Hugelkultur Planned for South Lake Tahoe Community Garden

Hugelkultur (HOO-gul-culture) meaning hill culture or hill mound. It turns woodsy compost into the base of sustainable gardening with the use of very little water.

This word may not be in everyone's vocabulary (yet) but residents in South Lake Tahoe will soon be seeing this demonstrated if the community garden at Bijou Park is approved by the City Council.

The Human, Health & Social Well Being workgroup, which is part of the Lake Tahoe Sustainability Collaborative, is the force behind having a community garden. They wanted a place where the South Lake Tahoe community would go to learn how to create sustainable vegetable gardens that thrive in the high altitude and short growing season experienced in the region.

"Gardens For a Healthy Tahoe" was formed to be the project coordinator and fundraiser. The group consists of 30 volunteers and they will be looking to add many more should the community garden be approved. They have to wait for the City Council to approve the Parks & Recreation plan first, then their proposed plan can be voted on. They were expecting approval by now so they could have a bigger start before spring, but are keeping their fingers crossed for the "thumbs up" before June.

The proposal is a 80 foot by 30 foot plot at the entrance of Bijou Park (pictured here). The end result will be a mimic of nature that is sustainable because of the nutrients created by the hugelkultur environment, and will not use any fertilizers. It will be surrounded by a natural Belgian fence made of fruit trees. In the center one will find a spiral herb garden.

Richardson Corral will be donating the manure used in the project and other donations will be sought. Water for the garden will cost about $30/year.

Co-Chair of the garden group, Brian Hirdman, is a permaculture specialist and teacher at Lake Tahoe Community College. His class will be using the garden as a hand's on learning experience as well.

The other co-chairs are Gerri Grego and Hannah Greenstreet. The group is also coordinating a community garden at the Family Resource Center at Bijou Elementary. At that location families will be taught how to grow their own vegetables and then they will maintain and cultivate it for their use.

If interested in joining Gardens For a Healthy Tahoe as a volunteer, contact Gerri at gbgrego@sbcglobal.net. Their next meeting will be after the council vote on the garden.