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Hugelkultur: Colossal Garden Beds For Remarkable Results

In my first urban homestead in Portland, there was a large cedar tree in the front yard.  As I looked out my living room window, the first thing I always saw was hard packed, barren dirt under this tree.  I tried to plant groundcovers, shade tolerant veggies, ANYTHING!  But nothing would grow.  Finally, I stumbled upon a gardening technique that was ideal for the dry wasteland out my window, hugelkultur!

A hugelkultur garden is raised beds built with logs, branches and other woody material. It save water and grows awesome plants!

What is Hugelkultur, anyway?

Hugelkultur, (HOO-gul-culture) is raised beds made large logs and branches at the bottom.  The large amount of carbon in the rotting woods stores TONS of water!  Hugelkultur beds are ideal for gardening in very dry areas with minimal irrigation.  As I build new garden beds at our Texas homestead I try to add as many logs onto the bottom as I can.  The beds are also a great way to compost large bulky branches you may have on hand.  Rotting wood that might not make great firewood is just PERFECT for a hugelkultur bed.

Plants grow bigger and be healthier in a hugelkultur garden bed because of all the available nutrients that become available as the woody base layer breaks down.  The trick to gardening is awesome soil, and if your soil stinks, start building it!  A hugelkultur bed will be producing nutrients for YEARS.  Even if you have super hard, dry soil, you can just skip trying to dig into and start building UP.

Related Post: Building Soil Is The Big Secret To Great Gardens

I didn’t dig into the soil at all when building mine.  It  was so packed down and dense around the tree, I could barely dent the dirt with a shovel!  Also, as the wood rots it will leave small air pockets in the bed, which makes it easy for your plants to send out many strong roots.  Another bonus is that the composting provides a small amount of warmth, which means you can get your plants going earlier in the season.

How To Make A Hugelkultur Garden Bed

Building a hugelkultur bed is pretty straightforward.  If you can dig, start by digging a foot or two down in the area where you want your bed to be.  This makes it easier to top the bed with topsoil at the end. Save that topsoil nearby!  Next, pile up branches, logs, and other woody materials in the trench.  The taller the better!  The higher you can make your bed, the less often it will need water.  (It also makes harvesting super easy).  You can even make them as tall as you!  Just make sure to have a wider base the taller you go.  A five foot base is good if you are building yours quite tall.

You can make your hugelkultur bed in any size or shape you want.  You can stick with traditional lines, or you can get creative and make a circle garden.  Keyhole gardens are a popular design, and you can combine the two principles and make a hugelkultur keyhole garden!  You can even use your hugelkultur mounds as berms for directing and harvesting rain water on your site.

Once the big logs are down you can add in sticks and brush.  Put larger stuff on the bottom and work your way up to the smaller material.  Good things to layer in the middle is chicken manure, dried leaves, household food scraps, wood ash, virtually anything compostable!  If you pulled up sod to put in your bed, put it upside down on top of the bed too. Once you’ve built it up as high as you want it, pile in the top soil or finished compost that you can plant in.

You can edge the finished bed with logs, stones, or even broken up concrete recycled into urbanite.  I went back and edged the cedar tree hugelkultur bed with urbanite when we made our driveway garden.

If you aren’t into building and are interested in a customized garden bed, check out Olle Gardens. Their galvanized steel bottomless garden beds in a variety of shapes, colors, and sizes. They’re designed to last for up to 20 years, resist rust and harsh weather, and of course they’re safe for planting! If you decide they’re right for you, use the discount code KATHRYN for a 10% discount!

What kind of wood should I use?

You can use either hardwood or softwood trees in your hugelkultur bed.  The hardwood will break down slower and release nutrients slower.  So if you have access to both types, put the softwood nearer to the top of the pile so that in the early years of the pile they provide nutrition first.

There are a few types of trees that don’t break down well, so it’s best to place them at the bottom of the pile.  These include, black cherry, cedar or juniper, and pines.  Do NOT use black locust (it won’t decompose) or black walnut (it will inhibit growth).

What should I plant in my hugelkultur bed?

Once you have your soil on, plant!  You can do perennials or annuals, although it might be a good idea to start the first year with annuals that don’t require much nitrogen.  Potatoes are a good choice, as well as legumes that add nitrogen.  After the first year or two, go crazy!  Plant whatever you want!  I started my hugelkultur bed with strawberries, wheat grass and kale.  (I tried blueberries, which didn’t make it, but given that I’ve NEVER successfully grown blueberries despite trying every year, I don’t think it was related to the garden bed.)  In later years, I added feverfew, irises, lilies, periwinkle, and chard.  Not bad for dead dirt under a cedar tree!

If you are unsure this is the right type of garden bed for you, you can always start out with a smallish bed and plant annuals.  Then once you see how awesome it is, make a bigger one!  And each year it gets better and better as everything breaks down.  This is like hardcore lasagna gardening, and is a great way to build your soil.

Sources:
Rich Soil has an awesome page with tons of pictures and even videos
Permaculture.co has an article discussing the many benefits!

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Riesah Prock

Monday 2nd of September 2019

In a new home, the drainage was the first thing we needed to address..with 10 yards of loam. Once levelled, the 5 trenches (2' deep x 4' wide) for the hugelkutur were dug. In went old wood, new wood, leaves, branches, shredded paper, sawdust, compost then loam followed by composted soil. Each layer was wet down. It felt so good to make such excellent use of stuff that would go into the landfill. So far, everything is good, but we have marauding squirrels and I'm frankly stumped how to keep them out or get rid of them. We have put down mulch all around and through the spokes of the hugels. Stones and wood have been placed around each mound.

Kathryn

Tuesday 10th of September 2019

Are the squirrels nesting in it? If so, I would keep it wetter.

Jill

Sunday 31st of March 2019

One of our saguaro cacti lost a huge arm. Has anyone made a hugelkultur bed with a saguaro in it?

Kathryn

Wednesday 10th of April 2019

I would think it's fine to add.

crazysquirrel

Friday 2nd of February 2018

Any thoughts of a 12" deep trench with logs, then using 2 feet of not so fresh wood chips, then topping it off with dirt?

Kathryn

Friday 2nd of February 2018

That should make a fantastic hugelkultur bed! If the wood chips were fresh you'd want to add a source of nitrogen, but if they're aged, it should be great as is.

nancy

Wednesday 1st of February 2017

I thhink I've seen that in Permaculture books? I was just curious- I don't see dates on your posts? Do you do weekly posts or? Your format is just a bit different and I don't get any new posts on my reading list. Thanks, Nancy

Kathryn

Friday 3rd of February 2017

Yes, it's a permaculture technique. I vary when I post, lately it's been about once a month. I do send out more frequent newsletters for email subscribers. I'm in the process of updating the older articles, but those won't show up in reading feeds.

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