Blueberries, hugel mounds, rice and swales.

[RamblingRiver]

Put in some blueberries on the sloping face of our hugel mound and I'm waiting for some Carolina Gold rice seeds to plant right before the incline where there's a nice swale that stays moist during a heavy soaking.

[applestar]

Sounds great!

...but what are we looking at in this photo?
Would love to see more of your set up.

Carolina Gold was a much heftier plant than Koshihikari when I grew them (in separate tiny paddies on opposite sides of the house to prevent crossing) the hull is also coarser and rougher, and grains were larger.

[RamblingRiver]

You're looking at a huge hugel mound that's on a slope facing a bayou. We cut down some trees about 8-9 years ago and buried it beneath this mound. You can't see the swale that holds water because it's behind me in this picture. I'll post more pictures in a bit.

[RamblingRiver]

The second picture is a photo of the recessed portion of my property that a swale drains into....hence all the dying grass The first photo is the blueberry patch on the hugel mound (very large mound about 20x20 that has since compacted) with the lower valley behind me that drains into our bayou.

[rainbowgardener]

Wow!! I guess I have not seen hugelkultur done on a scale like that. The ones I have seen are much smaller and steeper:


http://pacommunitygardens.org/wp-conten ... -07-03.jpg


http://www.openhandweb.org/files/openha ... kultur.jpg

How long ago did you build your mound? Have you only grown grass on it?

[RamblingRiver]

Yeah it's been there for about 8 years. We cut down a bunch of water oaks and pecan trees that were too close to our home and buried them. The mound was much higher then. It's the same principle really. You bury organic matter; then plant stuff on top of it. The small ones are ok for an urban plot that's limited with space but I'm working with 5 acres here