Hugelkultur gardens are easy to develop, and you may use materials that you can hunt for on your own land. Create one or more of these environmentally friendly gardens by following the instructions below.
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1. Decide on a location and mark it.
Choose a sunny spot in your yard and mark it off as the location of your garden. Hugelkultur mounds, which are around 4 feet wide by 8 feet long, are a decent size for home gardens and are simple to reach across when weeding. However, you may build beds in whatever size you like.
2. Make the space clear.
To make room for your hugulkultur bed, remove any bulky objects, including rocks and plants. Cut any grass that’s already there as short as possible.
3. Launch a trench.
Dig 12 to 18 inches down in the area you marked out with a shovel. There should be some levelness to this trench. To construct your mound, save any grass and dirt you take from this trench.
4. Start constructing the mound.
Logs and bigger branches from bushes and trees should be layered into the hole’s base. Use smaller and smaller bits of wood and plant detritus as the mound grows in height. Once you’ve constructed your mound to the desired height, keep adding material.
Although you can build hugel mounds as high as you desire, most are between two and six feet tall. Keep in mind that mounds will sink and compress as their constituent elements decompose; in a few of years, a 6-foot-tall mound may only be 2 feet high. Taller mounds are also less prone to compress over time and will retain water and nutrients better than shorter ones.
5. Plug any gaps left by air.
After your mound has taken on a basic shape, stuff fallen leaves, tiny twigs, grass clippings, compost, and other plant detritus into any empty spaces.
5. Add dirt to the mound.
Lastly, add wood chips or mulch and around 6 inches of dirt to the entire mound. You may use the trench soil you excavated for this, as well as any grass you pulled out of the area; just make sure the grass is turned over so the roots face upward to prevent it from growing.
6. Wait and water thoroughly.
Give your hugelkultur bed enough of water so that the organic materials may decompose and create a rich raised bed that is ready for planting. To encourage the components to break down more quickly during the first year, add water often. Keep beds as damp as a sponge that has been wrung out. You can be sure your hugelkultur mound is receiving adequate water if it starts to produce mushrooms.
Ingredients for a Hugelkultur Bed
Autumn is the ideal season to construct a hugelkultur garden. Before spring arrives, the organic materials will have plenty of time to decompose and turn into rich garden soil suitable for planting. Hugelkultur beds constructed in the fall should typically be prepared for planting in the spring. Nevertheless, some of the nitrogen in the mound may be bound up by the wood since it hasn’t completely decomposed yet. For this reason, a lot of gardeners fill hugelkultur beds exclusively with plants that can fix nitrogen on their own, such peas and beans, during the first growing season.
You may grow a wide variety of edible and floral plants on your hugelkultur garden, including heavy feeders like pumpkins, once it’s established. Consider planting on the mound’s top and sides to conserve space. In the fall, you may also replenish your garden with fresh material if your hugelkultur bed starts to shrink after a few years.
Hugelkultur beds aren’t for everyone since, in contrast to traditional raised beds, they don’t need a set container to keep the materials that make up the mound. Their wild and organic appearance might not be appropriate for more organized landscapes where the general design of the garden depends on symmetry and neat lines. It’s good to focus more on the produce of these waste-reducing and environmentally friendly garden plots than their aesthetic appeal, as they are essentially compost piles. Hugelkultur gardens that embrace their organic nature will produce lovely flowers and delectable foods for you to enjoy.
Frequently Requested Enquiries
Which supplies are needed to create a hugelkultur garden?
A hugelkultur garden can be constructed from a wide range of materials, such as logs, untreated timber, fallen branches and twigs, autumn leaves, grass clippings, cardboard, compost, straw, manure, and seaweed.
Which wood species is ideal for hugelkultur?
Ideally, utilize a combination of hard and soft woods (for example, a mix of maple, birch, oak, and poplar branches) and seek for pre-rotted logs, which will decompose more quickly. Over time, these materials in the mound will naturally decompose into compost.
Which kind of wood is best to avoid using in a hugelkultur bed?
There are a few exceptions to the rule that most forests are suitable for hugelkultur. Because black walnut trees contain a chemical that might inhibit the growth of other plants, it is not advisable to utilize them. Hugelkultur is also not advised for wood from inherently water-resistant trees, such as cedar and black locust, as these woods decompose more quickly in soil.
