The Bucoda Community Garden, a collaborative effort between the Bucoda Improvement Club, the Bucoda Town Council and the Thurston Conservation District (TCD), is coming to life in 2025.
Located to the right of the Bucoda Town Hall and Community Center, the community garden is funded through the National Association of Conservation Districts and will include food available to the community to harvest and take what they need.
Nora Carman-White, communications and education manager with the Thurston Conservation District, led a tour of the garden during Friday’s South Thurston Economic Development Initiative (STEDI) meeting at Bucoda Town Hall and Community Center. She described the garden as a “communal space,” with the front of the garden including beds for growing food, a shed and a small greenhouse. The back area will become a gathering space to include picnic benches, wine barrel containers with posts to set up string lights, fruit trees, and perennials that grow over the archway. Carman-White said this area should be completed by the end of the summer and will bring a gathering space to the town hall as the town rents the building for weddings and events.
The community garden also includes a “story trail” through a partnership with the Tenino Timberland Library. As a passerby walks through the garden, they will see numerous cards with stories and drawings on them. These cards will be swapped out for seasonal topics, including during Bucoda’s beloved Halloween season.
The project started last spring as a brainchild of late Mayor Rob Gordon and former Councilor Kiersten Presley. Prior to the arrival of the current garden, the Bucoda Improvement Club managed a small space for a community garden in the same lot. However, Bucoda Improvement Club President Laura Wilson said the garden and the club “fell into disrepair” during the COVID-19 pandemic.
Carman-White became aware of the garden during a STEDI meeting from a conversation with Presley, and Carman-White pursued funding for the project last year.
“It’s an opportunity to engage a wider variety of folks in our community. It’s a great example of how the conservation district has something to offer everybody, whether you live on an urban lot or you’re a renter,” Carman-White told attendees at Friday’s STEDI meeting.
The design of the garden was developed through TCD meetings with the Bucoda Improvement Club and community members, who provided drawings about what the garden should look like. Community members are continuing to work on the garden with moving piles of compost and soil, as well as planting fruits and vegetables.
“We are really excited about the hedgerow that’s right along the far edge with all native species plants. That will turn into a big, beautiful hedge that will border the garden,” Wilson said. “We are going to be putting in a pollinator garden in the front so that we can attract all of our beautiful bees and hummingbirds to come and help pollinate the plants.”
TCD is working on another funding application through the state called Sustainable Farms and Fields that comes from the Washington State Conservation Commission, which would provide additional support to community gardens across Thurston County. The funding supports climate-friendly practices such as cover cropping, which helps improve soil health by growing plants to cover the soil.
“We’re looking at that to specifically include more pollinators and soil building. It funds climate-friendly practices, and through that, we’re going to be able to do some additional technical assistance to all community gardens that especially address pollinator habitat and building soil health through things like cover cropping,” Carman-White said.
Community members can get involved and learn more about gardening practices through three upcoming events at the garden. The first, scheduled for July 16 from 6 to 8 p.m., is a compost workshop and bin-building work party that will explain why “compost is gardening gold,” Wilson said, and how it can be a free resource to help grow a garden. Attendees can also work together to build a three-bin compost system in the garden.
On Aug. 11 from 4 to 6 p.m., community members can learn about seed saving and winter garden preparation, and on Sept. 8 from 4 to 6 p.m., gardeners and aspiring gardeners can explore food preservation, including pickling, freezing, canning and drying.
Bucoda Mayor Callie Carpenter has been involved with the garden and its growth and thanked the partners during the STEDI meeting for their help with the project.
“I just want to thank Laura and the conservation district. It’s been really great working with them, and we really appreciate all of your support,” Carpenter said.
Wilson, a town councilor, said she is excited to see the community grow and hopes the garden will attract people from the town to step outside of their homes.
“They’re really excited about seeing the finished product. They’re excited about coming and sharing some of their extra zucchini later this season or looking to see if our tomatoes have produced,” she said. “I have two young boys and a third boy on the way, and I want them to really love living here. In years to come, they’re gonna point and they’re gonna be like, ‘Hey, my mom and dad helped do this.’ It’s going to instill in them this protective spirit and this want to be involved.”
