The Ching Garden Started Sharing Its Harvest Before It Opened

In 1957, a new family moved in next door to a middle school student on Greenwood Avenue North. Years later, that student remembered a luau they threw for the whole street. They dug a big pit in the backyard and lined it with hot rocks and banana leaves. "Every time I went to the Chings'," he said, "they fed me."

That lot, at 16034 Greenwood Ave N, opened to the public on Saturday, October 3, 2026. Much of it is still unfinished. Parts are fenced off, the new fruit trees are too small to bear, and the upper garden where the house once stood is saved for a future phase. By opening day the garden had already done what the Chings were known for, which was giving food away.

A Pantry Delivery Before the Ribbon

Hügelkultur troughs went in at the garden in late July. Before the grand opening, the troughs had produced their first crop of pak choi, mizuna, and komatsuna, and all of it went to Shoreline Share Pantry. The troughs have since been replanted with winter greens. The large giving-garden section is growing several kinds of squash and pumpkins, which will go to local food banks.

That order of events is deliberate. The organizers, Diggin' Shoreline and GROW Northwest, planned from the start to finish the lower two-thirds of the garden first. Since March, they have planted more than 250 donated heirlooms and cultivars alongside or beneath the trees and shrubs that survive from the Chings' era, and more go in every week. A recent grant will pay to finish planting the lower beds. When the whole site is done, the plan is a food forest and giving garden where the Ching family's story of generosity is told.

The goal for the finished garden matches what it is already doing in its first season.

How a Stony Lot Became the Chings' Garden

The family history comes from the Diggin' Shoreline project page, which drew on Joe Ching's obituary and on interviews with his family and neighbors. Joe was Chinese American and joined the Army right after Pearl Harbor. Jennie had been working as a nanny in California when she was sent to a Japanese concentration camp in Arizona. They met and married after the war in Hawaii, where both were from. Joe had learned to cook in the Army. He later worked in a restaurant where he met Peter Canlis, and that connection brought the family to Seattle to help open the flagship Canlis restaurant.

The project history says that when the Chings looked for a home in Shoreline, they ran into redlining and racially restrictive covenants. Peter Canlis bought the property and then sold it to Joe and Jennie.

Their daughter, Pam Ching-Bunge, remembers many weekends of the whole family digging rocks out of the ground. Over the years Joe and Jennie turned that hard, stony lot into what she called a "garden of Eden." Joe spent most mornings in his vegetable beds trying out organic methods before heading to work as head chef at Canlis. Jennie grew flowers for ikebana and canned rows and rows of vegetables every harvest season. The garden appeared several times on Ed Hume's long-running TV show Gardening in America.

So the giving garden, the pantry deliveries, and the squash grown for food banks all follow a pattern the Chings set on this same ground.

Three Years, One Grant, and a Bridge Loan

The effort to save the garden started with a letter. In spring 2021, a neighbor wrote to the Shoreline City Council proposing a community garden to honor the Chings and the contributions of Asian Americans. Diane Hettrick at Shoreline Area News suggested turning it into an op-ed, which ran in April 2021. After that, the timeline went like this:

• After the op-ed: A Shoreline Area News reader contacted the Canlis family. Brian Canlis called to learn more, and Mark Canlis joined the project team, where he set up a partnership with Shoreline College.
• Summer 2022: The group had requested $1.2 million from Conservation Futures, a public fund for preserving open space, and got the grant. That summer it made an offer on the property.
• April 2023: Negotiations had stalled. King County Councilmember Rod Dembowski stepped in to help find more money, and a fair market appraisal came back at $1.86 million, more than the group had raised.
• 2023: Instead of waiting another grant cycle, the Canlis family arranged a bridge loan from WaFd Bank to cover the gap.
• September 2023: GROW Northwest's formal offer was accepted.
• December 29, 2023: The sale closed. Two days later, on December 31, the people who had worked on the first phase met at the property to celebrate and ended up doing a huge amount of weeding.

GROW Northwest holds the nearly two-thirds-acre site as a land trust and has committed to keeping it as open space permanently. GROW handles fiscal sponsorship and donations. Diggin' Shoreline, an all-volunteer 501(c)(3), is the local sponsor on the ground. The Canlis loan echoed what Peter Canlis had done for the Chings decades before. The project history calls it "coming full circle."

What You'll Find on a Weekday in October

The garden is open from dawn to dusk. The organizers ask a few things of visitors right now:

1. Stay on the wood-chip paths. The new plantings are young, and the organizers say staying on the paths is crucial to their survival.
2. Expect fenced areas. Some sections are closed off for safety and construction.
3. Accessibility. Permanent ADA-accessible paths are planned for a later phase.
4. Parking is still to come. A permanent driveway, patio, and parking area are part of future phases.

The lower garden has groupings of fruit trees, berries, Northwest native plants, pollinator plants, and plants native to Asia. None of the new plantings are big enough to fruit yet. With careful tending, the organizers expect some fruit to share next year. The upper garden, the patio and pond areas, and permanent signs telling the Ching family's story will come in later phases as grants and donations come in.

Visit now and you'll see the garden in its early stages, with greens in the troughs, squash in the giving beds, and young trees growing up under the Chings' older ones.

Why This Garden Opened Before It Was Done

Shoreline's other new park spaces work differently. In February 2022, voters passed the Proposition 1 bond, which pays for improvements at eight city parks. Each park stays closed during construction and reopens when the work is finished. As of the City's September 2026 update:

• James Keough Park at 2350 N 167th reopened in May 2026 with an off-leash dog area, new restrooms, a play area, skate features, a picnic pavilion, and a half-court for sports. It was the fifth bond project completed.
• Upper Hamlin Park at 25th Avenue NE and NE 160th Street is nearly finished. The City expects to open it before the end of the year, though it hasn't announced a date. It will have Shoreline's first splash pad, a picnic shelter, a loop walking path, and an all-ages play area.
• Hillwood Park has been closed since construction started in August 2026, including its parking lot and its entrance from 8th Avenue NW. Brugger's Bog Park is also closed. The City expects both to be finished in summer 2027.

The Ching Garden can't follow that model because its builders are volunteers, and its plantings need people walking the paths, pulling weeds, and harvesting every week. Opening while the work is still going on brings more people to help. The posted volunteer work parties run Monday, Wednesday, and Friday from 11 a.m. to 3 p.m., and Saturday from 10 a.m. to noon, through November. Sessions this week fall on Wednesday, October 7, Friday, October 9, and Saturday, October 10. Register through the online signup sheet so your name and hours are recorded. Diggin' Shoreline suggests bringing gloves and wearing sturdy shoes. The schedule is a live document and changes, so check it before you go.

Hamlin Park will be busy on Friday, October 16. The City's annual Hamlin Halloween Haunt runs from 5:30 to 8:30 p.m. at 16006 15th Avenue NE, with campfire songs and stories, hay wagon rides, a costume photo booth, and Halloween games. The first half hour has reduced-sensory activities. Two weeks later, the trough beds on Greenwood will still be growing winter greens for Shoreline Share Pantry.

Places like the Ching Garden are part of what makes Shoreline feel like home. Virginia and Avalena Everard of EverHomes Home Group follow how the city's gardens, parks, and public spaces are changing. If you'd like to talk about where Shoreline is headed and what that means for your plans, we'd be glad to hear from you. Get in Touch.

This article is general information, not legal, tax or financial advice. Consult a qualified professional about your situation.