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City Cast Seattle

Sam J Leeds

Seattle’s P-Patches are ubiquitous throughout the city. In every neighborhood there’s some sort of cute handmade sign bearing a name like Unpaving Paradise, Hazel Heights, Queen Pea or Climbing Water. So, you’d be forgiven for thinking all community gardens in every city are called P-Patches. It turns out, 

“ Often people think it's like green peas,” Kenya Fredie, the Program Manager for the 

Department of Neighborhood’s P-Patch Program

The Picardos were Italian immigrants who operated a truck farm in Wedgewood. They sold produce to local markets and at their biggest point the farm covered about 30 acres, from NE 75th Street to NE 82nd Street.

 a University of Washington student and a neighbor of the Picardos named Darlyn Rundberg (later Del Boca) wanted to help feed neighbors who were struggling. She asked the Picardo’s if she could use part of the farm’s land to grow crops like beans, broccoli, corn, and cabbage. The Picardo’s said yes.

Families that came to help grow produce were offered small 8-foot by 8-foot plots around the edges of the Picardo’s land to also garden for themselves. And from that seed of kindness the basics of the P-Patch program today sprouted.

In 1973, Seattle City Council decided to buy the Picardo farm and after a 10-month trial period, the city authorized a community-gardening program. By year-end there were 10 community gardens. All ten were called P-Patches to honor the Picardo family.

The program started a movement. Seattle’s community gardens program is one of the oldest and the largest in the country. 

 throughout the city. Of those gardens, 56 have designated giving gardens and in 2025 they donated 41,000 pounds of food to local food distribution centers and meal programs.

You’d be forgiven for thinking all community gardens in every city are called P-Patches. Did you know the "P" doesn't stand for peas or any vegetables at all? It turns out, the name is specific to Seattle history. 

The Story Behind Seattle’s P-Patches

Why Seattle’s Community Gardens Are Called P-Patches

Seattle, Explained

Liam Billingham

A couple months back, I drove by the Pagliacci on Stone Way and couldn’t help but notice how… cool it looked. I know next to nothing about architecture, but the building looked vaguely brutalist to me, so naturally I 

I kept thinking about how the design, though, and I wanted to hear more about how all the Pagliacci’s came to look like they did. A little research led me to Richard Floisand of 

, who work with Pagliacci on the design and build of their locations. Richard and I met up at Pagliacci Silsul in Ballard to talk.

. It sold Native American objects and had two totem poles that have their own history. The shop closed in World War 2, eventually became several different 

Pagliacci wanted to keep elements of the original so they consulted with 

 to understand the history of the building. To quote Richard, “when it feels like it's part of your neighborhood and it's always been there, you're going to be inclined to just embrace it more.”

Pagliacci kept the structure’s original logs, which were a replica of a 

 and are native to an archipelago called Haida Gwaii off of British Columbia. The shingles speak to the fact that Ballard was one of the 

largest shingle making locations in the West

, and the shape is in the style of a Nordic house.

. They are going to go back into the Earth, as is 

one traditional way totem heads and poles are disposed of

One last quote from Richard: “You're trying to tell a story about new and old..What's a good story? Hiding the past and pretending it wasn't there or actually saying, hey, this is really kind of interesting.”

To watch Liam's full video on Instagram, just click the image below.

All the thoughtful details that went into designing local pizza chain Pagliacci’s restaurants

Seattle, Explained

Why Seattle’s Community Gardens Are Called P-Patches

The Story Behind Pagliacci’s Architecture