To our delight, Bonterra Vineyards reached out to us a few months ago with the idea of donating a food garden to a local non-profit. We agreed that a food bank would be a good fit for this type of project and began reaching out to potential partners. We quickly landed on Queen Anne Food Bank whose Executive Director, Derek Wertz, had farming experience and is passionate about growing fresh, organic produce to incorporate into the meals served at the site. Shortly after connecting Bonterra with Derek, the project was approved! Our lead designer, Jessica Roundy, visited the site and worked with Derek to create a design that maximizes sun exposure and fits perfectly into the greenspace available outside the Food Bank headquarters. We scheduled the project and our installation crew did a wonderful job executing the plan.

Seattle Urban Farm Co. (SUFCo) Installation Crew building the cedar raised beds — Seattle Urban Farm Co. (SUFCo) Installation Crew building the cedar raised beds

The now-completed Bonterra Garden at Queen Anne Food Bank features a series of raised beds for annual fruit and vegetable crop production and a perennial edible garden. The perennial edible garden utilizes an existing at-grade garden bed to the west of the main entry to grow a range of edibles such as herbs and blueberries, as well as beneficial flowers to support garden crops. Along the south facade of the building, a series of 4’ x 8‘ x 18” tall rough-sawn cedar raised beds provides approximately 100 square feet of annual crop production. Two separate watering systems provide automatically timed drip irrigation to the annual and perennial gardens, to support their unique watering needs.

Thank you to Bonterra for making this project possible! Your generosity is truly remarkable and we are so honored to have had the opportunity to be a part of this collaboration.

Derek has already changed his head shot on the Queen Anne Food Bank website to a photo of him in the new garden and has this to say about the garden:

“Really is kind of a magical story, and testament to both Bonterra and SUFC to their commitment to philanthropy, sustainability and community. I just cannot express how grateful we are for this partnership; and furthermore, what positive impact you will both have to feeding the hungry of our community.”