IMPROVING HUGELKULTUR RAISED GARDEN BEDS
How to build this raised bed on this video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9L03VfXxDJ8
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Wow you’ve explained it so well! I’m getting ready to set up a raised bed using the Hugelculture method and I actually was going to use smaller things like sticks and limbs but if I have big logs I will definitely put some holes in them. Thanks so much Mark!
We just harvested a massive amount of beautiful organic matter from a 3 year old hugelkulture. All the logs in the middle were decomposed, though the outer (drier) were not. Our shovels sank easily a foot deep in the inner part. After moving the good stuff elsewhere in the garden, we refilled the middle with new logs and added more compost and raw vegetable matter. This one hugelkulture is helping us build soil on a vacant city lot we are converting to a butterfly garden.
That new garden bed looks to be 5x10x2 feet, making a hundred cubic feet of inputs that have to come from somewhere else. if the two sections are used in two separate garden beds, and the soil is dug down the depth of a garden fork, it would expand the existing soil enough to save half the material for inputs, and the other half being the branches, effectively zeroing your costs for inputs~ Oh, with some setups, people can easily split the logs along the grain, instantly exposing tons more surface area. Also where possible, raise the log at the ends and break them at the center with sharp force~
If hardwoods last 20 years, what about softwoods such as pine and cedar?
It's shorts whether again!
Mark. Dose the buried wood rob the soil of nitrogen?
I filled my box up with wood cut it to fit trying to save dirt.Willow in one pin oak in another .Wish i would of drilled holes in the oak might have to go back and do that ..
I did this a little over a year ago, but didn't drill holes, but I had some woodpecker holes in the logs. 🙂
I know this works because I used the same method to rot out a sycamore tree stump. After about two or three years, I was able to completely obliterate it with a claw hammer; it became mulch for the fruit tree I planed next to it.
Why not cut up into blocks with chain saw
I don’t think that’s fungi growing on the outside of the above ground oak, I think that’s a lichen.
I did my first hugel raised bed this year. Its a bit of an experiment out of necessity (lack of money mainly). Mine is almost fully from the land I live on. There are four types of wild bramble berries in the area I built it and they are pretty persistent so that determined some of my choices. The 4 x 16 ft bed is built of pine and oak trees. It is lined with an old pool cut into wide strips and overlapped. I left it empty for a while to make sure it would drain. I know I made some mistakes and wish I had seen this video first as I used some rather large pieces of Oak. On the upside they had been on the forest floor for at least 10yrs and well on the way to decomposing so I hope that helps. I also think I placed my wood to closely together (not as many open spaces as I probably should have left but the bed was dug about 12" deep and I felt the support was needed for the sidewalls of sand, where logs for bed frame would sit. Time will tell I suppose). I made a metal conduit support down the middle of entire length and put hoops every 20 inches or so. It was covered in mesh netting most of the summer and then plastic for Fall. I hope it holds up to the snow load and helps me get a head start this Spring. I will assess it after first snow and decide how I want to proceed. I may let snow sit on it for a few months. I am watching your leaf vid next so that may also change my forward motion lol.
Well looks like back to the drawing board. Lol will make my next one like that. Thank you.
I've used hugelkultur beds for 5 years. Love them!! Best way to utilize tree cuttings and leaf mold and woodchips for raised beds, wildlife habitat, and weed barrier.
Hi Mark, I have a question about tree leaves in my garden – beside being an excellent soil cover do leaves add carbon to the soil when they break down?
You are the one that said the Australian guy took apart his hugo bed and say little results . That air is need to rot the wood . And now you are advocating hugo cukture . I dint get it. And who has logs laying around maybe on a 22 acre farm in the wilds of New Jersey but for the modern man wood chips , foam rubber, leaves are more readily available. Corrugated cardboard as well. Im mean logs are for long term. How long would it take for a log to turn to water absorbing callous pulp . I got sycamore logs bull dozed in to a pile partially buried and there is no rotting looking above ground . I guessing ten years into the future if that for it to become an effective water nutrients absorber . Same can be said for bio char. I mean sure if you have bio char as a result of Bush burning operation but I wouldn't bother with a retort or or go out of my way to make bio char when straw orr hay ( the type fed to cattle ) stays damp weeks after the last rain ( falling apart square bales)
This was my first year trying it, did not go that well. 6 beds with lackluster results, but those mistakes were all mine! I put leaves over the logs and when those decayed it created a large air pocket under the soil and none of my plants could get a good root base, my next mistake was that I apparently bought the worlds worst top soil. The pH was like 7.5. So. Many. Mistakes. But I just amended the soil with chicken manure, leaves, and worm castings. I'm really hoping next year will be better.
Great video and I really like those beds, I have made quite a few Hugelkultur Raised beds over the last several years and I highly recommend them. First year I had a lot of settling and deep pockets of air, I used these holes for in-situ composting. The beds don't settle anymore but I still do the in-situ composting.
For that particular bed, I wold have dug out 3-4" of soil, put in 12-14" logs and splits "vertically". Then start layering other bio matter and topping with my native soil that was dug out mixing with compost. The vertical wood may wick better initially, especially if sitting in a hard clay soil.
I put some logs in a raised bed. After 3 years they seem gone. So I think they decided and are deep in the bed. Thank for showing this. I’ll do more.
We built a large Huglekultur in our forest garden 5 years ago. We built on top of the ground so not to disturb the roots of the live trees. We used a variety of fresh and decaying trees and a mix of birch, aspen, spruce, pine and willow. Covered with Natural peet from our land, top soil and the first year added composted manure. We have successfully grown a variety of fruits and veggies without more fertilizing or watering. Love it so much that we "hugleled" our raised beds in the city 2 years ago. I believe it has helped to retain moisture in the beds longer but we do have to water and fertilize them.
I still think wood is one of the best sources of carbon ..but now I mix wood chips with a higher soil ratio along with manure and lyme and lots of moisture ..and a year in advance of planting
would using wood chips accomplish the same thing as small logs with holes drilled?
I just built two raised beds 4'x8'x1' and need to fill them. The area where I live(W NC) does not have many top soil sellers. The one I looked last was selling what he called "top soil" it didn't appear to have any organic material in it.
I ended up buying about 35 cu ft of garden soil at the local wal mart.
I was planning on doing the Hugelkultur method.
I have a lot of fallen trees that look to have been well decayed close by.
If I mixed leaves (that I have plenty of) with the garden soil I just purchased some of the "top soil, and the decayed wood, would that be good enough to plant in this season?
Hugel beds have made gardening in Florida possible! It's incredible the difference it made in the amount of water required
New gardener here with a couple questions: just made my first raised bed – 20 ft x 4 ft x 30 in high. Hopefully that will keep the rabbits out, and help my back. I'm putting old logs in the bottom but being new I don't have any compost prepared yet. However a near-by ranch has all the cow manure I want. Can I use cow manure for the remaining bed fill? What would I need to add to the cow manure or just let it decompose a few months before planting in it? I'd appreciate anyone's comments. Thank you.
My garden gets too wet when it rains so I started to dig out the paths and put the soil on the beds. Then I fill the path with prunings from trees and bushes and weeds from my neighbors. When it is full I top it with grass or wood chips. I guess that is a form of hugelkultur.
Heaven used it but it makes sense as that's how it works in the forest if left to break down naturally. From my understanding there are more microbes in the first few layers of soil than down to deep.
I have been doing this for years, way before I ever heard of what hugelkultur is. I pick up all the limbs that fall in my yard throughout the winter and fill the bottom of a new raised beds until about 10 inches from the top about 12 to 15 inches of limbs at the bottom. Most of my limbs that fall are rotting and that why they fall from my very large trees. I fill around the bottom of limbs with sandy loam all the way to the top of limbs. The top 10 inches I fill with a mix of 90% compost and 10% loam. The loam helps the compost retain moisture. Each year the wood rots and settles and gives room to add a little more compost. I started adding the limbs a long time ago because I was just burning them and if I put them in my raised beds it saves me my precious compost.