A planting party is scheduled this Sunday for the new Ballard Corners Park, set to open to the public in the next few months.

David Folweiler, co-chair of Friends of Ballard Corners Park, says volunteers are still needed to help plant hundreds of plants, about 800.
The planting will start at 9 a.m. March 8.

Coffee and lunch will be offered to volunteers and kids will also get a chance to climb on the play structure before the park is fenced off again to let the grass grow, said Folweiler in an email.

"Once we get a better sense of when the fence will come down for good, we will be planning a grand opening celebration, likely for late spring/early summer," he said.

The park, in the last phases of construction, is located at 17th Avenue Northwest and Northwest 62nd Street and haas been on ongoing community effort since 2006. It's been paid for by city, county and state grant funds.

A planting party to finalize plantings in the rain gardens and parking strips around the park is schedule at the park for 9 a.m. March 8. Volunteers are being sought.

Volunteers are asked to bring work gloves, boots, shovels, wheel barrows, trowels, pruners, knee pads/kneeling pads, hoe-type rakes, brooms, buckets or yard waste containers for collecting green waste and rain gear.

Donor tiles are also available for purchase. For $100, a tile with the name of your choice can be installed in the park. For an extra $50. a tile would be put in the park and the donor would get a personal copy for home.

The site was previously home to an old Victorian house on the south end of the lot and a grocery store was located on the north lot. The grocery store was built in 1905 and operated as a neighborhood market until 1954.

Contact David Folweiler at David.Folweiler@BallardCornersPark.org or 206-714-4271 for more information.