Gardeners of the Ballard P-Patch are excited to once again host their annual celebration of local art and community gardening with the 19th annual Art in the Garden festival, Saturday, August 7, 2021, from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. at the garden: 8527 25th Ave. NW. Admission is free.
The event will be extra celebratory this year, coming on the heels of a two-year campaign that raised $1.95 million to purchase and preserve the garden site. This will be the first Art in the Garden since 2019. Last year, due to the pandemic, gardeners marked the Art in the Garden tradition by decorating their plots and inviting the public to stroll the grounds over the course of two weeks. However, hosted activities were not held as a safety precaution.
This year, nearly all the traditional activities return. Booths featuring the work of local artists, live music, a treasure hunt for kids, and some refreshments will be on hand. A bake sale and wine-grab fundraiser are also planned. To prevent gatherings of large numbers of people in close quarters, organizers decided to forego the beer garden this year, and steps will be taken to manage the flow of foot traffic through the garden with a dedicated path for visitors. As an outdoor event, facemasks are not required, but highly recommended.
As always, Art in the Garden is an opportunity to celebrate the garden, visit with gardeners, enjoy nice music, browse more than a dozen local artist booths, enjoy fresh-baked goods and ice cream or espresso, and receive kid-oriented crafts.
The annual festival is just one of the ways Ballard P-Patch contributes to a feeling of community in its north-Ballard neighborhood. Other examples include the Giving Garden program, where volunteers meet weekly to maintain and harvest crops for the Ballard Food Bank, as well as maintenance of the space as an emergency hub for the neighborhood—a place for gathering and shelter in case of natural disaster.
For the latest info about Art in the Garden, visit http://www.ballardppatch.org
