HUGELKULTUR

[opabinia51]

Interesting title. Yes, it should attract a few people just based on the non english wording. Anyway, what is a Hugelkultur? Good question.

Well, in short I will say that it is a method of organic gardening using wood as a brown. To make a Hugelkultur you pile up branches or brush that is one to two feet deep/high and 4 to 8 feet long. Then, stomp on the pile to compact it. (I would actually dig a trench a foot or so deep and put the branches with so me grass in there.) Anyway, after stomping, put grass clippings and other compostables on top of the mound and top with an inch or two of compost then, dust with soil and plant with seeds or starts.

Apparently, potatoes love Hugelkultur (I just love typing that word ) Squashes, melons and other vining fruit thrive in this planting system as well. Also, with the mounding of the compostables, it creates more surface area to plant on.

And Rotting wood acts like a sponge to hold water. Therefore, less watering needed.

[grandpasrose]

I would think that the branches and brush would have to be cut up fairly small? I can just see the loggers up here with their big piles!!!!
Have you ever read "Tips for the Lazy Gardener" by Linda Tilgner? I read it way back in 1982, and it was that book that turned me onto the way I garden now. There is a new edition out, but I don't know if it is a lot different or not.
Lots of cool ideas in it!
VAL

[opabinia51]

When adding any woody material to any sort of compost (albeit sheet, pile, worm bin or what not) I have always cut up the wood but, in Hugelkultur you just leave the wood whole. The very slow break down provides a long term supply of organic matter and nutrients to the soil and plants.

I haven't actually read that book. I finished a book entitled Gaia's Garden: A guide to homescale permaculture a few weeks ago and I'm still using the book for reference. It is the best gardening book that I have ever read, and I've read dozens of them.

[grandpasrose]

I just saw that book - so it is worth the $$$?
I think why Lazy Gardener stuck in my head so well was because she had so much humour in it and I got quite a few laughs out of it as well!
VAL

[opabinia51]

It's worth every penny, and more. I actually just checked it out of one of the libraries at my University but, I will definately be buying a copy of it at some time. A very worthwhile investment, as far as I am concerned.

Another really great book is: A Year At the Gardening Path by Caroline Heriot.

Though, you won't find it in most book stores. You have to order it from her website. It is a year long gardening guide.

[opabinia51]

A slight oversite: the book is available at these bookstores in Victoria:

PENELOPE’S BOOKSTORE Island Highway, Colwood
DIG THIS STORES:
Broadmead
Oak Bay
Market Square
SIDE STREET STUDIO Oak Bay
TANNER’S BOOKSTORE Beacon Ave., Sidney
IVY’S BOOKSTORE Oak Bay
BRENTWOOD BAY NURSERIES Benvenuto
PLOUGHSHARE MARKET West Saanich Road
CROWN PUBLICATIONS Fort Street
GOLDSTREAM NATURE HOUSE
THE MARKET ON YATES, Downtown


but otherwise, I should think that ordering online or over the phone would be your best bet.

[grandpasrose]

Thanks Opa! I am always looking for new insights for books!
I was fortunate with rose resources when I inherited all of my grandfather's rose books, American and Canadian Rose Annuals, etc.
I have a shelf full of other varieties of garden books, but there is always more to learn!

[The Helpful Gardener]

Interesting. The Japanese use a trench process called enpi, where you dig a trench around the plant, prune it, putting the cuttings in the trench, stomp them down and back fill. Now I know the German word for enpi!

Scott

[opabinia51]

Yes, and another method for using wood as a soil building material is to dig a trench and put rotting firewood or other rotting wood in the trench. Apparently, the slow decomposition of the wood does not tie up Nitrrogen because of the fact that the wood rots so slowly. Though, I would still be inclined to throw some grass clippings and perhaps some manure in there.

[The Helpful Gardener]

Some hardwoods can tie up the nitrogen, but not by the time they are getting rotten (wood chips are the cause of many a flagging garden).

Just had a big thunder storm move through so there will be plenty of wood outside on the lawn...

Scott

[opabinia51]

Yes, this point was taken into consideration in this method. The premise is that the wood decays slow enough to not have an large overall effect of Nitrogen Sequestration. Also, it is recomended to put some grass clippings or other "greens" in with the wood to supply a nitrogen source.

I would personally add more greens than what is recommended just because I would also be a little leary about the Nitrogen in the soil being tied up.

[The Helpful Gardener]

But once the wood has been worked over by protozoans and such isn't it less of a draw on the nitrogen?

Don't really know; just asking my best possible source...

Scott

[opabinia51]

Not to sure what "Lees a draw of nitrogen" means

but, after the protozoans, fungi, bacteria, earthworms, ground beetles and such have worked over the wood I would think that it would be soil. By this time, enough Nitrogen would be infused into the medium that it would not be a drain on Nitrogen. So, the premise is that it decays so slowly that not much Nitrogen is used at any one given time. If more greens are added, the quicker it will decompose. The same idea as adding manure, coffee grounds or other greens to you leaf mold pile.

Anyway, potatoes grow well in Hugelkutur.

Also, the decaying wood provides shelter and homes to a myriad of soil organisms, including plants. Have you ever seen a nurse log in a forest. They are mini ecosystems in their own right. I'm actually going to hunt around in my Grandmother's wood pile today to try and find some rotting wood.

[opabinia51]

Thought that I would mention this:

It's on the topic of Hugelkultar:

When doing my sheet composting I rake up leaves for my brown layers and keep as many of the little sticks and twigs that are amongst the leaves. Very good for adding short term structure to the soil and long term source of carbon. I sort of think of adding the sticks and twigs as having a mini hugelkultar.

[The Helpful Gardener]

Good point; the missus wanted to pick all those twigs and sticks out of our leaves and was suprised to hear I was composting them. But it's very true, a lot of the atmospheric carbon that everyone is worrying about when they are talking about global warming is tied up in trees (organic simply means carbon based). This is the the other side of deforestation; release of the greenhouse gases that tree used to make wood. If we can move that carbon back into plants, even on a short term basis, we are helping to cut down greenhouse gases. Of course the best of all possible worlds is to move that carbon back into a tree...

Scott