By Theresa Edwards, Intern.

On Sunday, August 14, Mayor Mike McGinn cut a yellow ribbon to officially mark the beginning of the 'in ground' construction of Greenwood Park's new community garden on 87th Street between Fremont and Evanston Avenue.

Neighbors were invited to come learn about the Greenwood Park improvement efforts and celebrate the groundbreaking of the new community garden with picnic lunches, and live music.

In addition to a new community garden (also called a P-Patch), the park improvements include a multi-sport court for basketball, soccer and street hockey. Construction is scheduled to begin spring 2012.

“One of our goals is to add features to the park geared toward different age groups in the community,” explained Mike Stringer, chair of the volunteer group Vision Greenwood Park.

Greenwood Park’s new P-Patch is now about halfway finished after two years of hard work by Vision Greenwood Park. Efforts to bring the P-Patch to life started when neighbors noticed two empty lots adjacent to the park along Fremont Avenue.

The Vision Greenwood Park Steering Committee was awarded a Seattle Department of Neighborhoods Grant in 2010 to finance construction of additions to the existing park. Currently, the main fiscal sponsor of the P-Patch project is the Phinney Neighborhood Association. It is also funded by the city’s Neighborhood Matching Program and the Charlotte Martin Foundation.

A unique aspect of the P-Patch is the construction of raised beds that are accessible to the elderly and those who aren’t able to kneel when gardening.

“Everyone’s included. Everyone gets to participate,” said Mayor Mike McGinn in his speech at the ribbon-cutting ceremony. “That’s what Seattle’s strength is. People want to be here.”

The mayor, a Greenwood resident himself, noted the strong sense of community evident when Seattle neighbors come together to work on projects that are important to them.

According to Mike Stringer, there is such a high demand for plots at local P-Patches that the average time on the wait list is two years. Over 80 Greenwood neighbors are currently waiting for plots, which you can sign up for by registering with the Seattle P Patch Program.

Volunteers get priority for the plots, each approximately 100 square feet. Greenwood Park Vision is hosting several work parties at the park in August and September where people can lend a hand with the garden construction.

Volunteers installed a twig fence on the Southern border of the community garden and parallel to Fremont Avenue, a wrought iron fence will be decorated by local sculptor Kim David Hall. Art pieces depicting bicycles, boats and buses contribute to the park’s transportation theme that connects the historical Interurban trolley line with the current bike route on Fremont Avenue.

To donate to the park improvement project, learn more, or sign up as a volunteer, please visit http://groups.yahoo.com/group/VisionGreenwoodPark/.