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We often think about growing delicious food for ourselves and others. Sustainable Ballard has revived the Sprouts project and is growing starts/food on two adjacent properties in central Ballard to benefit food bank and giving gardens locally. Our 17th annual Edible Garden Tour will be June 27th and is a fantastic opportunity to see what our neighbors in Southeast Ballard are growing in their veggie/fruit gardens. All of this is wonderful… but what about our pollinators who make it all possible?

Several years ago after becoming concerned with the plight of honeybees Ballardites started keeping honeybees in mass! Turns out we could really use a more diverse and inclusive approach to supporting pollinators. Did you know there are over 600 species of Native bees in Washington State? Find out more about them by visiting WA Native Bee Society Keeping Mason Bees is one easy way to support more pollinators. Another simple thing we can do is to offer hydration stations for bees, wasps, birds, and others. Something as simple as turning off more of your lights at night or switching to motion sensor lights greatly improves the habitat for bats, moths, and other nocturnal pollinators. Even converting your parking stripe, or a portion of it, to pollinator attracting plants can transform our ecosystem.

Hummingbirds are one of my most favorite creatures on the planet! Every day I see our resident hummer in my garden or drinking from the water feature(fountain) in the front yard. I exclusively plant things that the hummingbird, bees, or myself eat. So the garden is full of jasmine, rose, scarlet runner beans, plum, pear, raspberries, strawberries, blueberries, abelia(this one is fantastic because if you let it grow fully it will bloom late into the winter providing food for the hummingbirds during a time of scarcity), anemone, onions(the beneficial wasps love the blooms!), fuchsia, bleeding hearts, cornflower, miners lettuce, cat mint, bee balm, oregano, chives, and much much more.

Every little thing we do has an impact. For a creature as small as a pollinator serving and surviving in our urban setting it seems like we could all do a little bit more to support them. Please share your tips/photos/ideas/experiences HERE. We will share some of these out over the season. Together we can make Ballard a better place to live, grow, and thrive!

Bike Everywhere Day is the mid-month peak event for Bike Everywhere Month. This is a celebration of all types of bicycling – riding for fun, commuting to work, and biking for everyday transportation. We’ll be tabling with our friends Ballard Fremont Green Streets at the Gilman Park Celebration Station(located at 11th Ave NW and NW 53rd on the West side of the park). Pedal on over and say hello!

There will be coffee and donuts donated by Mighty-O (starting at 7:15am), swag from Seattle Streets Alliance, and you can also enter a drawing for some great prizes. There will also be a happy hour at Urban Family Brewing at 5pm – everyone is welcome! Help celebrate recent wins in road safety and learn more about the impacts of human powered transportation! Urban Family will even be hosting a pop-up bike repair station. The Happy Hour starts at 5pm, and they will draw raffle winners at 6pm.

Also, pop across the street to visit our friends at Collective Chemistry (this will be the start point for our annual Edible Garden Tour in June!) to get a photo with your bike! They will have a professional photographer on site to commemorate your BBF(best bike forever!). The will have hot coffee, stickers, and the Giro stage on a big tv.

If you bike needs attention to be Bike Everywhere ready take it to our good friends at Electric Folding Bikes NW . They service all bikes, have parts, and accessories. Also, they’re just really knowledgeable bike people. They are celebrating their 30th anniversary this year!

Do you donate some of the produce you grow in your garden to the Food Bank? Would you like to? If so, you are eligible for free vegetable starts from our Ballard Sprouts project. Don’t have the space or time to do a giving garden? You can still support the project by picking up some plants for a donation.

Join us this weekend for our Plant Giveaway!

Saturday, May 16, 2026
1-3 pm Free Veggie Starts for Giving Gardeners
3-5 pm All Gardeners invited to pick up plants for a donation

Join us Tuesday May 19th at Old Stove Gardens Ballard for an extra special Giving in the Gardens with SB Trivia! Our friends at OSG are donating $1 for every beer sold and Head in the Clouds Trivia will host a trivia with at least a section about Sustainable Ballard. So gather your trivia team, friends, neighbors and join us for what promises to be another lively evening in the Beer Garden! This is an excellent way to support Sustainable Ballard while having fun. See you there!

The Ballard Tool Library is hosting a virtual volunteer orientation from 12 pm to 1 pm on Saturday, June 6th. Come learn the basics about how our affordable rentals are helping Ballard DIY’ers complete their projects more sustainably. Current volunteers are welcome to attend to get a refresher on our applications and policies.

The Tool Library is located at 7549B 15th Ave NW. Volunteers are expected to complete at least one two-hour librarian shift each month, or join our team of tool fixers to keep our inventory working.

A virtual link for the meeting will be emailed to all registrants.

International Knit in Public Day is celebrated on the second Saturday in June. The holiday is celebrated to showcase knitting as an enjoyable activity to partake in for all ages. This day encourages knitters to knit together in public spaces. Our Ballard Knitters meet at a very public place, Old Stove Gardens, on the second Tuesday of each month and during every session someone wanders over to ask about it or is so excited to see others doing what they love. Worldwide Knit in Public Day was founded in 2005 by Danielle Landes and remains the world’s largest knitting event. We’re still considering where to celebrate this year. If you have ideas or suggestions email us!

Tuesday, May 12, 2026 is our regular monthly meet up. Join us from 7:00-9:00 pm at Old Stove Brewing Garden (1550 NW 49^th Street 98107). Drop in, swing by, stay the whole time, it’s up to you. We can chat about the Spring Beer Hop (good times), we can see how you are doing with your 26 in 26 challenge ( Henrietta thinks she is going slow), or just come by to drop off or pick up yarn. We look forward to seeing new faces and our knitting & crocheting regulars!

Next knitter meet-ups are:

• Tuesday, May 12
• Tuesday, June 9
• Tuesday, July 14

Seattle City Council member Dan Strauss will host a Community Meeting on the Future of Ballard Light Rail on Monday, May 11th with representatives from Sound Transit.

Meeting Information

The meeting will be at 6 p.m. on May 11 at the National Nordic Museum (2655 NW Market St, Seattle, WA 98107). It will be a chance for community members to hear from Sound Transit and elected leaders and share their thoughts on the future of the Ballard Link Extension.

Members of the public interested in attending are encouraged to RSVP.

Background

Last month, Sound Transit announced it is considering reducing the Ballard Link Extension to help address its long-term financial challenges. Sound Transit has presented three cost-cutting options to its Board of Directors – all three options would stop light rail short of Ballard.

Councilmember Strauss, who also serves as a Sound Transit Board Member, has called the plans unacceptable. He urged Sound Transit to keep its promises to voters who approved the Ballard Light Rail Extension a decade ago and have been paying for it since.

The Sound Transit Board of Directors is expected to vote on whether to adopt one of the cost-cutting options as soon as May 28.

Join us for our 17th Annual Edible Garden Tour! This year’s tour will highlight many of the most gorgeous edible gardens in Southeast Ballard/West Woodland. The tour includes 20+ gardens to explore within walking distance of each other. Tickets are $15 for the public, free for kids and sustaining members. The tour start point will be at Creative Chemistry between Stoup Brewery and Gilman Playfield.

For those who have never been, plan to spend a day walking or biking through Ballard to discover how your neighbors raise urban fruits and vegetables. Chat with the home gardeners themselves to learn the magic behind their masterpieces. If you’re new to gardening, we hope that you can join us at the Edible Garden Tour to see what other gardeners in the neighborhood are doing and get some useful tips! Already an expert gardener? There are plenty of inspiring ideas for you to incorporate into your own growing spaces. Enjoy a day of celebrating gardens, sustainability, pollinators and much more!

Meaningful Movies Ballard
*RSVP appreciated, not required
Thurs June 18, 6 pm – 8:45 pm at the Center for Spiritual Living Ballard
Every 3rd Thursday we will be screening a documentary related to sustainability at the Center for Spiritual Living Ballard. In June, to honor Juneteenth, we will be showing The Big Payback, a film examining the history, challenges and small successes in procuring reparations for Black Americans.

For the first time in American history, a tax funded reparations bill targeted for Black Americans is passed in Evanston, IL. The film follows the fight of rookie alderman Robin Rue Simmons as she leads the community in an uphill battle to obtain this ‘big payback’.

Meanwhile, in Washington DC, the formidable Congresswoman Sheila Jackson Lee continues the fight to pass HR 40: a national bill to examine the merits of introducing reparations for slavery to African Americans.

Together, they pressure the government to deliver monetary justice and appropriate remedies for Black Americans harmed by centuries of chattel slavery, state-sponsored terrorism, systemic injustice, and corporate exploitation. Will the debt ever be addressed, or is it too late for a reparations movement to finally get the big payback?

A discussion follows the film.

Meaningful Movies Ballard
*RSVP appreciated, not required
Thurs May 21, 6 pm – 8:45 pm at the Center for Spiritual Living Ballard
Every 3rd Thursday we will be screening a documentary related to sustainability at the Center for Spiritual Living Ballard. In May we will be showing Join or Die, a film about why you should join a club—and why the fate of America depends on it.

In this Emmy-nominated feature documentary, follow the half-century story of America’s civic unraveling through the journey of legendary social scientist Robert Putnam, whose groundbreaking “Bowling Alone” research into America’s decades-long decline in community connections could hold the answers to our democracy’s present crisis.

A discussion follows the film. Speakers: Krystal & Debbie, organizers of Ballard Solidarity, our neighborhood union.

Sustainable Ballard and Center for Spiritual Living Ballard partner with the Meaningful Movies Project to present documentaries in our neighborhood.

To stay informed about future screenings, you can subscribe to our newsletter (sent out about once every three weeks).  We’d love to hear what you want to see!  What topics do you want to explore?  Do you have a specific movie to recommend?  To provide input, or if you are interested in volunteering with Meaningful Movies Ballard, please e-mail info@sustainableballard.org

The Meaningful Movies Project is a non-profit organization that assists neighborhoods, groups and individuals organize, educate and advocate using the power of  documentary film and relevant conversation to build positive and meaningful community and a more just and peaceful world.

Film screenings are always followed by some form of discussion or audience engagement, where education and opportunities for involvement or advocacy are made available. In addition, we rely on, and benefit from one another’s knowledge and experience in an environment that fosters a strong undercurrent of community building.

Events are all-volunteer organized and run. They are always open to the public at no cost, and rely on donations from attendees to remain sustainable. The events are “owned” by the community.