Located in every quadrant of the city, Seattle’s P-Patch community gardens are not only part of a beloved citywide program but also one of the oldest community gardening programs in the country. This year the P-Patch program celebrates its 50th anniversary.

Launched in 1973 as part of the national back-to-the-earth movement, the P-Patch program began with a single plot. Within a year, there were 10. Today, those numbers have grown to 91 community gardens – an astonishing 33 total acres — with more than 3,600 people actively tending a garden. In 2021, it was the fifth-largest community gardening program in the country by density (per 1,000 residents).