Today I would like to show you the beginning of a Hugelkultur bed. It started as a pile of tree branches that we were planning to turn into mulch with a chipper. After it was laying around for a while with nothing being done to it I decided it would be a good place to go ahead and start a Hugelkultur bed.

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I love designing. Permaculture designs have become a fun way for me to use both my creative and analytical skills. The thing with that is when something does not get completed soon after the design is made, that leaves a lot of time to think on it. Over and over and over again. Until the design changes over and over and over again. LOL. While this bed has been "started", it might need disassembled. I will explain that later on.

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Anyhow, this was originally a pile of branches, as I mentioned. These were clippings from the apple, silver maple, wild choke cherry trees because they were hanging too low to safely mow under without running the risk of being decapitated. I believe we started piling these branches here about 2015, before we got some materials delivered.

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In 2016 we had a truck load of local compost, a truck load of local garden soil mix, and a ton or so of sand delivered. We had it dumped into the area under the large silver maple because at the time we were unsure what we were going to be doing there. We also needed an easily accesseble place for the truck to manuever into. Here is what I will say about that.

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This ended up not being the best location because it's very physically taxing on me to do yardwork anyway. So, even moving soil and compost 20 feet is terribly hard on me. Even though this location is not incredibly far away from the various places we are trying to plant, it still was too far away for me. What ended up happening was a series of life stuff and health stuff that resulted in those piles of soil, compost, sand, and branches just sitting there untouched under the large tree for a couple of years.

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Added to that was realizing shortly after moving here in 2014 that the large Silver Maple and wild Choke Cherry tree were growing virtually right underneath our electric line, needing cut multiple times now, as they were growing into the lines. Which brings me full circle to the previous comment about how when projects not done, over time, the design is likely to change. Sometimes you think of a better scenario to try. Other times you learn of obstacles you hadn't thought of.

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When those piles of garden soil, compost, and branches lay there for so long, we started talking about doing our strawberry patch in a hugel bed there. It was literally feet from both the compost and garden soil mix. There are also 3 bales of hay right there too, although they are not pictured. It would get good southern exposure sun. With the slope of the ground it would be able to have good water storage in the hugel bed, which would be important because it's too far away from our water faucets.

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Herein lies the problem...Because the massive trees are under the power lines they really need to come down entirely. Sure, we could have the power company keep trimming them every few years, but with the storms we get, we really don't want to have 50-60 mile an hour winds blowing those intertwined electric lines around when the branches thrash. So, the dilemna with this partially built hugel bed is that it will be right in the fall path of the huge 15 inch diameter branches of the Maple. We could plant the strawberries then dig them up, I suppose. I don't like doing more work than neccesary, though. Plus it takes me ages to get anything done, anyway, because...Life.

Anyway, I will still share with you so far what has been done with the bed so far. I am hoping when those trees get cut down (not sure when that will be. It will not be cheap) that they can minimize how much falls in that area. Nevertheless, here it is.

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There is a wild black raspberry patch growing under our vinyl fence. Likely curtousy of the resident birds dropping them. lol. Anyway, trying to weed around the brambles to find possible cuttings, there was really nicely wrotten branches that are perfect for hugel beds. These are the kinds of wood you want to absorb and hold onto water because they act like a sponge and keep the bed moist, like a nature made self wicking bed. I was happy to find this wood.

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After the wrotten logs were added, newly cut dormant logs from the apple tree prunings were added on top. You can see the leaves that were raked up around the perimeter. Those were added on top next.

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Late in the winter leaves were piled over the logs with a few scoops of sand randomly shoveled in. I thought, hey the sand pile is right there and it would be fun to toss a few shovels full over there. I don't know if it really needed it, but it got it. LOL. I forgot to snap a picture of the adding a layer of those branches then covering with hay, then topping off with the smalled of the branches. In the next picture you can see that, though.

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This is what the bed looks like currently. My hope is that the leaves and straw can start breaking down while we wait to get the tree cut down, before adding the compost and soil. That's the new plan, anyway. Once the tree is cut, the branches and leaves can be mulched and the remaining logs laid down to extend this hugel bed to a much larger extention of this bed. It will be a lot higher, as well. I'm expecting it to be somewhere around 4 to 6 feet tall and 8 to 10 feet wide. The blue area with pallets is the truckload of garden soil mix we had delivered. the area behind the straw and sticks is the compost pile. behind that is the wild black raspberry patch growing into the fence. The bushes that are still dormant are the Rose of Sharon flowering bushes.

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ALL IMAGES ARE COPYRIGHT 2018 BY ME, @phedizzle. Hope you enjoyed them!

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Here are previous posts of mine:

STORIES:

BAREFOOT IN THE BOONIES: EXPOSING MY ROOTS (introduction post)
BAREFOOT IN THE BOONIES: Chapter 1
BAREFOOT IN THE BOONIES: FAMILY OWNED: Chapter 1 Section 2
BAREFOOT IN THE BOONIES: ABANDONED BASEMENT: Chapter 1 Section 2

2011 GARDEN:

2011: DESIGN AND BUILD
2011 BACKYARD TRELLIS, PERIMETER, & VOLUNTEER
2011 TIRE PORTION OF THE GARDEN
2011 BRASSICAS-TIRE GARDEN
2011 DWARF ORCHARD

RECIPES:

SANTA DELIVERED SHROOMS-SHITAKE OYSTER SCRAMBLE
SWEET CINNAMON POPCORN
MOCK ALMOND JOY--CHEAPER AND HEALTHIER
HANGRY TERIYAKI
RASHES--WHY I SWITCHED TO THIS COMMON DIY LAUNDRY SOAP AND HOW I MAKE IT
SCRAMBLED EGGS WITH FORAGED FINDS: FIRST FOOD FORAGE OF 2018

POEMS:

WATCHING THE SPRING WAKE UP
SHE IS DYING
WEEPING WILLOW

PLANTS AND ANIMALS-EDUCATIONAL:

GRASS IS OUR FRIEND
LITTLE BLUESTEM--BENEFICIAL AND BEAUTIFUL
BEHOLD THE BEAUTY OF THE FALSE INDIGO BUSH

WALK ALONG WITH ME:

WALK ALONG WITH ME 1
WALK ALONG WITH ME 2--WINTER 2017/2018

2018:

WILD TURKEY TAIL AND REISHI MUSHROOMS

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That's all for now. Until the next post... If you found this post enjoyable, please consider upvoting, resteeming, following, and commenting! Thank you kindly for reading...

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(Created by @bembelmaniac)

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(Created by @soulturtle)

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So come say hello in the following Discord chat rooms:

#homesteadersonline: https://discord.gg/VKCrWsS
@qurator: https://discord.gg/pJtWp57M
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