HelpfulGardener.com

I watch people build raised beds and spend money on bags of soil/compost/peat/perlite/lumber and always chuckle. They see a productive SF and think, "I want to grow my own". They want it weed free and appealing to the neighborhood. Well, this cost money and it brings out frustration when it does not turn out like the web says.

I have always utilized the ground for my gardens and amended with compost. If you can "grow grass", it can be amended was my policy. It was about utilizing the moisture and adding organic material to make it work. Get a living soil with worms and keep it fed. Put more organic material back in than you took out. This requires gathering leaves, grass clippings, kitchen scraps....basically a huge compost pile. The problem was it never seemed to be mature/composted in rhythm to put it back..

I had a wasted space of old asphalt with good afternoon sun. This meant watering because roots could not get down to utilize the moisture. I also had problems with growing peppers because of a high ph soil.

This is what I did....utilizing dead/decaying logs, leaves, grass clippings and some free straw bales. All the info pointed to an immature bed that needed to break down for a year or so to be utilized. To overcome that I topped the bed with 10 inches of 2 year old leaf mold on one half and 2-5 yo Alpaca manure on the other half. I have 40 bucks into it and maybe 3 days labor.

This is how I did it cheap.








Don't mind the deer head....it was topped with leaf mold


Back half with Alpaca manure





Flood proof


Thriving


Hidden gems of hard to grow supper hots pepper






Long pods of sweets







And big toms the first year

The mushrooms came really quick. To me they are the best sign of breaking down a clean organic matter





Forgot to mention. Everything was started from free seeds via forum exchange.

This is a amazing. I don't know what hugelkutur is.

BirdLover wrote:This is a amazing. I don't know what hugelkutur is.

Think of it as walking into the forest. Everything has fallen in decay and feeds upon each other. No has one ever taken a bucket of fertilizer into the woods yet stuff grows and the trail fades if not worn. Hugelkultur is like fallen trees that soak up moisture. Then the mushrooms break it down. Then the other plant feed off that moisture and nutes.

Looks fantastic! Yep. I really think what you did @rairdog, and variations thereof using available material (and using bought material, weighing convenience vs. time/labor vs. cost) is the best way.

I think in your case, flooding had contributed to the success while at the same time, proving the success and worth of the hugelkultur raised bed.

My pseudo-hugelkultur raised bed has also been unexpectedly successful so far. I'm eager to build the next one.

@Bird Lover, Bottom line/very basic concept behind hugelkultur is to build the base of the bed by burying whole logs / tree trunks and branches which provides source of long-term sequestered carbon cellulose and humus as they break down. They also retain moisture and help develop healthy soil foodweb.

In my case. I used rotten Cottonwood logs...you can grab a handful and squeeze like a sponge and water will come out. I mixed in some 1 year cut Ash which will take longer to break down. Stages of breakdown....because you don't want to replenish from the bottom up. You want gradual breakdown from below in stages and build on top with available clippings and leaves.

In my case drainage was key. In a drought climate burying in a trench to hold moisture would be key.

BirdLover wrote:This is a amazing. I don't know what hugelkutur is.

Here's a couple threads about it:

https://www.helpfulgardener.com/forum/vi ... re#p351580

https://www.helpfulgardener.com/forum/vi ... re#p318462

I wonder if cedar would work, with it's antiseptic properties and slowness to break down. I have some cedar and some fir. I could mix it together. What do you think?

A 1 pound 5 ounce tomato?!!
Just so you know, you are like an angel that was sent to me to help me solve my excess wood problem. I have some leftover firewood and can't seem to sell it because the air quality control board is phasing out wood stoves in my neighborhood and I want to turn that old wood shed into a greenhouse but I must first find a home for the wood. So what I am going to do is use it as a base layer for hugelkutur garden. That will be a perfect solution. Thank you for your post with pictures of your amazing garden!

I admire your creativity and ingenuity. Your garden is beautiful.

What about termites? Wood + dirt = termites

Well, I wouldn't put your hugelkultur bed anywhere near your house. But away from the house, it may be a "trap crop" for the termites, drawing them away from the house. Termites are everywhere anyway. In the hugelkulture bed, as long as they are staying there, they are not a problem. They are the wood equivalent of earthworms in the soil -breaking down the wood and turning it in to castings. Just take the ordinary precautions re your house: no wood touching bare earth, gravel barrier around the house.

BirdLover wrote:What about termites? Wood + dirt = termites

Termites are always a problem IMO living in the South. Protect the house with a barrier because the will always be a problem

Today's harvest of peppers. Bull horns....Corno de Toro....These taste better than any bell I have grown.


A couple gallon bags of freezer stock. Ziplock and a straw to suck out the air.


Bells




Misc pepperocinini and others


Other stuff from the hugel. I need to make another green tomato pie so I picked a few. Carrots have always eluded me. They need a little more length. The top layer of leaf compost/topsoil will be thicker to get a little longer next year.


Bells for freezer stock.

looks really good. How did you flood proof?
I can't do that here, no wood lying around and wood touching the ground anywhere invites termites.

As noted, termites IN the hugelkulture bed aren't really a problem, they are just breaking the wood down.

But it is true that hugelkulture is a traditional practice dating back centuries in Germany, Eastern Europe, Scandinavia - all areas that have forests full of giant trees and have very cold winters. Climates that are very different may need to develop their own local variations.

I have found out that in my new locality, the county will chip up trees and branches brought in. They then sell the partly broken down would chips for $20 a ton. So I am planning a hugelkulture bed that will have a few logs and then a ton or so of the wood chips.

imafan26 wrote:looks really good. How did you flood proof?
I can't do that here, no wood lying around and wood touching the ground anywhere invites termites.

It's flood proof because it drains easy and is raised. Traditionally people dig holes or make swales on hillsides to catch the water and store it in the rotten logs. If you had a clay soil that held water it could be a problem. The main reason I did it was to create a garden with a neutral ph. I could use soil acidifier on my other gardens but is costly and reverts back to the native high ph. I'm just happy I can finally grow peppers. My other garden peppers only got a couple feet high and gave me 2 or 3 peppers all season.

You have ph issues also if I remember. I would try calling some tree trimmers. There should be a native Hawaiian tree that is termite resistant.


@ RBG
I have found out that in my new locality, the county will chip up trees and branches brought in. They then sell the partly broken down would chips for $20 a ton. So I am planning a hugelkulture bed that will have a few logs and then a ton or so of the wood chips.

That's a good price. The organic lady that I get the leaf mulch/top soil blend has playground grade wood chips for $15 a yard. I am going to use it next year to mulch. I am kinda confused on how to incorporate a fall cover crop and wood chips together.

BirdLover wrote:A 1 pound 5 ounce tomato?!!
Just so you know, you are like an angel that was sent to me to help me solve my excess wood problem. I have some leftover firewood and can't seem to sell it because the air quality control board is phasing out wood stoves in my neighborhood and I want to turn that old wood shed into a greenhouse but I must first find a home for the wood. So what I am going to do is use it as a base layer for hugelkutur garden. That will be a perfect solution. Thank you for your post with pictures of your amazing garden!

There was a youtube vid I saw. He cut round logs in 12 in lengths and set them upright in a dug out area in his greenhouse. Then he put the other scraps, bark, branches on top and in the gaps. Just remember it can take a year or more to break down. I overcame that my topping with leaf mulch, top soil and Alpaca manure.

I don't know about using Cedar since nothing ever grows under a cedar tree. There is some good info on permies dot com about hugel's and what wood works well. Most of it seems to be unwanted or invasive trees.

I think on the whole, hardwood and hard to decay, bug resistant wood are better used for any kind of frame work or for mulch and rapidly decaying soft wood is more suited for burying in hugelkultur. I would still intersperse nutrient dense hardwood like oak and sugar maple and fruitwood in the hugelkultur though.

The county did a school bus trimming the last few days. I got 6 yds of leaf and chips dumped for free. This will go as a mulch path in my bee garden, an added mulch topping to my existing raised hugel bed and start a new hugel bed over my existing garden. Sorry, those that tell you about not taking forest soil, waiting for a few years for compost to break down are wrong.....you just need to give the plants a balanced start on top. The roots will make their own decision on where to go.