2011 Beneficiaries

As a non-profit organization we donate all proceeds to educational and horticultural projects or to community gardens. The 2011 West Seattle Garden Tour Beneficiaries are:

The Seattle Chinese Garden

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The Seattle Chinese Garden will provide a place for community celebrations and personal tranquility through a beautiful and ancient Chinese experience. The 4.6-acre Seattle Chinese Garden will be one of the largest authentic Sichuan-style gardens outside of China, showcasing not only plants, but also stone, architecture and water elements that are customary to Chinese gardens. WSGT funding will be used for Planting the Path to Song Mei Pavillion, including soil amendment and preparation, design, labor, and miscellaneous costs. Additional funds may also be used for the Lotus Pond Rock Gardens, including soil amendment and preparation, purchase of plants, and stone-setting and related costs. Both of these projects would connect the just completed Knowing the Spring Courtyard with an earlier project, Song Mei Pavilion, to create a beautiful garden experience for Seattle Chinese Garden visitors.

Duwamish Longhouse & Cultural Center: Rain Garden Wetlands

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The Duwamish Tribe is the host tribe for Seattle, the area's only indigenous tribe. Many of the 569 enrolled members still live on Duwamish aboriginal territory, which includes Seattle, Burien, Tukwila, Renton, and Redmond. Project funding will be used to:

1. Complete the "Upland Garden Terraced Steps" phase of the native garden
2. Plant soap berry, huckleberry, fiddle head ferns, salal, salmon berry, thimbleberry, violet, kinnikinck, Indian tea-twana, devil's club, hawthorn, and hazelnut shrub
3. Install 25 botanical garden quality plant identification (4X8 inch) signs
4. Print "Duwamish Native Garden" self-guide materials.

Lincoln Park P-Patch

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The Lincoln Park P-Patch was created through a City Block Grant Project beginning in 2003. The work to build the garden was done entirely by volunteers, many of whom have gardened at the P-Patch since its founding. Funding provided by the WSGT will be used to beautify the P-Patch garden entry area for the enjoyment of garden visitors and to help control invasive weeds. The project is divided into two components:

1. Install an herb garden to beautify the area on the south side of the entry path and educate the community about herb cultivation and use
2. Place sheet mulching on the area north of the entry path to beautify the native shrub area, ensure shrub survival, and control invasive weeds.

Nantes Park

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Nantes Park was dedicated in 2005 by representatives from Seattle and Nantes, France city governments to celebrate the 25th anniversary of the sister city relationship. To date, the park has not attracted much use, despite the efforts of the Parks Department and the Seattle-Nantes Sister City Association. WSGT funding will be used to provide the Seattle-Nantes Sister City Association with the ability to purchase large evergreen trees that will result in blocking unattractive neighborhood views from within the park, and to provide shading on the hillside; a first step in developing the park into a place of horticultural and educational interest.

Walking on Logs Landscape Restoration Group

"Children Walking on Logs" was dedicated on Oct. 5,1996 on the west side of the Fauntleroy freeway. The creator of the sculptures has retired and can no longer care for the landscaping around the sculptures. The Walking on Logs Restoration Group will use the funding to replace the current landscaping surrounding the statues that are the portal to West Seattle. A portion of the funding might also be used for upkeep and supervision of the site and statues over the next two or three years.

West Seattle Tool Library, a project of Sustainable West Seattle

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The West Seattle Tool Library promotes a more engaged, active, and resourceful community by providing their membership and partner organizations with low-cost or no-cost access to a wide range of useful tools, literature, and related expertise. WSGT funding will be used to purchase and fix up a mobile unit that would travel throughout West Seattle to provide residents free access to garden tools that they cannot afford or may need to use only rarely. This would be the first mobile unit in the nation, and is patterned after Bookmobiles.

Nature Consortium

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Nature Consortium is a grassroots, community-based organization whose mission is to connect people, arts and nature. The Nature Consortium produces a Youth Art Program, an Urban Forest Restoration Project and the Arts in Nature Festival. WSGT funding will be used to enable the Nature Consortium to expand the organic gardening classes it offers to 5-19 year-olds under its Youth Art Program. The young people who are served by this program live in low-income housing and/or public housing throughout Seattle and King County. Some of the classes are taught in two West Seattle locations-Youngstown Cultural Arts Center and Pathfinder K-8 School.

ArtsWest: Theater Education Program

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The mission of ArtsWest is to produce artistic events so compelling that they require conversation, improve the imagination, and promote cultural vibrancy as a core value for the communities of West Seattle. West Seattle Garden Tour funding will be used to support the Theatre Education Program, consisting of:

1. Summer Musical Academy
2. Theatre Conservatory
3. Musical Theatre Performance
4. Apprenticeship Program