2024 Grant Winners

Each year West Seattle Garden Tour, a 501(c)(3) organization, seeks out other nonprofits whose goals fit our mission—to promote horticulture, education, and artistic endeavors within West Seattle and neighboring communities. Your donations and purchase of garden tour and raffle tickets, along with the generous support of our sponsors, allow the West Seattle Garden Tour to fund horticultural, artistic and educational projects in our community.

These twelve wonderful nonprofit organizations were selected to receive funding this year. Read about them and be inspired!

ARTSWEST

ArtsWest is a professional theatre and art gallery with a mission to produce artistic events that provoke conversation, incite the imagination and use live theater as a powerful agent of change. The grant supported the production of English by Sanaz Toossi, winner of the 2023 Pulitzer Prize in Drama. The play followed four adult students studying English in Iran, inviting us to empathize with their challenges and reminding us of our shared humanity. 

West Seattle Garden Tour was originally founded in 1994 as a fundraiser for ArtsWest, now considered our legacy grantee.

City Fruit

City Fruit stewards and harvests urban fruit trees to support sustainable and equitable access to fruit throughout the Seattle community. WSGT funding will support City Fruit’s stewardship of the orchards they planted in the High Point Neighborhood of West Seattle. Through four free workshops centered on pruning, soil care, pest management, and young fruit tree training, City Fruit will provide community members opportunities to learn the skills and knowledge needed to care for fruit trees.

Elisabeth C. Miller Library

The Miller Library, located at the Center for Urban Horticulture on the UW campus, provides access to reliable horticultural information and space for the community to gather around a shared love of plants. With this grant, the Miller Library will work with a local artist to create a mural in its program room exploring the theme “Growing Community.” This project also includes improvements to the space to make it more useful and enjoyable for the community.

Friends of Roxhill Elementary School

Friends of Roxhill Elementary is the nonprofit parent-teacher organization that supports the education and enrichment of their Title 1 public school in West Seattle. Green spaces are shown to help with education and emotional regulation. Roxhill’s Learning Garden is the only green space at the school, but lacks seating to make it accessible for classes.  With funding from the West Seattle Garden Tour, seating and tables will be installed in the garden.

The Heron’s Nest

The Heron’s Nest is a community-lead Land Back restoration and education project located on 3.56 acres in the West Seattle Duwamish Greenbelt.  They provide an outdoor community gathering space to learn about and participate in ongoing preservation and restoration efforts in the Duwamish River and Valley.  The WSGT grant will fund an aquaponics food growth system along with a pollinator garden with beehives.  Educational classes about these new programs will begin in the summer of 2024.

Orca Network

Orca Network is dedicated to raising awareness for whales of the Pacific Northwest and the importance of providing them healthy, safe habitats. For over 20 years, they have been finding ways for people to work together to protect diverse habitats and inhabitants of the Salish Sea.  Support from WSGT will increase educator presence at local beach sites, offer education materials for under-served communities and promote ‘Share the Water’ boater education near beaches and marinas.  

PowellsWood Garden

PowellsWood Garden is a 40-acre nature preserve nestled in the suburbs of Federal Way. Open to the public year-round, PowellsWood provides the community with a sanctuary to foster a deep appreciation for nature. Funding from WSGT will create a dedicated garden area for children, featuring a food forest, a charming potting shed, and abundant opportunities for adventure. Emphasizing sustainable growing techniques, the garden will aim to ignite curiosity and creativity in young minds.

Soos Creek Botanical Garden

The admission-free Soos Creek Botanical Garden & Heritage Center provides 23 acres of diverse gardens for the public to enjoy-- providing education, conservation and local history. The WSGT grant will improve water conservation in the face of climate change. A new irrigation system will meet landscape watering needs of the Heritage Garden and new Rosarian Walk. It will showcase a living example of water-efficient irrigation, inspiring others to adopt similar practices.

Tilth Alliance

Tilth Alliance works with farmers, gardeners and eaters to build a sustainable, healthy and equitable food future. The WSGT grant will help fund the Culturally Relevant Plant Project to provide food and medicine plant starts to communities who would otherwise not have access to them.  Tilth Alliance will source seed, grow starts, and distribute in the West Seattle and surrounding communities to immigrant, refugee, low income and elder residents, supplementing access to culturally appropriate and healthy foods. 

Weed Warriors

The Weed Warriors and the Nature Stewards Program have a mission to promote sustainable living and provide environmental stewardship opportunities that benefit both people and wildlife. The WSGT grant will allow for the refurbishment of a 4,800 square foot native plant demonstration garden within the New Start Community Garden in Burien. Ferns and other understory plants, along with a planting of native camas, will increase plant diversity.  New signage will be added in Spanish and  Vietnamese.

West Seattle Bee Garden

The West Seattle Bee Garden serves as a space where community members are welcome to visit bees, learn about the role of pollinators for the health of plants in our food supply and enjoy the surrounding pollination garden, P- Patch, adjacent park and playground. The WSGT-funded rejuvenation project will provide the garden with native pollinator plants along with other perennials to provide a welcoming space for bees, current and future residents and guests.