Fruit trees donated to P-Patch to spread green ideas

It began with a call for help on Twitter, elicited a tip from Nebraska and ended with a corporation donating five fruit trees worth a grand total of $120.

But the apple, fig and plum trees that took root in a South Seattle P-Patch on Saturday bear ambitions that far exceed their modest price tags: to promote stewardship of our planet; to knit neighbors together; to teach children (and maybe some grown-ups) that crops aren't grown affixed with bar codes.

On a sunny but blustery morning, three dozen people gathered at the Dakota P-Patch near the Rainier Vista neighborhood to do just that. A gaggle of kids gleefully dug the earth, while volunteers nestled the 3-foot-tall trees onto a gentle slope.

The trees spent September as potted advertisements in Group Health Credit Union locations, urging customers to go green and give up paper statements (the Rubinette apple tree had to be resuscitated outdoors after barely a week in the dim Capitol Hill lobby).

Group Health Credit Union has embraced environmentalism as a corporate strategy. For instance, it knocks a quarter-point off the interest rate on loans for hybrid vehicles.

Eager for additional green ideas, Shannon Perry, the credit union's assistant marketing manager, sent out a Tweet asking for help. She heard back from an executive of Arbor Day Foundation, a nonprofit conservation group based in Nebraska City, Neb.

That led to a talk with Nolan Rundquist, arborist for the city of Seattle. Conversations followed with other experts with green thumbs, including those referred to by Perry as a "city fruit leader" and a "P-Patch czar."

Eventually, Perry was referred to Raintree Nursery in Morton, Lewis County. The nursery gave its recommendations for the hardiest fruit-tree varieties for this region, including Desert King fig and Methley plum.

Though the trees may not bear fruit in earnest for a couple of years, neighbors already are anticipating the harvest.

Local residents, including many immigrants from Somalia and Southeast Asia, tend prolific personal P-Patch gardens crammed with mustard greens, corn, tomatoes and carrots. But the trees' offerings will be free for the plucking, said Gary Ireland, a Dakota P-Patch leader.

"These trees are for the whole community," Ireland said. "When they are full of apples, people are going to come and pick them."

That vision delights Christina Gilman, a Rainier Vista resident who helped with the tree planting.

Gilman, 34 and a mother of a preschooler, rues the lost connection between the foods we eat and the places of their origin.

"I'm all for anything that makes room for more trees in the city," she said. "Kids think that there is a machine in the back of the store that makes apples."

Kyung Song: 206-464-2423 or ksong@seattletimes.com