With Labor Day already past and fall quickly approaching, many homeowners might be looking at their gardens and thinking about making changes in their plantings and designs. Tucked into a traditional Ballard neighborhood, Thyme Patch Park, 2855 Northwest 58th Street, is a demonstration garden and an excellent place for homeowners seeking ideas for plantings, lawns, vegetable beds, small fruit varieties, garden design and tranquility. Planted in a 4,800 square foot lot, the P-Patch and display garden blends in so beautifully with the surrounding neighborhood that one could easily miss the delights within.

In 2002 Groundswell NW approached three north end Master Gardener clinics to create a planting design for the north section of the park. A design build team created a beautiful park-like setting using plantings to help homeowners with solutions to landscape problems. Dave Griffen spearheaded the Master Gardener design build team with Seattle Parks and was Thyme Patch Park's lead Master Gardener for its first three years. He believes the park is a beautiful space for showing named and labeled plant material, and a chance to see how plants grow in a landscape. "It's a small space, like many gardens," he said. "You can relate this to your own garden and ideas."

Thyme Patch Park is maintained by King County Master Gardeners. Frank Peters, a Ballard native and retired Boeing senior manager, has been the its lead Master Gardener for the past three years. Twenty Master Gardener volunteers attend work parties in spring and fall and take responsibility for weekly maintenance of the park from April through mid-September.

Since its dedication in April 2003, Thyme Patch Park has matured and developed into the wonderful space for learning and enjoyment that is seen today. The north section facing Northwest 58th Street is a demonstration garden leading to 16 P-Patches that extend to an alley behind. The garden's purpose is to demonstrate to Master Gardeners and members of the community the 14 considerations in garden making or landscape design, such as shape, unity, focal points and outdoor rooms. Plants were selected to provide choices for ground covers, screens, winter interest and fragrance. One goal is to demonstrate what to plant and where to plant it, while another is how to plant and care for a landscape.

Currently visitors will find the park bathed in the colors of deep summer from gold to sap green, chartreuse, burgundy, Naples yellow, melon and orange. From the street a wall imbedded with squares of custom art tiles in shades of blue and teal offer a warm welcome. Visitors can either enter a wide central staircase flanked by a handcrafted steel handrail, or meander up a ramp past wooly thyme tumbling over rocks. At the top of the stairs are two "sentinels": spiky 'Yellow Wave' New Zealand Flax opposite a flowing 'Emerald Fountain' Hemlock.

Two more steps lead directly to a jewel-like emerald green lawn. The observant visitor would notice a hat cast into the railing along these upper steps. The hat belonged to the late Greg Edeen, a Groundswell NW member, who was instrumental in coordinating the effort for the park.

Along the path, a variety of grasses in shades of wheat and gold, some as tall as trees, gracefully encircle the lawn. A bench, ideal for two, is strategically placed on one of two paved patios to allow a rest and chance to view the colors and plantings. Everything in the garden looks big at this time of year. In another month it will be time to prune back and prepare the garden for winter.

On the opposite corner of the lawn is the other paved alcove with a stone wall for sitting and a pale green hydrangea with big flowers touched with pink and lime green. A bed of melon -colored day lilies and mauve heather entice visitors to cross the lawn for a closer look.

Marking the boundary of the park and P-Patch are two Asian pear trees loaded with fruit, which Peters will soon be taking to the Ballard Food Bank. The P-Patch beds are a quilt of flowers and vegetables.

A colorful shed reflecting all the garden's colors anchors the back corner and shows off two rain barrels on its shady side. Two compost bins backed by a fence marks the end of the park where a fence facing the alley is covered with Marionberries.

On Easter the community has made a tradition of gathering in the park to hold a neighborhood egg hunt.

A local artist visiting one morning searching for sweet peas in bloom for a botanical painting and seeing the flowers in full bloom in the P-Patch hurried to get her supplies from her studio.

In addition to the present maintenance schedule, both the Master Gardeners and P-Patchers are looking to the future and planning more collaborative projects. They recently worked together to improve the area near the shed to make it more attractive and accessible for handicapped workers and visitors. The gardeners plan to add container gardens to demonstrate ideas for small space planting. A "layered bulb garden" is also planned near the shed to showcase early to late bulbs from miniature iris to daffodils, tulips and gladiolus.

Other goals include increased signage, an updated brochure and a book to provide a maintenance guide for the Master Gardeners. Fact sheets for the public are planned on such topics as how to care for grasses and blueberries, and how to put a garden to bed for the winter.

Mid-October is a wonderful time to plant, and the answers are waiting for you here in your own community.

Betty Wolfe is an intern with King County Extension Master Gardener Program who supports Thyme Patch Park, Ballard Fred Meyer Clinic and the Magnolia Farmers Market Clinic. More history on Thyme Patch Park and the P-Patch may be found at www.Seattle.gov.

Information on the King County Master Gardener Program may be found at http://king.wsu.edu/gardening.