Sen. Rockefeller’s community garden

The concept of community gardening was highlighted recently in the Kitsap Sun. My wife, Anita, and I designed a community garden with about 8,000 square feet of tillable space arranged in garden patches that individuals can use to grow organic veggies. The major interest so far is tomatoes, squash, beans, chard and beets, and sweet corn.

 Especially during these tough economic times, we need to help each other in the ways we can.

Food prices are on the rise as shown by the World Bank report last year with the global price of food skyrocketing 80 percent since 2005. According to the National Gardening Association, for every $70 spent on a garden, $600 worth of produce can be harvested during a year. Garden patches were big during the Great Depression and provide a healthy way to live sustainably through pocket book and carbon footprint.

Our idea was to create a place where people cannot just put food on the table, but to connect to the community through nature.

This growing interest in community sustainability is not only limited to the garden. This last session I worked on legislation (SB 6170) to encourage local clean energy production that includes extending the renewable energy cost recovery program to include community projects.

By supporting our community, we support a great quality of life.