By SHANNON PRIEBE

For all those who find great pleasure in digging in the dirt and take time out to smell the daffodils, Magnuson Park will become your new mecca.

Approximately 3-4 acres have been staked out for a community garden in Magnuson Park. The garden, which is part of the master plan for the park and approved by City Council, will be set next to the community center, the children's playground and the off-leash dog area.

"We're hoping it will be a showcase where people can come and garden," said Robert DeLong the interim coordinator for the Magnuson Gardens Steering Committee.

In 1997, the City of Seattle decided to turn the formerSandpoint Naval Base into an urban park consisting of about 345 acres, with sportsfields, open spaces and a number of large buildings for community programs and activites.

Currently, the committee is in the process of applying for a $10,000 grant from the Neighborhood Matching Fund Program to fund the designs for the garden.

Gaining the support of the community is important to the grant application process, so the committee has been asking community councils (such as the Meadowbrook Community Council which did support the idea) for a letter of support.

Once they obtain the funds, the committee can then contract a landscape architect to beginning drawing up the schematics for the garden. They expect the design to be completed around June or July of this year and are optimistically hoping that ground will be broken in the summer of 2001.

"The community garden is seen as a destination point in the park where people can learn about organic gardening, the culture of native plants and composting," DeLong said. "As well as view flower gardens."

After the blueprints are drawn, soil testing for nutrients and toxicants will begin and designs for irrigation of the garden will also be drawn up.

Besides the steering committee, other groups have stepped up and volunteered their help in making the garden a reality. The Sand Point P-Patch, the Sand Point Community Housing Authority, Seattle Tilth, Seattle Youth Garden Works, the Magnuson Park Native Plant Culture Program and Seattle Lettuce Link, are all involved in coordinating activities and proposals to assist in the creation of a design for the garden.

One of those organizations, the P-Patch is helping to contact volunteer gardeners in the Seattle area and has sent a letter of support for the garden.

"We're helping them in any way we can," said Rich MacDonald of the P-Patch.

Once the garden is complete the P-Patch will continue to manage the garden by coordinating both volunteers and the site as well as assisting with administrative tasks.

For more information, call Robert DeLong at 526-4038.