Triple Earl Gardens

Triple Earl Gardens has a total of 480 sq ft of planting space, consisting of ten 4’ x 12’ beds.

It’s a summer garden, meaning that the property is south facing and has the best available lighting conditions to grow most summer crops. We’ll be planting a little bit of everything at this site!

There are 2 trees in the backyard which provide partial shade to a few of the beds, which allows us to plant leafy greens and other veggies that are sensitive to summer heat.

Most of the beds get full to mid-afternoon sun allowing us to grow tomatoes and peppers, and other crops wihich love the heat.

We’ll be “mono-cropping” each bed (planting a single crop). This is an intensive planting technique which allows us to maximize our yield.

We estimate that we’ll be harvesting 50 pounds per bed per season of fresh, organic produce, or about 1000 pounds a year… enough to reduce fresh food costs by 10% for a hundred people!

The beds will be on an automatic irrigation system to make it easier for the garden steward to tend. The garden steward is disabled and walks using a walker and it can be difficult for them to get around sometimes. One of the things we did to make this garden more accessible for them was installing permeable pavers before we spread the gravel in the pathways. Permeable pavers hold the gravel in place and give a more rigid surface for a walker or a wheelchair to navigate.

This garden is part of the solution to making fresh food more accessible for an area in Tacoma that only has 1 grocery store. Not only are we growing food in this neighborhood, but we are also sharing the food we grow with this neighborhood.

We hold a FIG share event every month at Wapato Hills Park just 2 blocks away from this garden!