My neighborhood is growing in all the best ways, thanks to a thoughtful bequest and the birth of a new community garden. The project is an initiative of GROW, working in partnership with the Seattle Department of Neighborhoods’ P-Patch Program.
Beyers’ Bulldog Garden is named for the Beyers family, who for generations owned and gardened the undeveloped West Seattle property a few doors down from my house. For decades, Bill Beyers Sr. tended his big, sunny plot, working the rich, chocolate soil, putting in fruit trees, and planting vegetable beds that included generous rows of ‘Early Girl’ tomatoes...
Years later, when Beyers died, the plot was taken over by his son Billy [Department of Geography Professor Emeritus William Beyers], who tended the garden in his father’s footsteps right up until his death several years ago. Margi, Billy’s wife, took over from there, single-handedly caring for rows of raspberries, a giant fig tree, salad greens and the best carrots I’ve ever tasted. Once, when Margi stood on my back step with a fistful of roots, I confessed to her that I couldn’t grow a carrot to save my life (I still can’t). “You don’t have to,” she said. “Here.”