On Saturday, August 10, people from Ballard and beyond gathered at the Ballard P-Patch -- nestled on NW 85th St and 24th Ave NW -- to enjoy gardens, art, music, food and more.

Unlike the inevitable craze that street festivals and farmers market can bring, Art in the Garden was relaxing and opened itself up to conversation. Attendees chatted with the artists, kids gawked at Kudos the parrot and the urban chickens, people stopped and smelled the flowers and admired the plants. And, when all else failed, there was always the beer garden.

Several of the P-Patch's gardeners were present. Amy Ockerlander, who has gardened for about six seasons now, could be seen painting the scene of plants and people. Ockerlander has been involved with Art in the Garden for years now. She said it was one of her favorite events of the year.

"It's nice to be out of the studio and out here," she said. "I love my community at Ballard P-Patch."

You can leave it up to P-Patch Ambassador Roy Bueler to extoll the wonders of the P-Patch. Whether it's the people or the amount they donate to the Ballard Food Bank -- 1,200 to 1,300 a year -- he is in awe of it all. He started in on gardening right away when he moved here six years ago.

"I moved from three acres of land in Puyallup to a condo here. I needed to get my hands in the dirt," he said. Not that he's terribly sad about the move away from his much larger property. "Love Ballard. It's the perfect place."

Bueler said he volunteers at the Ballard Food Bank on Tuesdays and he is seeing young people take in interest in the product that the Ballard P-Patch produces. Beets especially go fast, he said.

Art was everywhere. From blown glass and recycled garden trinkets to photography and botanical drawings, 18 artists gave people plenty to look at.

You might call West Seattle Artist Mike Pond a gardener, except instead of dirt and seeds, his medium is metal and recycled material. He makes large fantastic daisies, sunflowers and butterflies reusing such items as traffic and railroad lights, tea candle holders and more.

"There's too much stuff thrown away, so why not do something cool with it," his wife said.

Throughout the garden were scattered several blown glass artworks by Dayne Lopez, who has been a glass artist for 23 years. Seaweed-like glass sculptures sprouted up from the plants like colorful tentacles reaching into they sky. And amongst the real produce were glass pumpkins and mushrooms.

If you missed out, well, there's always next year. The Ballard P-Patch, now 34 years old, is one of the city's oldest. It's not going anywhere.

For more info, visit www.ballardppatch.org.

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