Hugelkultur Part II: Finishing the Structure.

Hugelkultur Part II

In this post I will continue to demonstrate the Hugelkultur technique.  If you don't already know it, Hugelkultur is an ancient style of sheet-composting.  The basic idea is that wood is buried and because of its water-holding capabilities, the garden becomes one that doesn't need to be watered.  The annual vegetables will always need to be water, but the perennials that grow down into the mound will have a steady supply of water through droughts.  The trees in the yard on which the beds are located will have reservoirs from which to draw when the rains are scarce. The water retaining qualities come from the material that makes up the structure.  It's a great cycle of decomposition into worm-food.  When the worms eat the material it become the best material on earth for growing food.  Garden vegetables thrive in the rich soil and the established trees and shrubs do better than they had been doing.

Layering on the Material:

Just keep layering on the material from the most coarse (logs) to the least coarse (compost). 

This client had some potting soil in the garage.

They also had planting boxes around the house.  The soil from them, as well as some bags of mulch,  were added as filler. 

We added coffee grounds as part of the large volume Nitrogen that is necessary in the first year of the garden.  The amount of carbon in all of the wood chips and logs is so high that any Nitrogen that can be added is valuable.

The Main Garden bed taking shape.

Layering on the organic material that was scraped away before digging out the footprint of the mound.

The soil at this site was really good.  There are tons of worms in these beds.  This client has never used chemicals on the yard and organic material has been allowed to build up.  This was an ideal site for Hugelkultur!

The Main Garden bed after all of the layering except the wood chips.  There is about 18" of compost on the bed.  This will be the growing medium for the plants.  This compost was produced locally and was delivered for a very reasonable price. 

The Salsa Garden bed with all layers except the wood chips.

The Greens Bed with all layers except the wood chips.

A nice fat pile of wood chips is under the tarp to keep them dry so that they are as light as possible when we have to spread them.

The Salsa Garden.  Notice the planter box.  This is the remodeled home for the American Chestnut.  It is fully integrated into the landscape.  It's partner on the other side of the concrete, and it, will cross-pollinate in a few years and hopefully produce nuts.

We utilized already existing plants from the landscape to rearrange and create some new features.

This is the Greens Bed. This mound has enough organic matter to produce heat.  This winter, this mound will stay warmer than the ambient air temperature and when covered with a clear cover.   It will be essentially setting a cold-frame on the mound.

Salsa Garden ready for planting

The new landscape features add a nice touch and the client is especially pleased with the smell of the wood chips.  We were able to get a load that had Birch, Apple, Arbor Vitae, and a little Boxelder.  They really do smell good!

 When all is said and done, we will have two planter boxes, three Hugelkultur mounds with a mix of annual and perennial food producing plants, and a handful of containers also containing vegetables and herbs.     Part III of this series will focus on the planting of the gardens. 

The End of Part II

Hugelkultur Part 1: Site and site prep (including pruning of Oak and Beech)

Hugelkultur Part 1: Site and Site Prep

In this series of posts I'll show a transformation of a property.  I will use techniques based in the concept of  Hugelkultur.  I will use the debris that is available in a small suburban yard along with the material that is created by pruning two trees.  The amount of material that is generated by this pruning is generous.  I did have to acquire some of the material used in the creation of the gardens.  I bought wood chips and compost to provide a great start for the vegetables.  My client wanted the vegetables to go in year one, so we had to give the soil a big boost.

 Here are the photos from Part 1:

Buried beneath the snow and insulated with leaves and a plastic ice-cream bucket is anAmerican Chestnut (Castanea dentata).  It's been in for about nine months at the time of the photo.  The Greens Bed (the bed on which the greens will be planted) will be in the snowy open space in the foreground.

Here is a second American Chestnut.  It's under snow and leaves in the chicken-wire structure in the foreground.  To the left of it will go the Salsa Garden (the mound on which the tomatoes and peppers will be grown).

There is a little Yellowbud Hickory (Carya cordiformis) volunteering along this fence-line that will be transplanted in the main garden bed.

Future home of the Main Garden bed. 

Future home of the Salsa Garden.It's overgrown with weeds and volunteers that have taken hold.  They will be buried after being turned over with a shovel.

There is a lot of material to use in the Hugelkultur structures.

The future site of the Salsa Garden.

Material that was available in the yard after the winter.

Material that was just laying around the yard.  

Future home of the Main Garden Bed.

The next sequence is an illustration of the pruning of the two trees on the site.  There was a Bur Oak (Quercus macrocarpa) and an American Beech (Fagus grandifolia).  Both of these trees needed to be pruned for structure, deadwood, and clearance for other objects or trees.  First is the Oak.

This is the Bur Oak.  It is getting mature and has a diameter at breast height (dbh) of about 35".

We're going to get this little Red Oak (Quercus rubrum) some clearance.

The wires come into play with this tree.  We need to provide clearance as well as train the tree to grow away from the wires so that the power company doesn't come in and hack it up.  It's possible to make trees grow in their space without having to beat them up because they are too close to the wires.  It's about the future with Oaks!  They need someone with an eye for the future.

This is the Bur Oak after pruning.  Notice that the clearance for the wires is more than adequate.

Now the little Red Oak has some room to grow.

The following sequence is of the pruning of the Beech:

This beautiful American Beech has a lot of potential, but has overgrown its space. 

This tree needs to be pruned for structure, deadwood and clearance.

Will pruning the Beech.

The Beech after pruning.

The reductions that were done were for structure  and clearance.

Lots of material was produced.

Building the Hugelkultur Structure:

Top Soil is set aside for use after the main structure of the Hugelkultur is created.

Start out by laying out the wood to make the structure you are trying to create.

The more rotten the wood the better for Hugelkultur!

Nice to see tons of worms in this soil.  That will help in the months and years to come.  As the worms eat the material, they produce top quality soil.  It's chemical free.

Using small but coarse woody debris on top of the wood.

The structure of the Main Garden bed is starting to take shape.

END of Part I

The point of the Hugelkultur is to create a long-term no-water-garden.  It is great for perennials The layers break down and produce a fantastic soil.  Part II of Hugelkultur will show the rest of the layering along with the finishing of the structure.