Gardeners in Bonney Lake will soon be able to get started at the new community garden, where the organizers are hoping to grow more than just vegetables.

They are hoping to grow the community.

“Our long-term goal is to create a community gathering place that happens to be able to produce food,” said Stew Bowen, executive director of the Bonney Food Bank, which will oversee the city’s new community garden, as well as reap some of the benefit when vegetables are harvested.

Members of the Bonney Lake City Council approved the agreement April 20 authorizing Bonney Lake Community Resources, the group that runs the food bank, to run the new community garden, which is to be located on a three-quarter acre plot of land on 89th Street East, next to the Lions 4 Kids House.

Under the agreement, the Food Bank is alloted half of the space at the garden to grow food for its clients and community members are able to reserve 12-foot by 6-foot plots on which they can grow their own vegetables.

The remaining plots will be made available to the community on a lottery basis.

Food grown on the food bank’s portion will go directly to their clients or those of Lions 4 Kids or the senior center.

“That portion of the project is for us, the nonprofits, to plant and use staff to grow fresh produce for our different organizations,” Bowen said Thursday.

Bowen said community members are welcome to donate anything they would like to the food bank, but it is not required.

“If they want to donate some food they can do it, if they want to keep it they can do that,” he said.

Gardeners must, however, use only organic fertilizers, he said, adding that because it is community-based, a different person may get the same plot next year and may be allergic to whatever this year’s user may have applied to the ground.

The project is set for a one-year trial period and the council took the unusual step of passing the agreement at a workshop because planting season is about to begin and there is still much work to be done on the property. City staff have cleared some unwanted plants, but raised planting boxes still need to be built because the soil at the site is too rocky.

Bowen said volunteers are also needed to help not only prepare the garden, but to help work on the food bank’s section during the summer. He is looking for community members who have gardening knowledge and can help out novices.

“We need their involvement,” Bowen said. “It takes people to make it work.”

Bowen has spoken to other local food banks who share space in a community garden and has learned “several thousand pounds of food is not uncommon” for them to receive, much of it in the fall when the need starts to rise.

Last year, for example, the Sumner community garden not only donated to the Sumner Food Bank, but delivered three pickup loads of corn to Bonney Lake as well.

For now, Bowen is concentrating on getting things started and is actively seeking volunteers.

“It’s planting season,” he said.

To volunteer call Bowen at 253-208-6779. To get an application for a plot in the garden contact the city’s Community Services Department at 253-447-4334 or visit www.citybonneylake.org.