Hugelkultur is a
term that very few Americans are familiar with. It is a strange, foreign-sounding word, a gardening method
that has been utilized for many years in Europe. This gardening method is very innovative, but also very natural
at the same time.
Hugelkultur is basically burying woody materials in soil, such as logs and
twigs, and then growing plants on top of that to create awesome and
productive garden beds.
We had an oak tree that was trimmed last fall in our
backyard, and so I was excited to put those logs to good use for my
garden. Extra logs sitting around…
garden waiting for awesomeness… “What an
excellent opportunity,” I thought to myself! Since my keyhole
bed garden was newly established last year and it didn’t produce as much as
I would have liked yet, I decided to just convert it into a hugelkultur keyhole
raised bed garden.
How It Works
The woody materials in a hugelkultur bed soak up water
like a sponge and then the wood also enriches the garden bed as it breaks down. This dramatically reduces the need for
watering and fertilizing your garden.
Hugelkultur is yet another way to “compost in place” (straw
bale gardening is another method of doing this as well, which I have
written about in the past) and to create productive gardens with reduced work. From what I have read, once a
hugelkultur bed is established, you should not need to water it very often, and
it remains productive for many years!
You can dig a ditch where your garden bed will be and
then cover your woody materials with the soil from the digging process, if you
desire more of a traditional flat garden bed look. The second method is to place the woody
materials directly on top of the ground and cover the wood with soil that you
have brought in from elsewhere, and you will end up with a mound-shaped garden
bed. You can also place
woody materials into the bottom of a traditional raised bed (such as those
built out of wood), and cover the rest of the raised bed with soil for the same
effect.
The advantage of building the bed above ground using the
mound style is that you increase the surface area of growing space: instead of
just growing along the ground as in a flat garden bed, you can grow on the
sides as well as the top, to utilize garden space more efficiently. The disadvantage of the mound style
hugelkultur bed is that it definitely has a more non-traditional garden bed
look to it, which some people and neighborhoods do not prefer. Since I am ultimately in favor of
sustainable food production over aesthetics, I prefer the mound style and that
is what I chose when building my own bed.
I also had no desire to dig a big ditch either, so this method seemed at
least a little bit easier to me. I
have tried to “beautify” the bed a bit by placing fencing around it and a single
layer of bricks around the base.
My next door neighbor still seems skeptical, however…
There is debate among hugelkultur enthusiasts concerning
whether or not burying wood in your garden bed utilizes a great deal of
nitrogen and takes it from growing plants since the wood is a large source of
carbon. Therefore, you would
need to add some nitrogen-rich materials like composted manure back to
compensate and bring the soil back into balance. Others claim that it will not draw that much nitrogen out
the soil, especially if you use woody materials that have had a chance to rot
for awhile.
Being new to the entire hugelkultur growing method and
taking the middle ground of the nitrogen debate, I decided to add some compost,
potting soil that contained some organic fertilizer (which does contain some
nitrogen), and some spent coffee grounds (thanks to my local neighborhood
coffee shop!) on top of the purchased topsoil that I covered the logs with.
Please note that not all types of wood are amenable to
hugelkultur. Some tree species prevent other plants from growing, such as Black Walnut, and others contain resins
that my resist breaking down such as many coniferous trees. I would recommend doing some research
to determine whether the wood that you would like to use will work. The tree that was trimmed in my yard is
an oak tree, which is useful for hugelkultur, so that is what I used.
Some Examples
To get a better idea of what hugelkultur is all about, here
is a great video that was produced by Paul Wheaton, one of the Big Kahunas of
permaculture. The video discusses
what hugelkultur is and shows a number of real examples of how it works:
For comparison of bed styles, here is a video produced by
someone who used the hugelkultur technique in traditional raised beds:
And, here is a video that shows one person’s experience with
establishing hugelkultur beds, and the productivity that resulted from them
within the first growing season:
Making My Own Bed
(With Help)
Admittedly, I couldn’t have built my hugelkultur bed by
myself. Most of the logs were just
way too heavy for me to lift myself,
so I was grateful when my husband and my brother-in-law agreed to help place
them in the keyhole bed. Then, my
husband and I bought many, many bags of topsoil from one our local garden
centers, brought them home, and added them on top of the logs. Believe me, if you ever decide to build
a huguelkultur bed, this is not a
one-person job! Get help… Bribe
friends, neighbors, relatives, etc. with produce from your garden if you must,
but I repeat, do not do this one by
yourself!
Then, once all of the logs and twigs were covered with soil,
compost, and coffee grounds as much as I could, I planted quite a few
transplants. Due to all of the
growing space available in the mound, I even ran out of transplants, so I also
planted some seeds. I have read
that it is important to plant plants and seeds as soon as you can once you
build your hugelkultur bed so that you can give your plants a head start in
establishing themselves before weeds have a chance to establish first. Some people even recommend placing a
layer of straw (not hay- hay has seeds!) directly on top of the hugelkultur bed
to cover the soil in order to help control weeds and help to hold the soil in
place if you have a vertical hugelkultur mound. Unfortunately, I did not have any straw, and money was
limited, so I did not do this, but it would probably be a good idea if you can
manage it for your own hugelkultur bed.
My Hugelkultur
Feedback So Far
Watering:
I have watered the bed several times once things were planted last week,
and it has also rained for several days since. I am hoping that I will not have to water it much from now
on, but I will be monitoring it to see how things go.
Plant Survival:
A few of the very small transplants have not survived since planting
them, but they may not have survived anyway no matter where I had planted
them. Fortunately, I have planted
many different plants and generally a few of each plant between my main garden
area, my herb spiral, and this new hugelkultur bed, so I’m not terribly worried
about a couple of plants that don’t make it. Usually plenty of other things make it in my garden even if
a few things don’t! My four
zucchini plants are holding strong, however! I will probably have lots of zucchini to give away.
Soil erosion:
The bed has experience a little bit of the soil moving downward
vertically since there is not much to hold it in place yet until the plants
take root. If I had the
opportunity to place straw on the bed prior to planting, I would do that next
time. Mulch and/or brush prior to
planting would also have probably decreased this effect so I will keep that in
mind for next year if it is needed.
Ants: My
yard does have quite a bit of ant activity going on (including Carpenter Ants),
and so I will be closely monitoring the bed for ants. I did find one spot within two days of planting in the bed
where there must have been a nest of small ants. Not sure what to do, I looked up natural ant killers, and
found this
solution that uses borax (note the cautions listed in the article, however).
I put this on the area where
the ants were, and within a day there was no more evidence of the ants
there. I will keep monitoring to
see if any more ants appear in the mound.
I cannot give advice regarding termites and hugelkultur beds, so I
recommend doing your research first, and if you have a problem with termites,
you may need to try a different gardening method.
I am hoping that my new hugelkultur bed will be
super-productive. Only time will
tell, but it should be fun to see how things go. Hugelkultur beds are supposed to become more productive as
the wood continues to break down with each passing season.
Building the Bed in
Pictures…
My keyhole bed garden from last year that I used to create my new hugelkultur garden bed. |
Covering the wood with soil… |