A hugelkultur (hill culture) bed is basically a cross between a growing bed and a woody compost pile. The high volume of organic matter at the core helps it to retain moisture, while slowly releasing nutrients and adding long term fertility. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
These beds are quite labor\nintensive to build and seem to be a favorite project for permaculture classes\nfor this reason (lots of hands to do the work and they feel like they have\naccomplished something). This is not so quick or easy if you are doing it yourself,\nas they require quite a lot of heavy lifting, in fact some people use backhoes\nto create them (I\u2019m not quite sure what to think of that). <\/p>\n\n\n\n
Though the beds take quite a\nbit of work to build, once established they are quite low maintenance. The wood\nin the pile will slowly decompose over several years, during which time it\nshrinks considerably and turns into rich soil.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
In my opinion these beds\nmake a lot of sense if you have a lot of woody debris in your garden, as they\nallow you to use it to enhance your soil, rather than having to work to get rid\nof it. These beds make a lot less sense if you don\u2019t have any wood on site and\nhave to work to bring it in from elsewhere. Making them simply because they\nsound like a good permaculture project doesn\u2019t make any sense at all.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Hugelkultur beds can be useful on shallow soils, as they create a mound of deep rich soil. They can also be useful on sloping sites, as you can dig across a slope and create a hugelkultur berm, which will intercept rainfall runoff (these are usually sloped slightly downhill, so a large volume of water doesn\u2019t back up behind them). Really tall beds will create a warm sheltered microclimate (make it any shape you desire). The orientation of your bed to the prevailing wind will affect the type of microclimates created.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
These beds were developed for use in cool humid climates, where good drainage and rapid warming of the soil are helpful. They don’t work very well in hot dry climates, such as most of California because they dry out too quickly and need constant watering.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
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Wood type<\/strong><\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n Any wood can be used to\nimprove the soil, so long as it isn\u2019t highly rot resistant, painted, pressure\ntreated or stained. Generally you will use whatever wood you have available,\nwhether logs, poles, brushwood or fruit tree prunings. Best of all is old, half\nrotten wood that isn\u2019t good enough to use for anything else (worst of all are\nthe rot resistant woods, such as redwood, cedar or black locust – these can\ntake years to break down, so don\u2019t use them). <\/p>\n\n\n\n If you have to cut wood,\nthen the less durable types are most useful (alder poplar, willow, birch). It\nwill take some time to break down though and will require lots of nitrogen\n(fresh wood is very high in carbon and can temporarily rob the soil of nitrogen\n– soil organisms that break it down need nitrogen to function).<\/p>\n\n\n\n Size of bed<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n The bed can be any size you\nwish, but they are commonly as high in the middle as they are wide, which tends\nto limit their width to about 6 ft (though you can make them wider and lower if\nyou wish). A common size is 36\u201d wide x 36\u201d tall, but some may be 72\u201d wide X 72\u201d\nhigh (obviously this will take a lot of material to build). As they decompose\nthey will shrink by about 25% in height. Tall beds work well in humid climates\nwith lots of rainfall, but not so well in dry ones, where they may dry out too\nrapidly. In such situations flatter beds, as described previously, work better.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Building the bed<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n Strip off any vegetation\nwhere the bed will go and lay it to one side (to reuse later).<\/p>\n\n\n\n Dig down\n4 – 12\u201d deep, to create a trench the size of the bed you wish to create and put\nsoil to one side. You don\u2019t have to do this step, but if you don\u2019t, you will\nhave to bring in some soil from elsewhere to cover the bed. I think it makes\nmore sense to just use the soil that is already there. You can dig down even\ndeeper than this, if you don\u2019t want the bed to be so high, but this will give\nyou less planting area on the bed.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Fill the trench with a layer\nof wood and build it up to the shape of the bed you desire. If you didn\u2019t\nexcavate then simply put the wood on the soil surface. Put the biggest pieces\nof wood in the bottom and smaller stuff on top of it. Compact it down and fill\nin any large voids as much as you can (it will shrink a lot anyway, but you want\nto minimize this). Then water well to thoroughly saturate the wood. <\/p>\n\n\n\n Cover the wood with a 2\u201d\nlayer of manure or other high nitrogen material (this supplies nitrogen and\nother nutrients) and any additional amendments or fertilizers.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Replace the layer of\nvegetation upside down, followed by a 2\u201d layer (minimum) of soil. The idea is\ncover all of the wood and create a smooth, mounded bed. <\/p>\n\n\n\n Cover with a layer of straw\nmulch, at least 2\u201d thick.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Planting<\/strong><\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n The soil in the bed will be\nquite rough and woody during its first year or two, so you may want to start\nwith large vining crops, such as winter squash or cucumber. Strawberries also\nwork well. If you don\u2019t need the bed immediately you might plant a fast growing\ngreen manure crop.<\/p>\n\n\n\n During the first year some of\nthe nitrogen in the bed will go toward decomposing the wood, so you may have to\nprovide additional nitrogen to your plants in the form of a foliar feed.<\/p>\n\n\n <\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"