Surviving the New Millenium: Hugelkultur

Hugelkultur growing beds are a type of raised bed gardening that conserve water, maximize growing space and are excellent ways to contour your permaculture landscape.

We put our first Hugelkultur bed in this year. A large portion of our soil is poor quality and with poor drainage. There are steep grade changes, which make it difficult to farm in a conventional way.

Steps for beds:

1. Dig out the area your are going to grow. The level you dig to depends on how high your finished bed will be and how long you want the bed to last. We chose a depth of two feet with a finished height of 3 feet giving us a 5 foot bed that will last about 15 years.

2. Place large logs in the base of the bed. Green logs or rotted logs will work. If you use green logs, you must add additional nitrogen in the form of leaf mulch, grass clippings, etc. because the green logs will absorb a large amount of nitrogen and water from the soil the first year. The logs will begin to release these nutrients and moisture back into the bed after the first year.

3. Top the large logs with smaller branches to fill in gaps. Here is the fun part. Log stomping. Have the kids stomp the twigs and logs to compact them as much as possible. Really take out any aggression you have on these things. Your bed will thank you for it.

4. Add your layer of green clippings at 2-3 inches. If you dug out sod at the beginning, replace it on this layer with the grass side facing down.

5. Add your soil in a 4-6 inch layer. The darker the better.

6. Finish with a top layer of compost. At this point your bed is ready to plant.