hugelkultur?

[mamos]

Has anyone on this forum had a go at building a hugelkultur bed.

Basically you build a raised bed consisting of a pile of rotting wood covered in soil. I have just collected enough wood from a fallen tree to build me first small hugelkultur bed so I will let you know how I get on.

There is more information here http://www.richsoil.com/hugelkultur

[mamos]

So I take it nobody is experimenting with hugelkultur

hugelkultur raised garden beds in a nutshell: Taken from the attached article

grow a typical garden without irrigation or fertilization
has been demonstrated to work in deserts as well as backyards
use up rotting wood, twigs, branches and even whole trees that would otherwise go to the dump or be burned
it is pretty much nothing more than buried wood
can be flush with the ground, although raised garden beds are typically better
can start small, and be added to later
can always be small - although bigger is better
You can save the world from global warming by doing carbon sequestration in your own back yard!
perfect for places that have had trees blown over by storms
can help end world hunger
give a gift to your future self

mamos

[Chants Cottage]

We're in the process of sorting out the veg garden at our new house and my husband keeps going on about hugelkultur beds. I wanted raised beds anyway but the actual hugelkultur 'beds' are MASSIVE! I wondered about shade on the 'wrong' side of the bed, and the shadows they cast must be pretty substantial (if you can have a substantial shadow). We were thinking of constructing more traditional raised beds but nicking elements of the hugelkulture ideas - maybe making the structure of the bed more organic, filling the bottom with rotting wood, but on a more manageable scale than the proper hugelkultur beds I've seen pictures of...

[John Headstrong]

I have seen a fair bit of talk about hugelkulture and a few videos, Sepp Holzer is the top man for this, he has done it in a huge scale. many people are also working on smaller scale hugelkulture projects. I might try this in my garden this year.


video of Sepp Holzer and his farm

[mamos]

They don't have to be huge. You could build a flattish bed by digging down and filling with wood and then soil over the top but I would imagine the surface will start to slump over the years and you will get a depression.

As for the shade and the north side of the bed I think if you built a tall bed A: you are going to get as much or more surface growing area on the sunny side than if you just had a flat bed. B: all the plants on the sunny side are going to get more sunlight because the ones that would be at thee back of a flat bed will be elevated above the front plants C: You can plant shade loving plants or fruit trees on the north face that will come up above the top of the bed. D: The tall beds create micro climates sheltering delicates from the wind and raising others out of frost pockets.

The list of pluses are endless. The more I look into this the more excited I get.

Sepp Holzer is the man on so many levels. The man is a genius

mamos

[safronsue]

this is absolutely fascinating and potentially a solution to our problem veggie beds which are huge.... 5 beds of 60 sq metres surrounded by concrete pathways but the soil is below the level of the paths. also the soil is awful, thin and poor and water just runs through it. SO, fill with logs NOT earth as i had been thinking which would have been un do-able. i Love the Idea.

[mamos]

Sounds perfect

I have a load of wood from a fallen tree but re reading the Hugelkultur article I think the wood needs to have already started rotting.

New wood will work but it will take a few years to get started and with my bed going into an allotment that could be a problem.

I might donate my fallen tree to someone with a wood burner and find some partially rotted wood

[Chants Cottage]

My other half constructed one last weekend, and we're planning to build another all the way along the path.

Twigs / branches / leaf mould / other organic rotted stuff lying about the place

IMG_4945.jpeg (17.83 KiB) Viewed 5860 times

The finished article - turf inverted and replaced plus manure

IMG_4949.jpeg (22.2 KiB) Viewed 5860 times

Not sure if some of the branches he used are a little on the large side and not rotten enough, but we'll see what happens. He's convinced it'll knock the more conventional beds into a cocked hat. Once I've decided what to plant on it...

[chickenchargrill]

Looks brilliant! Not something I could really do in my back garden at the mo, but might consider it for the future.

I had a look at the Q&As at the end and...

I have standing trees that are about to be cut down. I don't want to have a bunch of logs sitting around until they are old to be used for raised garden beds. What do I do?

The wood doesn't have to be old to be used. In fact, it is even better when fresh!

Maybe it doesn't need to be rotten after all.

[John Headstrong]

just found this useful link

http://www.krameterhof.at/en/ the PDF is http://www.krameterhof.at/pdf/presse/pe ... e-pm68.pdf