Hillside Garden

Hillside Garden P-Patch
Cars speed past below during the morning rush. Cambodian women crouch down to carefully tend to each corn, mustard, and sunflower plant. This garden, "The Gateway to Mt. Baker," has been transformed. Cambodian immigrants living in Mt. Baker Village cleared the hillside of blackberries, hand dug terraces, and supported them with scrap wood and metal (and even a trashed printer). They collected water in buckets and wading pools and hauled it to each plant. The garden was protected with a living fence of blackberries entwined in bed frames, plywood, boards, and plastic. The gardeners dwindled to a determined few elders willing to haul water and scavenge for materials.

Later, the Mt. Baker Housing Association worked with the residents, the Mt. Baker Community Council, and with the Cultivating Communities Program to obtain funding to construct terraces and install a water system. Installing the terrace walls required many work parties where up to 50 residents, young and old, helped to haul rock and move soil. Now thirty families from Mt. Baker Village grow traditional vegetables and many sunflowers at this site.

*Plots are currently reserved for Mt. Baker Housing Association low-income tenants only.