Please Vote for Us!

Please Vote For Us!

Organic Gardening Magazine and DeLoach Organic Winery have chosen the Magnuson Community Garden to participate in a nationwide grant contest, and you can help us win a $3,000-4,000 grant by casting your vote for us at

or by visiting www.deloachcommunitygardens.com/.

2011 marks the tenth anniversary of the 4-acre Magnuson Community Garden, which contains the fabulous and fun Children's Garden, a bird-filled Native Plant Border, Demonstration Orchard with over 40 fruit trees, a Tranquil Garden for horticulture therapy, and a Native Plant Nursery that grows plants for restoration projects all over the city.

The Community Garden was largely built and is maintained by volunteers from the community. It also contains one of the largest P-Patches in King County, which donates more than 4,000 pounds of fresh produce to local food banks each year, and an outdoor amphitheater that provides a picturesque setting for free summer concerts, Shakespeare-in-the-park performances, and other special events.

Web site viewers can vote online at www.deloachcommunitygardens.com once a day for their favorite garden between now and July 31. The Magnuson Community Garden icon is a closeup from the above photo, of two smiling girls holding their newly made scarecrows at our 2010 Fall Harvest Celebration!

The five gardens receiving the most votes will each receive a $3,000-4,000 grant. If the Community Garden receives one of the grants, it will fund two very worthy projects that will benefit all visitors, especially seniors and disabled gardeners:

• A much-needed major expansion to the disabled-access P-Patch plots, which provide wheelchair-height and standing-height garden beds for gardeners who cannot use the standard in-ground plots.
  

• Interpretive signs to make it easy for all visitors to find their way around all the different areas of the Community Garden, and to understand the mission and goals of each area.

For more information about the entire Magnuson Community Garden, please go to www.seattle.gov/magnusongarden

And thanks for your vote!!!

Spring and Summer Events!

You're invited to come to the garden to enjoy fun and educational activities!
April 9th re-dedication of the Gary Whale Garden as the grand finale of the Celebrate Urban Nature event: the big moment when the new eye was unveiled! For more info and photos, go to www.jrnatureexplorers.blogspot.com

NEW this year: "Summer Sunset Gardening" with Seattle Works volunteers! Families welcome to enjoy garden exploration, nature art and other activities, or to help with simple summer tasks.

• Wednesday May 18th from 6-8pm
  
• Wednesday June 1st from 6-8pm
• Wednesday July 6th from 6-8pm
• Wednesday August 3rd from 6-8pm

Finding the flowers of the "Mouse Plant" on April 9th.

"Summer Fridays in the Garden" during Free Family Concerts

• Friday July 8th from 6-8pm, featuring Board of Education!
  
• Friday Aug. 12th from 6-8pm, featuring Caspar Babypants!
  

These events are co-hosted by Magnuson Community Center. Dance, dig, and explore!

4th annual "Blues for Food Fest", a day-long benefit concert for the P-Patch Trust, who support local food banks, shelters, and hot meals programs. Free gardening fun for the whole family during the afternoon hours of the concert.

• Saturday September 3rd from 12noon-4pm.

United Way "Day of Caring" Bring your children to join volunteers in fall fun!

• Friday September 23rd from 9am-12noon

2nd annual "Fall Harvest Celebration and Jamboree", co-hosted by the Magnuson Community Center. Family-friendly concert, orchard maze, pumpkin walk, cider press, and more!

• Saturday October 1st from 10:30am-2:00pm

Volunteers are needed at each of these events, and you can choose from a variety of ways to help: help guide the volunteers from Seattle Works and other groups, help children explore the garden and worm bin or make nature art projects during events, help set up refreshments, or other support activities. Please RSVP to magnusonchildrensgarden@gmail.com if you would like to help- and thanks in advance!

Come Celebrate Spring in the Garden!

Re-dedication of the Gray Whale Garden!

On Saturday, April 9th, Magnuson Community Center is kicking off its 2011 Nature Programs with a huge party- the 2nd annual "Celebrate Urban Nature" event! As a grand finale to the festivities, we will have a big parade down the block from the Community Center to the Children's Garden for a re-dedication of the Gray Whale Garden and its brand new eye!

We know you will thoroughly enjoy spending your day at the park, because the "Celebrate Urban Nature" event is chock-full of natural fun!

• It begins with our first Family Wetland Walk of the year, from 9am-10am in the new Magnuson Wetlands (meet at 9am at the wetlands' south entry in the 65th St parking lot)
  
• The rest of the event will be held at the Magnuson Community Center, starting at 10:30am with a free family-oriented concert by Eric Ode!
• The entire gymnasium will be filled with a myriad of hands-on nature activities including the "Nature Explorers Lab", Roving Reptiles, a Bug Zoo, booths from many local environmental organizations, and much much more.
  
• At 1:45pm the parade begins to the Children's Garden re-dedication festivities!

Magnuson Community Center is located inside Magnuson Park, at 7110 62nd Ave NE, Seattle, WA. For more information, call 206-684-7026

Thank You Ciscoe and Northwest Horticultural Society!
Once again, fortune has smiled upon us in the form of Ciscoe Morris and his recommendation to us to apply for a grant from the Northwest Horticultural Society (NHS), to fund the new whale eye. We are overjoyed to have received their grant and to have been able to make the Gray Whale Garden complete again.