the attending benefits are not so easily accomplished. So, to answer your question, I don't know what I think about oil leases on public lands these days. It's complicated.
I do know that if the US government were to allow any citizen to drill for oil on a 10'x20' plot of public land, we'd have another Pennsylvania on our hands.Anonymous
July 26, 2004
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July 27, 2004
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August 03, 2004
Mike,
My wife has plot in a P-Patch in Seattle. There are a limited number of spots in each P-Patch. In Seattle, you sign up for a waiting list and when a plot opens up they call you and you pay $40 (I think) a year and have to volunteer at least 8 hours a year towards working on the public sections of the P-Patch (taking care of planters in the P-Patch, chopping up vegitation for compost, turning the compost, planting trees, etc...). If a person doesn't keep up their plot, it's taken away from them and given to the next person on the waiting list. You can't sell any of the produce from your plot, you can donate it to a food bank, give it away to friends, or eat it yourself (we're bullish on squash so far this summer, but the peppers are coming along nicely).
Seattle doesn't have just one big P-Patch though. It has several spread throughout the city. You can read more about the program here.
http://www.cityofseattle.net/neighborhoods/ppatch/
I think it's a great idea for the more urban areas of Redmond (are there urban areas of Redmond?) but I don't know how necessary it is since most houses in Redmond HAVE a backyard or some other area to grow things in.Anonymous
August 03, 2004
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June 19, 2006
Persone los pioneros non rabata. Great...Anonymous
June 29, 2006
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