We’re finally settling in to our new cabin, and have begun homesteading! One of our first priorities this spring was to construct a vegetable garden. Hoping to work in harmony with nature, we decided to delve into the world of Permaculture, and built our very first Hugelkultur mound! So what’s Hugelkultur? Well, we’ll show you! 🙂
VIDEO: GGC – 58 – Homesteading: Constructing Our Hugelkultur Vegetable Garden
We’re finally settling in to our new cabin, and have begun homesteading! One of our first priorities this spring was to construct a vegetable garden. Hoping to work in harmony with nature, we decided to delve into the world of Permaculture, and built our very first Hugelkultur mound! So what’s Hugelkultur? Well, we’ll show you! 🙂
Great video!
just want to say, great videos, with loads of good info, and it all makes perfect sense to me, working with nature rather than against it. thanks!
Beautiful job & you putting in the greened leave branches adds nitrogen so that's why you do it 😉 I tested Hugel before on a small scale over a rotting tree stump…grew the best crop of pie pumpkins & flowers. If you plant some trees and perennial bushes in there it will help hold the materials in place as it shifts. Thanks for sharing!
Until we came around.
Great video, I'd love to build one in my homestead but I have sloped clay soil and I've been told that in these type soils huguls can be counterproductive bec they will retain too much water for too long, do you have any suggestions for me?
“Works with nature, instead of agaeenst it”
Gotta love those canadian accents
How do you get the soil to stay on the sides? My mound is shaped like the one in this video but the soil keeps sliding down.
Thank you for your videos!
I just have a little house with some gardens beds around it from the previous tenants; they probably had flowers, but I grew food for the last 18 months… but I wanted to expand and find more environmentally sound ways to grow without potentially depleting soil.
I learned about hugelkultur; i am now digging my first small trench along my fenceline out the back and loving the hard work and getting back to nature. (I would take over the middle of the yard but my youngest children just won't let the trampoline and swing set go for the sake of my love of gardening, so we compromised so everyone is happy!)
Your vidoes have helped encourage me to keep going with this long term venture when I'm feeling like it's taking too long; afterall, digging a trench in hard soil alone with only a mattock and shovel is time consuming!!
Can I use pine needles as themulch???
Thanks so much……
Ty for this video! Very in depth and intellectually explained! Loved the dead log example also. You two are truly living the dream!
I really like your videos!! Really positive, open minded and not taking yourself too serious, it's a joy to watch.
I've grown in similar ways as yours the last 15 years. Branches, spruce needles and beech leaves are my main resources, it all works very well. All mulch I've tried have worked well, except spruce wood chips. I never dug/turned the soil and don't like using compost or soil in the hugel (not sure I'm allowed to call it hugel then haha). Thanks a lot and good luck!
Really nice job building your hugelkulture bed! Especially all the good layers on top. Beautiful!
The 49 people who didn't like this video…..You Suck
7:18 This is how I feel about child labor.
Nice, just built mine and you are right, machinery would have been a great help.
So here in texas most hay farmers use herbicide. We have a few horses and I thought about using the leftover hay thats laying about on the ground that the horses won’t eat for use in the garden. Any thoughts? I’ve heard that its not recommended
I made 5 Hugelkultur raised beds I dug a hole fill them with small logs added the mature wood chip that looked like compost added my worms castings and all added the original soil and then added leaves. to fill up my raised beds I haven't grown anything yet this next few weeks I will be planting some seeds. I'm added some Azomite and other minerals to the soil to build up the organic micro-organisms in the soil. I'm hoping this produces a better flavor crop. Also, I have changed the layout of my backyard garden to maximize the sun on my low crops.
Does the high C:N ratio in the wood tie up N in the soil? Have you seen any signs of N depletion?
Fun fact, humans have many times more forest to cut down to even come close to the biggest deforest species of all, the grasses. Who uses fire funny enough against forests.
Every grassland you see, is less than 10 to 8 million years old. That was the time grass evolved the ability to burn the forest to create space.
One of the biggest lies in the world, is that nature is in some sort of balance and we screwed it up. It's the opposite, humans try to smooth out the chaos and war that is nature.
Can you use pine tree wood?
am I the only guy who makes raised bed gardens out of dry stone walls?
love the graphics.
Can you create a flat hugelkulture bed?
The way I've learned to do this from http://www.permies.com is to dig down on either side of where you want the mound. First you lay your wood down maybe 3-4 feet deep in a stack. Then you dig on either side of the stack maybe 2-3 get deep and pile the soil and sod on top of the wood. The net effect is a 6-7 foot tall mound with tons of growing space and zero need to bend over at all.
Oh, and then you can use some extra logs and lean them against the slope of them mound and hew notches in them for steps so it's easy to get to the top of the mound in case you want to plant on the ridge.
Permaculture is a DESIGN system
Where does your water supply come from?
Pretty good for a first timer.
I do see a few issues with your setup.
One was what was the orientation of the trench? N to S or E to W?
It does make a difference on things depending on what you intend on planting.
Did you make yours as part of a swale? That would catch some of the runoff when it rains.
Your setup is good for enriching the soil but might be a bit under engineered. Softwoods rot pretty fast.
I built and rebuilt mine several times so far because of under engineering.
Right now it is fairly stable.
Also, your setup will still require watering if not enough rain.
And weeding. And bending. LOL
Most calculations for a self sufficient one are a bit different.
The purpose of the trench is to trap water for the wood to soak up which is later released during drier weather.
Deeper the trench the more water reservoir you have.
You guys are so cute together and I love the way you work and play!! Thank you for such an informative video. Can't wait to see what other helpful vids you have.
A little bit of love coming to you from Vancouver Island, B.C.