Low budget hugelkultur experiment

[GilpinGuy]

I put together a low budget hugelkultur bed this year with stuff I had laying around. Never tried it before. We'll see how it works out. Total cost so far: $0.00. Seed and plants will have a cost, of course.

I plan on making some sort of hail shield as well. Probably 1" CPVC hoops covered in 1/4" chicken wire. That'll add some cost too. Hopefully that will keep most of the hail from devastating the plants. It's been brutal this year.

First, I made a 4' x 8' frame from scrap wood, leveled it and dug the inside to about 2' deep. I dug down instead of doing a traditional mound.
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Then I filled it with dead/rotting wood to about 10" from the top.
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Then I covered it with a layer of straw from an old archery target backstop.
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Finally the soil - composted horse manure from a friend.
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Any suggestions? I'd love to hear them.

[Great-Kazoo]

EDIT: Pictures aren't showing up. I'll edit this when I have a chance.

I put together a low budget hugelkultur bed this year with stuff I had laying around. Never tried it before. We'll see how it works out. Total cost so far: $0.00. Seed and plants will have a cost, of course.

I plan on making some sort of hail shield as well. Probably 1" CPVC hoops covered in 1/4" chicken wire. That'll add some cost too. Hopefully that will keep most of the hail from devastating the plants. It's been brutal this year.

First, I made a 4' x 8' frame from scrap wood, leveled it and dug the inside to about 2' deep. I dug down instead of doing a traditional mound.
58890

Then I filled it with dead/rotting wood to about 10" from the top.
58891

Then I covered it with a layer of straw from an old archery target backstop.
58892


Finally the soil - composted horse manure from a friend.
58889

Any suggestions? I'd love to hear them.

attaching the pictures, not being sent to an Invalid Link.

[GilpinGuy]

attaching the pictures, not being sent to an Invalid Link.

I attached them and they show up fine in Preview Post.

OK, I just deleted the pics and added them the same way as before and they show up now.[Dunno]

Operator error I'm sure.

[Great-Kazoo]

I attached them and they show up fine in Preview Post.

OK, I just deleted the pics and added them the same way as before and they show up now.[Dunno]

Operator error I'm sure.

NYSyndrome ;) They show up now. Now that i googlefu'd what this is, very interested in your results. Especially if one can limit / reduce the amount of water needed.

[Brian]

Wish I had layered my raised beds a bit better than I did. Never heard of this - thought you had made up the word. Curious to see how it turns out.

[XJ]

What is the advantage compared to a simple raised bed?

[Bmac]

That is a great way to do it. I bet you get at least a 15% increase in yield with less food. Do you have results from past beds to compare with?

[Irving]

From the pictures I'm seeing, looks like you'd actually get slightly more surface area in the same footprint as well.

[Ah Pook]

Find a better place to hide the bodies.

Add wire mesh, at the bottom, to keep the critters out.

[GilpinGuy]

What is the advantage compared to a simple raised bed?
The decaying wood helps with water retention (think of it like a sponge) and releases it slowly back into the soil. This reduces the need to irrigate. The rotting wood also provides nutrients to the soil. It's supposed to mimic the natural forest process.


That is a great way to do it. I bet you get at least a 15% increase in yield with less food. Do you have results from past beds to compare with?
No - I've only grown in pots up here. I wanted to do beds and figured I'd give this a try.



Add wire mesh, at the bottom, to keep the critters out.
Damn. Wish I thought of that.


From the pictures I'm seeing, looks like you'd actually get slightly more surface area in the same footprint as well.
If you do the traditional "mound" you definitely would get more surface area. I decided to dig and go with a more bed type system. Just looks cleaner in the yard.

[Irving]

The entire length of my backyard is covered in lilac bushes and various other trees that I'm sick of trying to mow around. The plan was to tear them all out and build a 6' privacy fence instead. I've been dreading pulling all the bushes out and not having any where to put the debris, and it occurred to me that I could build similar raised beds and just fill them with the remains of the bushes and have MUCH less stuff to haul out. The raised bed idea is also a way to avoid trying to level out the yard. Thanks for having posted this. Are you just letting the beds compost until spring?

[GilpinGuy]

Sorry I haven't responded sooner. Kinda been off line for a week or so. Yeah, I plan on letting them compost until spring.

[JerryG]

Did you ever get around to planting your garden this year. Interested in how your veggies turned out.

[GilpinGuy]

Well, it wasn't a great year for anyone I know in the mountains with a garden. The spring and early summer were so wet, I think it really hurt a lot of things.

I had sugar snap peas grow like crazy. I'm going to plant a lot of them next year and have a good trellis set up. The Rocky Mtn Corn did well too. I need to get it planted earlier next spring. Some herbs did just fine, but not as well as usual. Strawberries did ok. My wild raspberries hardly fruited at all and they are usually covered with berries.

Cucumbers grew nice sized plants, but never fruited. Weird. Jalapenos, which usually grow awesome up here, never took off and I got very few peppers. Same goes for bell peppers.

All in all, a crappy year for crops. I don't think the Hugel bed was the reason though. I had herbs in pots that struggled all summer too. The experiment will continue next year.