PATCHES OF GREEN.

Much of the success behind Seattle's community gardening "P-Patch Program" has to do with people like 28-year-old Lisa Robberson, who stands watering her 10-by-10-foot plot at the end of a long summer day. Located between a busy Seattle street and a recently developed golf course, the Interbay P-Patch, created in the 1970s, is an unlikely oasis of lush vegetation and flora in the midst of a section of the city that could be described as unattractive, at best. Here, on the city; land, 167 plots explode with life and color: Sunflowers, pumpkins, tomatoes, cabbages, daisies and other garden life enjoy the devoted attention of clusters of P-Patchers.

A newcomer to the Interbay P-Patch, Robberson maintains that she doesn't know much about plants. "I'm just learning," she protests, when asked about her thriving crop. After waiting for a year for a small plot to open up, Robberson has made up for a lack of expertise with enthusiasm--she has already grown a diverse array of flowers, green beans and corn.

It's precisely this kind of can-do spirit that has made Seattle's P-Patch Program the nation's largest municipally-run urban gardening program, and a model for communities everywhere. With only two staff members, the program oversees no less than 38 sites, 1,700 plots and an estimated 4,500 gardeners. The low cost of the plots is intended to make them affordable to most Seattleites: Fully 24 percent of the gardeners have income levels below the federal poverty line. Those who cannot afford the cost of a plot are given financial assistance.

Like Robberson, most P-Patchers have no gardening space where they live. Their rented plots thus represent a valuable opportunity, to work with the land and grow their own produce. "We also encourage each individual member of the P-Patch to give back to their greater community--and one way people give back is by donating to the food bank," explains Rich Macdonald, the P-Patch's program manager.

The effort has paid off: Between seven to 10 tons of food are contributed annually to local food banks But community-minded efforts go beyond donations. Together with its sister organization, the nonprofit Friends of P-Patch, as well as involvement on the part of the Seattle Housing Authority the program also supposts a Cultivating Communities endeavor which targets resides of public housing projects. The assemblage has not only created numerous community gardens within public housing areas, but has also established several "market" gardens for low-income residents.

Market gardens "give people in those communities an opportunity to use some of their gardening skills to grow produce that they can cell gaining small business skills that are important," says Macdonald. CONTACT: P-Patch Program, 700 Third Avenue, 4th Floor, Seattle, WA 98104/[phone].