Beacon Hill Blog

Beacon: A Hill of Beans at Cinco de Mayo Saturday

Christina Olson of the Beacon Hill Garden Club writes:

If you wander over to El Centro Saturday afternoon to enjoy Cinco de Mayo, be sure to stop by the Beacon: A Hill of Beans booth under the big tent. We’ll have free seeds (purple pod pole beans and green bush beans) along with some advice to get you started.

Chat about plans to plant the 24 planters around the parking lot with heritage beans and create Beacon’s first public U-Pick! We are looking for planting help later in the month. And let us tell you about the plans to bedeck the Beacon business district with pots of scarlet runner beans (beware of low flying hummingbirds in these locations)

Finally, shop local with our selection of heirloom seeds (see www.beaconahillofbeans.org for varieties). Mother’s Day is May 12, and Father’s Day is June 16 and everyone loves an unexpected token of friendship, beautifully packaged in envelopes designed by Maura Shapley of local Day Moon Press.

Join us in making Beacon: A Hill of Beans in 2013!

Tags: gardening

Time to clean up at recycling/shredding event

If your spring cleaning efforts have turned up some old computers, cell phones, refrigerators or the like, you might want to make your way to the Rainier Community Center’s northeast parking lot at 4600 38th Ave. S. on Saturday, April 27, 10 a.m. – 2 p.m., for free electronic recycling and paper shredding.

Items accepted for recycling include appliances, electronics, lawn equipment, bikes (to be donated to BikeWorks), metals, batteries, and more. See the official flyer for details and a list of restricted items. Proceeds from the event will benefit the Windermere Foundation and the Rainier Community Center’s youth scholarship program. Donation receipts will be available.

Tags: recycling

Bean Bonanza kickstarts summer of bean-growing activities

The Beacon Hill Garden Club and ROCKiT Community Arts, with help from a Department of Neighborhoods Small Sparks Grant, are kicking off a season of events focused on bean growing with a Bean Bonanza from 1 to 4 p.m. on Saturday, April 20. The series, Beacon: A Hill of Beans, will include educational, fun, and tasty activities for neighbors at all levels of gardening experience.

Those attending the Bean Bonanza event will leave with free bean seeds, a bucket, bean poles and soil. Other beany activities include a bean “teach-in” with Master Gardener Mick Duggan, a bean haiku contest, bean bag games, a bean buffet, a sale of sample packets of heirloom bean varieties, and more. Attendees will also find out details of the Beautiful Bean photo contest, demonstration gardens, and plans to decorate Beacon Avenue merchant spaces with pots of scarlet runner beans.

Bean events will continue throughout the summer with taste tests, preservation demonstrations, and an autumn bean supper.

Find out more at the website.

Tags: garden club, gardening, rockit space

Food Forest news includes work party, construction update

The Friends of the Beacon Food Forest sent out a newsletter this week with information about an upcoming work party, progress on the Food Forest, and more. Read on:

Hello all Food Foresters and Friends,

Our next Work Party is Saturday February 23rd from 10am to 2pm on the BFF site. The site is located on the very SW corner of Jefferson Park Beacon Hill. Cross Streets, 15th Ave S and S. Dakota St. Please bring your work gloves and dress appropriately for the weather. Expect wet earth on your feet. This is a family event open to all people, please share this notice with your friends and families.

What we will do

We will be continuing our work on the Lower Bench’s Fruit and Nut Grove by sheet mulching and building our forest floor. We’ll be planting some trees and shrubs as well. Many of our food forester’s now have experience with sheet mulching bed building and we are counting on this experience to help us use our time efficiently while educating those who look to expand their knowledge in no-tilling techniques.
More »

Tags: food forest

Food Forest celebration Friday, 1/18

All supporters and friends of the Beacon Food Forest are invited to a celebration this Friday night, January 18, to celebrate the community’s accomplishments and the project’s new grant award from the Department of Neighborhoods Matching Fund. There will also be a showing of a 53-minute film, “The Power of Community.”

The event starts at 7 p.m. at the Garden House, 2336 15th Ave. S. It’s a dessert potluck, so bring a favorite dessert to share; there will be beverages and popcorn provided. All are welcome to this family event.

Along with the movie, Tlaloctecutli Dance Group will perform, and beekeeper Bob Redmond will be there with an information table and local honey.

Questions? Contact Melanie at melanie.coever@gmail.com .

Tags: food forest

Canning Connections beginner classes now monthly

Demand for canning instruction has led the folks at Canning Connections to add monthly beginner sessions on the first Tuesday of each month in 2013.

These beginner sessions cover the basics of safe food preservation using the waterbath method of canning. The sessions are held at the Garden House (2336 15th Ave. S.) from 6:30 p.m. to 9:00 p.m. Cost is $15, payable the night of the class. The class is suitable for beginners or those wishing a refresher or update of safe canning practices.

All supplies and equipment are provided; just bring your apron and enthusiasm!

To register for the Feb 5th session (marmalade), email Diana at ankataa@yahoo.com. You can find Canning Connections online at their website or their Facebook page.

Tags: canning, food

Crosscut: Not much hope for airplane noise reduction

Eric Scigliano of Crosscut has posted an article about the airplane noise situation on Beacon Hill. It’s not hopeful:

“Greener Skies’ environmental assessment, which the Federal Aviation Administration approved in November, finds that noise impacts will diminish in broad vertical swaths from Wallingford and Fremont to downtown Seattle and Federal Way on the west and from Lake City to the Rainier Valley to the town of Pacific. But they’ll increase along the axis of Sea-Tac Airport’s runways, over Greenlake, the U-District, Capitol Hill, and, especially, Beacon Hill.”

Read more here.

Elsewhere on Crosscut today, Scigliano writes about retired airline pilot (and Beacon Hill neighbor) Dana Gerry, who argues that the airport could take steps to improve the noise situation, such as reducing airport hours and enforcing limitations on when jets can drop their landing gear and wing flaps.

According to Gerry, dropping landing gear and flaps too early burns more fuel and makes more noise. He has seen pilots heading to Sea-Tac drop their gear as early as 6,000 feet, about 18 miles from the airport.

“‘If they would just hold gear and flaps up till they got to the outer marker, about 1,700 feet, they’d save as much fuel as they’d use on a roundabout approach.’ An approach like the Elliott Bay to Duwamish loop that spares residential areas, but which the airlines reject because it adds distance.”

Read more here.

Tags: airplane noise, noise

Beacon Hill bicycle and pedestrian plan honored with award

The Beacon Hill Family Bicycle and Pedestrian Plan, a project of Beacon BIKES and the City of Seattle, has won a 2012 VISION 2040 Award from the Puget Sound Regional Council. Vision 2040 Awards honor real-life examples of sustainable growth and improvements to quality of life in Puget Sound communities.

The Beacon Hill Family Bicycle and Pedestrian Circulation Plan has been designed as a ten-year plan to develop a network of pedestrian and bicycle routes to connect important and well-used locations with neighborhood greenways, cycle tracks, intersection improvements, and other solutions to increase safety for walkers and cyclists of all ages. Among the proposals is a crosswalk and “median refuge island” at South Spokane Street and Lafayette Avenue South, a location that leads directly into Jefferson Park from a neighborhood greenway but is currently very dangerous to cross.

Read more about the award here.

Tags: beacon bikes!, bicycle lanes, bicycles, pedestrians

Community input wanted in Lewis Park design

The Friends of Lewis Park invite the community to the Beacon Hill Library (2821 Beacon Ave. S.) on Tuesday, November 27 from 5:30 – 8 p.m. for a public meeting to discuss the design process for the park.

There will be food provided from 5 to 6:30 p.m. From 6 – 7 p.m., there will be a presentation of some preliminary design principles and information about the project as it stands now, and from 7 – 8 p.m., representatives from Hafs-Epstein Landscape Architecture will discuss the project and listen to community comments.

The Friends of Lewis Park event notice says “We are very pleased with the selection of this firm and just as excited to get started on the community-based collaborative process that will result in a design proposal for the park. We have a dynamic consultant, a committed steering committee and a great site on North Beacon Hill. This missing ingredient is you… the community; we need to know what you want in this park.”

The park improvement project is funded by a Department of Neighborhoods Small and Simple Grant.

Tags: lewis park

Local volunteer recognized with Denny Award

Seattle Parks and Recreation announced today the winners of the 2012 Denny Awards for Outstanding Volunteer Stewardship. Among the winners: Beacon Hill’s own Craig
Thompson, who received the Community Stewardship Award for his work at Dr. Jose Rizal Park and the nearby area.

Here’s how Parks described him:

“Since 2001, Craig Thompson has been on a mission to reclaim the overgrown, crime ridden hillside at the north end of the East Duwamish Greenbelt and to activate Dr. Jose Rizal Park.

“He has spent hundreds of hours clearing brush himself and organizing work parties for thousands of volunteers. After a decade of volunteer leadership and personal stewardship, Craig’s hard work is paying off. With the completion of the Mountains to Sound Greenway trail through the greenbelt and park, activity has increased tenfold. Craig now spearheads activation. He continues to solicit and lead volunteer groups. He has provided mentorship and support to the new Off Leash Dog Area Steward. He inspired and continues to lead an Orchard Steward group, which has renovated and maintains an orchard in the park. And, he is now a Green Seattle Partnership Forest Steward.”

Additionally, Russell Odell was nominated for an award. He is a youth mock trial instructor at Jefferson Community Center.

The Denny Awards are named for Seattle pioneers David T. and Louisa Denny, who donated land for Seattle’s first park, Denny Park, in 1884.

Tags: jose rizal park