Volunteers needed to help install hügelkultur bed

King Conservation District, Calvin Community Garden and Diggin’ Shoreline to install Hügelkultur Bed. Volunteers needed!

Have you heard the word, hügelkultur, and wondered why permaculturists and organic gardeners all around are talking so much about it?


On Saturday, November 12, at 9am, Diggin’ Shoreline and Calvin Community Garden volunteers, led by volunteers from King Conservation District, will install a hügelkultur bed at the Calvin Community Garden, 18826 3rd Ave NW, Shoreline 98177 at the corner of 3rd Ave NW and NW Richmond Beach Road.

Come, help volunteer, and learn how to make one! With the help of several volunteers, the 18-ft long garden bed will be completed in just a few hours.

Bring gloves, shovels, and garden tools, and dress for the weather. Those who like to dig, lift and haul things will be helping with the installation. There will also be lighter-activity projects for those of us willing to help put the gardens to bed for winter.

Perhaps you’d like to come and watch, and would be willing to bring a snack or beverage to share with the workers.

Hügelkultur is the practice of mounding soil over layers of rotting wood, green manures, compost and top soil to create nutritious garden space for perennials and food crops.

The technique, new to us in the Pacific Northwest, is a centuries-old European gardening technique, that works amazingly well to regenerate tired, depleted, and compacted urban soils where water penetration can be difficult. The plantings on top thrive as soils below are replenished.