Grow your own groceries

Lots of people are starting to grow their own groceries. They’re converting portions of their yards to make room for vegetables, herbs and fruits. If you’re new to urban gardening, you may want to check out the West Seattle Edible Garden Fair on Saturday, May 23. The event is 9:30 a.m. to 4 p.m. at the South Seattle Community College horticulture buildings, 6000 16th Avenue SW, and offers hands-on workshops to help you get started.

The workshops include how to build healthy soils, garden in small spaces or containers, integrating edibles into your landscape and how to grow warm season crops (like tomatoes and peppers) successfully in our cooler Northwest climate. Here’s the schedule of events.

The event is co-sponsored by the Community Harvest of Southwest Seattle, a very cool group that works to ensure that everyone has fresh fruits and vegetables to eat. The program picks up donations of produce from your fruit trees and vegetable gardens and distributes them to those who need it.

We love the idea of their fruit harvest program. If you have a plum, apple or other tree that bears more fruits than you can possibly handle, consider donating the extras. The Community Harvest of Southwest Seattle can connect you with volunteers to harvest the fruit and donate them to local food banks.  They’re trying to harvest about 6500 pounds of fruit for 2009. Fill out this online form if you’re interested in donating this year.