Now at the farm: A hoop house, home-grown pizza dough, and more!

No two summers are alike at Solid Ground’s Giving Garden at Marra Farm, and not just because of Seattle’s ever-changing climate.

Farmer Scott at one end of the new veggie tunnel at the Giving Garden (photo by Neal Simpson)

This year, you’ll find several new features to our Children’s Garden, designed to make it even more fun and engaging for kids and teenagers who stop by for field trips and farm tours. And this is also the first full year we’ve been able to use our new hoop house for the full growing season, allowing us to grow even more heat-loving vegetables.

“Tomatoes are loving the extra heat in here,” says Scott Behmer, Solid Ground’s Farm Coordinator.

The hoop house, which was funded by PCC Community Markets and built by Solid Ground staff and volunteers in spring 2023, is made of sheets of plastic stretched over a series of arched poles to form a tunnel tall enough to stand in. It works like a greenhouse, creating a warmer environment that allows Scott to start plants earlier in the spring when it’s still cold outside, and grow them longer into the fall.

This summer, Scott is growing tomatoes and peppers – both hot and sweet – in the new hoop house. Come next spring, he plans to use it to grow baby “starts” of greens like kale, collards, and lettuce so they’re already nice and big when it’s warm enough for them to be planted outside.

In our Children’s Garden, you’ll also find several new themed garden beds this year, including a “pizza bed” and a “salsa bed.” The salsa bed is where Scott and his volunteers grow all the ingredients you need to make a nice fresh salsa: Tomatoes, hot peppers, cilantro, and green onions. The Children’s Garden is also home to a new 30-foot-long trellis tunnel that will soon be covered with crops of all kinds.

Green runner bean plants cling to a series of poles arranged to form a tent shaped like an upside down cone.

The new bean tent (photo by Clarissa Magdich)

“It doesn’t look like too much yet, but there are some peas, green beans, cucumbers, and cucamelons growing along the sides that will eventually cover the whole thing,” Scott says. “You’ll get a tunnel full of vegetables to snack on as you walk through.”

Next to the tunnel is a new cone-shaped trellis that forms a kind of tent just big enough to sit in. Scarlet runner beans are already growing up the sides. “They have these beautiful flowers on them, and pretty soon this will all be covered in green beans,” Scott says. “You’ll have a little shady spot to hang out and snack on green beans.”

He’s also growing wheat again this year after a successful experiment with the crop last summer. In the end, volunteers were able to harvest just enough wheat to make dough for two pizzas.

“This year, we’re growing twice as much,” he says, “so we’re shooting for four pizzas!”

Want to check out what’s happening on the farm? Find out how you can become a volunteer Marra Farm Giving Gardener or sign up for a field trip or farm tour.