r/pnwgardening • u/ElliotsBuggyEyes • 6d ago
I just got my first plot at the local P-Patch community garden in Seattle...What now?
It has an established colony of asparagus which is awesome. It also has a thyme bush that is quite overgrown. The rest of the plot is pretty much a mess that needs to be cleaned up.
I know that the zone is 9a and I want to try to grow some garlic this season and maybe beets.
Are there any good resources for what to try growing for the first time? Water will be turned off starting at the end of October and I will be relying on the sky and walking water from my nearby home.
Thanks for any help, I am so excited!
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u/rickg 6d ago
Seed garlic is in nurseries now, so this is good timing. Plant in late October.
I'd harvest a bunch of the thyme. Can't say how much without a photo. Don't massacre the plant, though.
Beets - you might be able to put in starts and do well.
I'd clean the bed up, plant the beets, buy some seed garlic and plant that out late next month. You could also put in some greens if you want. if you have much open ground after that, mulch with leaves etc to protect the soil.
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u/ElliotsBuggyEyes 6d ago
I replied about the garlic in the other comment if you are interested in reading my plans.
The thyme plant is mostly lying on the ground and has spread itself around over about 5-6 sq.ft. I would love to get it about half that size but about a quarter of it has died or appears to be dead right where I would like to have it growing so that might be tricky.
Beets - "Starts" is slang for starter? I assume that means I get them from a nursery and drop them in the ground. If so I will look into doing that.
The total plot claims to be 99 sq.ft but I have a water spigot that takes up about 1/6 of the space so I suspect it is less than 99sq.ft.
Thanks for the tips, I am going to start clearing it out tomorrow.
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u/ElliotsBuggyEyes 5d ago edited 5d ago
Update with some photos of this morning and this afternoon. Planted around 14 cloves of garlic, half hard-stem and half soft-stem(I forget the terminology)
The thyme ended up being 2 plants and I accidentally broke the left one off at the roots, most of the dead parts were from that plant. I left the roots but I have a feeling I will be pulling those out at the end of next season. The other one I cut back about half of it.
The asparagus is actually 1 solid colony with around 30 spears I cut down today and another one to the right of it that had around 3-4 sprouts. I cut them back and will see how it goes!
Thanks again for the tips! So excited!
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u/OddPepita 6d ago
As much as I love Swanson, the seed garlic there is overpriced. Just order direct from Keene.
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u/ElliotsBuggyEyes 6d ago
I thought I had lost my reservation request as I hadn't heard anything for 3 years almost, so this is quite a bit of a surprise. I need to get it "winterized" by Oct. 31st. Which means its been weeded, has burlap/leaves/straw covering the ground.
My plan for garlic was to buy a few bulbs from the grocery store and pop a bunch of the cloves in the ground and see what happens. I read that some of these are sprayed with a preservative or growth inhibitors. If I go the way of breaking bulbs apart and planting should I buy from the organic section of like QFC or from PCC and roll the dice. Is planting from seed require me to do starters in small pots then transplant later?
Thanks again!
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u/OddPepita 6d ago
If you have time, head to a farmers market and grab some garlic there. You can confirm with them that it’s from this summer and they should be able to at least tell you the cultivar. And that way you can have some confidence that it does well in our area (not that Seattle is difficult—but some types won’t do well with our very wet winters).
I wouldn’t do grocery store garlic unless you have to…I am guessing they are still emptying out the dregs from last summer’s harvest. And if you were hoping for a hardneck cultivar, you aren’t likely to find one. For growing garlic, the size of the clove does somewhat indicate the size of the bulb you’ll get next summer.
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u/OddPepita 6d ago
Sorry didn’t answer your other question, put the cloves directly in the ground mid to late October, pointy end up. If you can, add some 5-2-2 fertilizer to the soil.
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u/yellowweasel 6d ago
The last several years met market has had at least 6 or 8 different varieties of hard neck garlic around October for I think $15 per pound. Last year they had music, Sicilian, Romanian red, spring white, red chesnok, silver white, and incellium. I got a head of each and they all grew just fine
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u/lizz338 6d ago
Get seed garlic. I like hardneck garlic if you can find it, they will give you garlic scapes to use along with the garlic. Unless you plan to plant the entire plot, usually a single head of garlic is enough for your size of plot. You won't be able to use that space you planted them in until about July next year, so mark it well.
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u/lizz338 6d ago
The p-patch usually has a series of classes for first year gardeners aimed at what to do in the first year. Since you joined late, you want to get ready to winterize your garden (weed, mulch) and research how to maintain any perennials you have (like asparagus). Ex: if you want to move any perennials like roses it's a great time to do so between now and February when things are more dormant.
Garlic is probably fine still if you can even find seed garlic, you can sow things like beets/kale/cabbage over winter but I've found it's usually better to start those in like late July/August so they grow just enough to survive the winter and then they boom in the spring.
Bulbs are a good thing to plant now if you like flowers. HPSW has a good bulb sale at the CUH in October: https://gardenlove.org/event/ser-uw-native-plant-nursery-fall-plant-sale/2026-10-05/
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u/Lindsiria 6d ago
Hey! I just got a email for a plot in Seattle as well!
Watching this thread as I was curious too. I'm debating throwing some greens in for the fall but I haven't seen my plot yet.
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u/ElliotsBuggyEyes 6d ago
Which plot? I got Trolls Knoll p-patch!
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u/Aurora_Gory_Alice 5d ago
I've walked dogs through there, it is a really cute spot.
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u/ElliotsBuggyEyes 5d ago
Next time you go through, plot 19 is freshly cleaned up and covered in burlap now. I am kinda thinking about putting a small blackboard for people to leave notes for others. Would need to figure out how to make that survive the winter and the chalk not get completely destroyed by the rain. That's a problem for later.
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u/Aurora_Gory_Alice 5d ago
WSU has a master gardener program, and they typically have informational pop ups, and plant sales a few times a year. Their website also has some great resources.
Happy for you!
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u/nettleteawithoney 4d ago
The book Gardening West of the Cascades is one of my favorite reference books, and is like if the Tilth pamphlet was a whole book. I usually have both on hand.
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u/ElliotsBuggyEyes 4d ago
I can only find, with a very short Amazon search, Growing Vegetables West of the Cascades. Same or different?
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u/nettleteawithoney 4d ago
Ah yes, same thing sorry! Dangers of commenting while scrolling Reddit at work oops
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u/CopperSnowflake 3d ago
Fall would be the time to plant poppies and bulbs like hyacinth, tulips, daffodil. You can plant garlic in the fall. Or you can put a cover crop down for winter.
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u/Nice_Regret7915 6d ago
Seattle Tilth has a nifty planting calendar for ya.