DNDA Makes an Accessible Garden Bed!
In early Spring 2024, DNDA started the process of helping the Delridge P-Patch become more accessible.
A photo of volunteers adding soil to the accessible garden bed.
This dream was started by some members of Delridge P-Patch and DNDA’s very own Jules Hepp, the Environmental Education Coordinator. Gardeners and Jules knew that Accessible Garden beds were necessary for many people in our community. Although there are some higher beds at the Delridge P-Patch, they are not always available or accessible. By adding in an accessible bed that people can wheel or sit under, we are increasing the number of people who can access our garden, grow food, and engage in our space. As a member of our Delridge Community and P-Patch space, Jules has seen and continues to see wheelchairs, walkers, and mobility devices roll and move through more easily. Our community would love to have them feel welcomed, included, and empowered to be a part of our community space and garden in a way that they are able to fully reach into the garden bed, rather than park/sit next to it and have potentially lower amounts of access to.
Three photos about show the Design of the Seed & Sprout Community Garden by Delridge Neighborhoods, featuring accessible in-ground gardens and raised beds with ramps. Illustration of a 5×4 ft raised garden bed, designed for wheelchair accessibility. Accessible raised garden bed at Seed & Sprout Community Garden.
The garden bed is part of DNDA’s free Environmental Education STEAM program. The Garden programs, or Seed and Sprout programming, will build and maintain opportunities where youth can participate in to learn more about growing and harvesting foods, focusing on content relating to phenology, climate change, food justice, medicine making, and more! Our Accessible Garden bed that DNDA helped to design, build, and fill will help increase access to the Delridge P-Patch, and help to provide accessible gardening programs to students in local West Seattle schools!
The three photos about show an older volunteer showing a young child how to measure wood for a garden bed, using a tape measure and wooden planks. There is a teenager measuring and sawing wood pieces to construct a raised garden bed in the community garden, and two volunteers, including a young child, working on the wooden frame of a raised garden bed, using tools for assembly.
Later in the summer, our teen interns from our Environmental Justice program helped to fill up the dirt into the bed. We also worked with our teens to learn about plants that would be beneficial to grow in terms of season, as well as plants that grow well together in our space. Our teens made a planting plan based on prior knowledge from learning about how to map things like types of plants, sun exposure, and seeing what plants are often placed near or next to each other in other garden spaces. We worked with the teens to think about foods that both were feeling exciting to them, and foods that are culturally relevant. We started seeds in compostable pots, and are excited to plant starts before our school year programs.
Teens working and learning about food and how they are culturally relevant. They planned to how they were going to plant the seed and the best way to plant them with compostable pots.
We look forward to offering the Accessible Garden Bed and garden program(s) to Staff, Teachers, and PTA from Pathfinder, Louisa Boren, and other community connections to run garden program(s) at the Delridge P-Patch as a part of an expansion of our Environmental Education STEAM programming.
-Written by DNDA’s Environmental Education Coordinator Jules Hepp