It’s been nearly 30 years since Solid Ground first started growing produce at Marra Farm in South Park, and each season still brings something new.
This summer, Solid Ground’s Giving Garden is getting its first-ever drip irrigation system, growing a giant pumpkin already topping 1,000 pounds, and doubling its (still relatively small) crop of wheat and corn for pizza dough and tortillas. Farmer Scott Behmer says his team is also reaping benefits from some of the work done last year, including a hoophouse that’s enabled the farm to grow more warm-weather crops like cantaloupe.
Solid Ground’s ¾-acre garden in South Park serves two purposes: to grow fresh produce for the surrounding community (more than 5,000 pounds in 2024) and as an educational tool to teach local school children about farming, food systems, and food justice. Last year alone, 1,155 kids visited the farm.
Drip irrigation means less water use, fewer weeds
Each visit brings something new. This year, the biggest development is the new drip irrigation system, which Scott and his team have spent most of the summer installing.
“There have been many fits and starts, but it’s pretty much done,” says Scott. “We’re just putting the finishing touches on – then it’ll be put to use – and we’ll use it for many years.”
The new irrigation system will have two benefits: less water and fewer weeds. “It’s dripping into the ground instead of spraying into the sunny air, so it’s much more water efficient,” Scott says. “In theory, we’ll also have fewer weeds, because those seeds germinate in the very top layer of soil. And one of the reasons drip irrigation is so efficient is it doesn’t really water that top layer of soil – it waters down deep.”
With the growing season already well underway, Scott says the farm will see most of the benefits of the new irrigation system next spring.
Get your hands dirty at the Giving Garden!
Solid Ground’s Annual Day of Service
Friday, August 22, 2025 | 9am-noon
Marra Farm is one of three sites where our community of volunteers will gather on for Solid Ground’s 2025 Day of Service. Join your fellow volunteers for coffee and pastries, then roll up your sleeves and get to work building soil, preparing vegetable beds, planting starts and seeds, weeding, composting, watering, harvesting, and washing produce.
The ‘Great Pumpkin’
For an example of rapid growth happening now, just check out the Giving Garden’s new giant pumpkin. Already weighing in at more than 1,000 pounds, the massive gourd is the result of a collaboration with a neighbor who’s been growing the beasts at his own plot at Marra Farm for several years. The neighbor’s enormous pumpkins became such a popular stop on Solid Ground’s field trip tours for visiting kids that he suggested they work together to grow an even bigger one in the Giving Garden.
“It’s from a special seed, requires special pruning – special everything,” Scott says
The resulting pumpkin has rocketed past the neighbor’s old record – about 700 pounds – and is being fed by a single plant that covers about 1,000 square feet. Scott says he has no idea how big it’ll get before the neighbor harvests and takes it to a competitive weigh-off.
A hoophouse, ‘just-for-fun’ things, and educational tools
Other highlights at the farm this summer can be found inside the hoophouse, which is home to cantaloupes, tomatoes, and peppers – crops that thrive in longer, hotter growing seasons than we typically have in the Pacific Northwest. Built two summers ago, the hoophouse is essentially a greenhouse made of plastic sheeting pulled tight over arched supports.
Scott has also doubled his crop of wheat and corn, which will be used to make corn tortillas and pizza dough for visiting classes. Once the wheat is harvested, threshed, winnowed, and milled into flour, it should make enough for about eight pizzas.
“It’s kind of a just-for-fun thing,” Scott says. “The pumpkin is 100% just for fun. The wheat and corn is half just for fun and half, ‘Where does bread come from? Where do tortillas come from?’ So it’s a little more educational.”
Learn more about Solid Ground’s Community Food Education.
All photos by Clarissa Magdich
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