#hugelkulture

[gargelyfloof118]

Making a bed master list to reblog to keep track of layers.

Framing and siding the hugelkulture bed to make it bigger and deeper.

Filling with logs and sticks.

[heketian]

A little progress on our keyhole garden. Now I'm just waiting on more bricks for the structure then I can fill it all in with soil.

I'm super excited to work with this technique as I believe keyhole and hugelkultur together will be ideal for our hot, dry climate with long droughts. Gardeners who use these methods can sometimes get by without watering at all!

• Keyhole gardening is a multifunctional design invented in South Africa that integrates composting, greywater cycling, fertilization, and water conservation all in one raised bed for ultimate convenience and efficiency. It beats the heat and creates an ideal habitat for many crops. I plan to use it for salads and root vegetables but may also use the excess taller wire of my compost bin as a trellis as well!

• A basic rundown for keyhole gardens is that you have a compost bin in the middle that you deposit food scraps and greywater into. The plants' roots will grow towards the water and sap the nutrients as you compost.

I'm combining it with hugelkultur which is basically just putting old wood and other materials at the bottom of a bed to provide a reservoir of water for drought periods. I recommend not adding fresh/live tree trimmings like I did bc it will lower your production for the first year or so, but my neighbor was cutting it down and I'm trying to use waste for my gardening so it sorta happened that way...

• Both methods are especially important in my zone 7b Texas climate. Hugelkultur has worked amazingly for our other two raised beds, so I'll continue to use it when possible. I also mimic it in smaller containers and pots by adding a very thin layer of partially decomposed woodchips at the bottom! :)

[walks-the-ages]

12/29/20-12/30/20

Making a raised bed out of free materials!

We've collected, so far, three christmas trees off of curbs in the last two days and by SOME coincidence, our neighbor had their tree chopped down over the last two days as well, and the guy doing the trimming was more than happy to let us drag the branches and logs across the street so he didn't have to deal with them.

First, we raked all the leaves and small branches that had fallen off our OUR tree into a tight ring around the base of the tree, and then made a wall around it with the biggest logs. The first picture doesn't do it justice, as we had a MOUNTAIN of tree branches in our yard, and with a single pair of bypass loppers, we slowly but surely deconstructed everything down into straight branches, and piled the smallest ones on top of the leaves as a base layer, putting the green branches that still had seedpods down first so that any viable seeds would be buried too deep to germinate, hopefully.

We SHOULD have placed a base layer of newspaper down over the entire area before we arranged the logs, but oh well. We'll just have to cut down any weeds and grass that pop up in between the logs.

Anyways, once the green branches with seed pods were down, we put a layer of newspaper on top of THOSE, then we piled more branches that were too small to build the wall on top of those, and made a thick layer of branches woven together. After we ran out of branches, we did ANOTHER layer of wet newspaper on top of THAT, making sure to cover all gaps so that any weeds underneath everything are hopefully being smothered, and then we put some more dead leaves, rose trimmings, grass clippings and some kitchen scraps on top of the newspaper, and then the final layer (for now) is christmas tree (pine?) branches on top to keep everything in place and be eventually buried.

God I wish I was rich, I could buy so much garden soil right now to put in this because it's so cheap in the middle of winter on clearance AND have it delivered instead of having to bike two bags home four miles at a time-- our clay soil is absolutely horrible for drainage :(

[hqcreations]

Experimenting with Hugelkultur: Part 2

I’m overdue for a follow up to Part 1. It’s been 7 months since we started our first hugelkulture experiment and I’m having mixed feelings on whether or not I wish to continue. On one hand, I’m surprised out how relatively productive the mound was in its first year. I was able to grow all sorts of herbs, flowers, lettuce and beans. We even managed to harvest a sugar pumpkin! Watering was quite low maintenance and no additional fertilization was added this year.

The headache was really dealing with the animals. We had to setup this caging system to keep the chickens off the mound, which was particularly challenging when the seedlings were first growing. The other issue relates more to vermin...I don’t think we piled on enough soil and the weather quickly exposed the underlaying twigs and branches which seemed to create a cavern of paradise for mice or voles. And since I have on the caging system...it made things very difficult to patch up areas.

So yeah...until the chickens are gone, I’m really not sure if this mound is even worth maintaining. However, the true benefits of hugelkulture is really in the years in front of us and the first year is all about starting the decomposition. I dunno guys...

~~~

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[gargelyfloof118]

Spring is here. We have been planting. We have been learning.

The hugelkulture bed is a definite learning curve for me.

We need to mark our seed placement a little better.

All our seed garlic and shallots died. I belive they froze this past winter. All I have left is mush.

The peppers are in the middle of the hardening off process and are very happy to be out in the sun and the warmth.

Soon we can begin some hydroponics.

[gargelyfloof118]

We almost have the garden ready for planting next month. We added fertilizer and compost. The right side is going to be covered in top soil before plating and mulching. The left will be seeded with barley and wheat by the end of the day.

The tomato garden was prepped and tilled as well.

Our next steps are laying the top soil and putting up the hard-scaping.

It's still too early to start hardening off the plants. It snowed this morning and was still snowing while we were out working. Hopefully we have a warmup in the future.

[gargelyfloof118]

After working the garden this season, the hubs and I sat down and discussed what we need to make this work long term.

We agreed that we having sand is the worst problem. It doesn't hold moisture, has low nutrients, and is easy for rodents to burrow through.

Our growing season is short, and while we have a 5 year plan in place for our property, it doesn't solve any immediate problems.

So

We have decided to build a small A frame green house to put on top of the hill where the tomatoes are currently.

And!

Practicing a type of gardening called Hügelkultur. Basically it is creating a mound much like a compost pile that has organic materials that decay at different rates.

Not only will this type of garden hold moisture, but it will have all the nutrients my greedy little plants want. As a bonus! We can put hardware cloth at the base to make it harder for rodents to tunnel in and since it mounds up, it becomes a no bend no till garden!!!

Putting heavy mulch down the lanes and on the mounds will keep weeds down too.

The open plan part will get lasagnaed up in much the same way. The only difference is there will be no large material and it will be covered over winter with black plastic to help aid in the break down process.

I am really hoping this solves a lot of the problems we have had. Wish us luck!

[gargelyfloof118]

We've done more work on the hugel bed lately. The leaf layer was laid on early winter and then it lived all winter under a tarp. We recently added, in order, a moldy hay bale, compost from the 2 year old compost pile, wet news papers, and topsoil. It looks a bit trashy at the moment, but that is due to not having enough dirt to cover the newspaper layer.

These pallets of soil were recently delivered so we can continue work.

We are so close to planting!!! I can't wait!!