Forty garden plots, many unused and weedy, sat on some of the richest bottomland around. The garden was rediscovered when numerous refugee families moved from Southeast Asia to southeast Seattle. A visit to Thistle is like a tour of the world. Italian tomatoes grow side by side with oriental shizo. Midwestern row gardens adjoin widely broadcast raised beds of greens.
Seniors garden next to moms with babies on their backs.
Thistle is always a beautiful mixture, but early spring is best time to visit, when the black soil, freshly turned, contrasts with the succulent greens. Thistle P-Patch has grown over the years. A 1990 grant from Puget Consumers' Co-op paid for materials to expand the water system and till more land. From the original forty plots, the site is now over an acre, on which more than 125 families produce food.