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, the name is specific to Seattle history.
What does the P stand for?
“ Often people think it's like green peas,” Kenya Fredie, the Program Manager for the Department of Neighborhood’s P-Patch Program, told me. “But no, it's the Picardo family.”
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.
During the Boeing Bust 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.
When did the city get involved?
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. Today there are 91 P-Patches 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.
