The Giving Garden and Sharing Shed
2026 COMMUNITY PARTNERS
Delivery schedule to come soon
Community Roots Housing (Will take anything)
Elizabeth Gregory Home (Will take anything)
Friday Feast (Berries, carrots, snap peas, salad ingredients, herbs, potatoes, and onions)
Operation Nightwatch (Potatoes, onions, green onions, and corn)
The original Picardo Farm occupied 12 acres of rich valley land in NE Seattle and supplied Pike Place Market with truckloads of fresh produce for more than 40 years.
When the family retired from farming and Darlyn Del Boca and the students and parents from Wedgwood Elementary began gardening there, the produce went to feed the hungry through the local food distribution program, Neighbors in Need.
The giving garden tradition continues today. The Picardo Sharing Shed is located on the north end of the garden. All gardeners are welcome to donate their excess produce. Read on to learn about what partners are interested in and how to wash, bag, and prepare your donations.
Grow a row
Universally requested crops from our donation partners
Heavy / expensive meal & sauce-making veggies: Potato, cabbage, Napa cabbage, carrot, beet, turnip, daikon, parsnip, broccoli, green beans, zucchini / summer squash, tomato, bell pepper, tomatillo, eggplant, mushrooms. Winter squash of all kinds.
Alliums, all kinds: Green onion, garlic, bulbing onion, chive, leek, shallots.
Culinary herbs: Woody perennials like sage, oregano, thyme, marjoram, rosemary, bay leaf and tender herbs like parsley, chive, cilantro, dill, celery leaf, all types basil.
Culinary SEEDS like fennel, nigella, coriander, celery, fenugreek & caraway.
Hot / flavor peppers: Especially small / no-cut / easy-dry like Thai chilies & paprika.
Tea herbs: Mint, fennel, lemon balm, calendula flower, chamomile flower & leaf, tulsi, lemon verbena, raspberry leaf, fig leaf, strawberry leaf, blackberry leaf, crimson clover blossom, hyssop, valerian root, dandelion root & blossom, bee balm.
Snacking and fresh eating: Peas, cucumber, radish, sweet pepper, carrot, celery, cherry tomato, slicing tomato, ground cherries, berries, kiwi, bok choy, salad greens.
All tree fruits and berries: strawberry, blackberry, raspberry, blueberry, apple, kiwi, plum, apricot. Fruit from outside-Picardo organic sources welcome.
🌼🌼🌼 Flowers! Long-lasting cut flowers of all kinds, both loose stem and in small arrangements. Please wrap stems in a plastic bag with wet newspaper.
Leafy greens: Especially lettuce and “Southern style” cooking greens like collard and large-leaf mustard. Includes arugula, spinach, swiss chard, kale, “baby greens” of all kinds, sprouts, fenugreek (methi), amaranth, purslane, outer cabbage leaf, broccoli leaf. Asian greens like bok choy, tatsoi, mustards, Napa cabbage, Gai Lan, yam leaf.
How to Donate
Wash roots and tidy up greens. Please only wash roots. Greens will rot quickly without refrigeration if they're damp. Please tidy up all donations so that they look as if they're ready to be sold at market. Only donate food you would be proud to serve to your own family! Everything else can go back to the soil as compost.
Bag or bundle your produce into individual portion sizes. Please separate your donations into portion sizes that you would find at a grocery store or farmer's market. Our community partners will set out your donations on tables as a Free Farmer's Market. Being able to shop in a community space and carry everything home comes down to us doing the prep work.
Weigh and record. In the Shed, you'll find a scale and a clipboard for recording the poundage. If you have HERBS or FLOWERS, please record them by how many bundles you donate (example: Oregano x 3 / Flowers x 5)