Picardo Farm

Picardo Farm community garden with the buildings of University Prep in the background.

Picardo Farm is a 98,000 sq ft (9,100 m2) parcel of property in Wedgwood, Seattle, Washington, consisting largely of 281 plots used for gardening allotments.[1] It is the original P-Patch (the local term for such community gardens): the "P" originally stood for "Picardo", after the family who owned it.[2] The Picardos' land went beyond the present P-Patch; it also encompassed the property of the adjacent Reform Jewish Temple Beth Am and of University Prep, an independent private co-educational, non-sectarian day school for grades six through twelve.[citation needed] The land was part of what had once been known as the Ravenna Swamp.[3]

It is one of two historical farms preserved within Seattle city limits, the other being Marra Farm in South Park.[4] The city's official web site describes Picardo Farm as having "Seattle's best soil… Rich, black, peaty, sucking with moisture in the spring, powdery dry for digging potatoes…[1]

  1. ^ a b Picardo Farm, P-Patch Community Gardens, City of Seattle Department of Neighborhoods web site. Accessed online October 28, 2006.
  2. ^ Kery Murakami, Do you know why they're called P-patches?, Seattle Post-Intelligencer, April 29, 2005. Accessed online October 28, 2006.
  3. ^ Valarie Bunn, "History Bits: Sinking Down on 77th Street", Wedgwood Echo, July 2009, p. 3.
  4. ^ Athima Chansanchai, Marra Farm plants seeds for South Park community, Seattle Post-Intelligencer, June 3, 2005. Accessed online October 28, 2006.