Hi, I have just heard about Hugelkultur raised beds and am interested in it, has anyone here done them ? How did it go ? How and what did YOU use to make them?
Thanks.... Chris
I've done a few beds that way, with mixed results.
The first one had the trunk of a Kwanzan Cherry tree cut into 3 foot sections buried in it. I didn't notice that much difference in the yield of Jalapenos or tomatoes grown there, so I pulled it out after 3 years, and the logs had hardly decomposed...
The second one was done with soft maple from a wind damaged tree and I did see improvement in yield of potatoes with the that bed. I had it split the bed 6ft X 4ft hugelkultur and the other 6 X 4 regular. The regular bed gave 28# of potatoes, and the hugelkultur yielded 43#. A very nice yield improvement, as I'll take 43# of potatoes in a 6 X 4ft area any day!
The third bed was filled with the trunk and limbs of a Santa Rosa plum that the wind knocked down. It has good looking potatoes about 2 1/2 ft tall in it right now. The only problem with the plum tree was that, though I waited almost a month before I buried the wood, I had literally dozens of plum sprouts come up all around the edge of the bed and they were almost 7ft tall by the time I killed them in the fall.
My takeaway is to use a soft wood if you want to see quick results. I guess harder woods will work well, but I may not live long enough to see the benefit of some of the dense hardwoods.
The first one had the trunk of a Kwanzan Cherry tree cut into 3 foot sections buried in it. I didn't notice that much difference in the yield of Jalapenos or tomatoes grown there, so I pulled it out after 3 years, and the logs had hardly decomposed...
The second one was done with soft maple from a wind damaged tree and I did see improvement in yield of potatoes with the that bed. I had it split the bed 6ft X 4ft hugelkultur and the other 6 X 4 regular. The regular bed gave 28# of potatoes, and the hugelkultur yielded 43#. A very nice yield improvement, as I'll take 43# of potatoes in a 6 X 4ft area any day!
The third bed was filled with the trunk and limbs of a Santa Rosa plum that the wind knocked down. It has good looking potatoes about 2 1/2 ft tall in it right now. The only problem with the plum tree was that, though I waited almost a month before I buried the wood, I had literally dozens of plum sprouts come up all around the edge of the bed and they were almost 7ft tall by the time I killed them in the fall.
My takeaway is to use a soft wood if you want to see quick results. I guess harder woods will work well, but I may not live long enough to see the benefit of some of the dense hardwoods.