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