Seattle Tilth Gardens

Seattle Tilth maintains community learning gardens at the Good Shepherd Center in the Wallingford neighborhood, at Bradner Gardens Park in Mt. Baker neighborhood, behind the Rainier Beach Community Center in the Rainier Beach neighborhood, and at the City of Issaquah's Pickering Barn.  Visit anytime! 

These gardens are designed for public learning.  You can take a self-guided tour and learn about gardening techniques from signs posted in the beds (not yet available at Rainier Beach, our newest garden).  The gardens also serve as an outdoor classroom for people who take our classes and for volunteers who work alongside teaching staff to maintain theses gardens. 

Learning Garden at the Good Shepherd Center

The first Seattle Tilth garden was built in 1978 at the Good Shepherd Center by a group of Tilth visionaries who knew Seattle needed an urban agricultural center.  With the support of the Wallingford Chamber of Commerce and the Good Shepherd Center, these volunteers ripped up old concrete play courts and created a garden that has educated and inspired visitors for over thirty years. Techniques in the garden include year-round vegetable gardening, fruit producing trees and shrubs, drought tolerant and disease-resistant ornamental plantings, Permaculture design, rain water harvesting, a green roof on our greenhouse, yard waste and food waste composting, soil building techniques, Pacific NW native plants, food bearing perennials, and a NW rain garden.

This garden is a great place to visit to observe a wide range of organic gardening, landscaping and green building techniques, and also enjoy the art as well as the adjacent Meridian park. Take a look at classes at the Good Shepherd Center...

The Children's Garden at the Good Shepherd Center

The Children's Garden evolved from an abandoned swimming pool basin, more than twenty years ago.  Teachers in the Children's Garden developed unique hands-on garden curriculum over the years, and published a teaching manual based on their experience called Teaching Peace Through Gardening in 1996, written by Anne Petersen and edited by Rob Peterson.  Today, the Children's Garden provides educational hands-on tours and summer camps for 5,000+ people each year. This garden is also a unique learning lab for educators, including an internship program and classes for educators.

Bradner Gardens Park

Built in 2000,  Bradner Gardens Park is a unique collaborative partnership between City of Seattle Parks Department, Seattle Tilth, Washington Native Plant Society, King County Master Gardeners, Department of Neighborhoods P-Patch Program and neighborhood residents.  All of the park's demonstrations are entirely maintained by volunteers and are 100% organic.  The Seattle Tilth part of the garden showcases year-round vegetable gardening, raised beds, plants that attract beneficial insects, swale gardening, soil building techniques, and water-wise drip irrigation. The garden also has a bounty of art, creative arbors, a unique and beautiful pavillion, and a prominent wind vane. Take a look at classes offered at this site and nearby...

Seattle Tilth at Issaquah's Pickering Barn

We began a partnership with the City of Issaquah's Resource Conservation Office in 2008 to offer classes at the Pickering Barn.  This historic agricultural site is a beautiful location for Seattle Tilth to teach organic gardening to people living east of Lake Washington.  People of all ages can do service projects or take classes in the garden and learn all about organic gardening in our maritime climate. We are currently developing longer-term plans to further develop the garden as a community resource for organic gardening techniques. Your input and particpation is welcome! 

Interested in current programs and how you can get involved in the Issaquah Garden? Find out more...

Rainier Beach Learning Garden

We are delighted to have launched a new learning garden in August '09 in the Rainier Beach neighborhood of south Seattle. The garden is located behind the Rainier Beach Community Center and the South Shore School. Educational programs are being led and managed by Seattle Tilth, supported by partners the New School Foundation and Seattle Parks Department. Take a look at classes and programs in the neighborhood.
Find out more about the garden...