Welcome to City-Data.com Forum!
U.S. CitiesCity-Data Forum Index
Go Back   City-Data Forum > General Forums > Self-Sufficiency and Preparedness
 [Register]
Please register to participate in our discussions with 2 million other members - it's free and quick! Some forums can only be seen by registered members. After you create your account, you'll be able to customize options and access all our 15,000 new posts/day with fewer ads.
View detailed profile (Advanced) or search
site with Google Custom Search

Search Forums  (Advanced)
 
Old 04-01-2012, 08:40 PM
 
Location: SC
9,101 posts, read 16,406,522 times
Reputation: 3619

Advertisements

This weekend, following the description in GAIA's GARDEN I made a raised hugelkultur garden. The book made it sound like it was a great way to get a jump start on planting a lot of things as its design heats up the soil from the wood and compost breaking down and spurs growth of whatever is planted there.

raised garden beds: hugelkultur instead of irrigation

It looks like according to the diagram above, I may have put my sod on incorrectly. However, I thought grass was the "enemy". I put the grass side facing down and mostly laid it on top of the wood.

I also noticed that I should have moved the whole garden 4 ft farther south east as I missed the full sun area by that much. Where it is now, it is in the shade between 2 and 3:30 (unless I call the arborist back to do more tree work.) It does get the AM sun; early PM and late PM sun though. (I hope that is enough.)
Reply With Quote Quick reply to this message

 
Old 04-02-2012, 10:34 AM
 
Location: Beautiful Florida !
222 posts, read 499,433 times
Reputation: 231
Thanks for the info. I have an area in my backyard with a sunken hole & also have lots of trees I just cut.. I will be using ficus trees & will let you know how it works ..
Reply With Quote Quick reply to this message
 
Old 04-02-2012, 12:28 PM
 
29,981 posts, read 42,812,931 times
Reputation: 12828
Until the wood breaks down plant nitrogen rich cover crops. As I understand it the decomposition process drinks up the nitrogen from the soil. The real payoff is supposed to be the deeper roots of plants and ability of the hugelkultur beds to retain moisture in the long run.

Jack Spirko from the survival podcast/forum and Paul Wheaton from the Permies website/forum have good information on hugelkulture.

Let us know how it works out for both of you and PHOTOS please.
Reply With Quote Quick reply to this message
 
Old 04-02-2012, 08:18 PM
 
Location: SC
9,101 posts, read 16,406,522 times
Reputation: 3619
Quote:
Originally Posted by lifelongMOgal View Post
Until the wood breaks down plant nitrogen rich cover crops. As I understand it the decomposition process drinks up the nitrogen from the soil. The real payoff is supposed to be the deeper roots of plants and ability of the hugelkultur beds to retain moisture in the long run.

Jack Spirko from the survival podcast/forum and Paul Wheaton from the Permies website/forum have good information on hugelkulture.

Let us know how it works out for both of you and PHOTOS please.
Yes. I've heard a number of Paul's podcasts and have gleaned a lot from permies.com. They even dissected Gaia's Garden chapter by chapter and compared it with the first edition in one of his podcasts.

I also planted several blueberry bushes in a Pine tree guild on the south side of a half dozen really tall pine trees in the back of the yard where they will get nearly constant sun and the soil is acid (which blueberries are supposed to like). I dreamed up a netting system using 7 ft lengths of quarter round molding for tall stakes stuck in the dirt about 8 inches and draped pieces of bird netting over them and tied the netting pieces together. The end result from a distance looks like a cross between a geodesic dome and a quonsett hut. I plan to plant strawberries in there and other edibles to complement the berries. It is already very hugelkulturish there as I had to dig away about 15 inches of pine needles and misc rotted wood and leaves to find soil. I'm keeping my fingers crossed they will do well.

I found there were some earthworms at the soil level but I also evidently may have dug into a mole hole and dug up four baby moles that were about 2 inches long each. At first I thought they might be slugs but then I noticed they didn't have antennae. I looked on-line to find pictures and hoped I'd find they were voles which each plant roots. No such luck though. I think they were moles who could have helped eat bad bugs and also aerate the soil. I set them aside until I could determine what they were but without the environment they needed, they died in a matter of hours. What a bummer it was killing four newborn moles like that. If I'd known, I would have put them back in the damp soil where they might have had a chance.
Reply With Quote Quick reply to this message
Please register to post and access all features of our very popular forum. It is free and quick. Over $68,000 in prizes has already been given out to active posters on our forum. Additional giveaways are planned.

Detailed information about all U.S. cities, counties, and zip codes on our site: City-data.com.


Reply
Please update this thread with any new information or opinions. This open thread is still read by thousands of people, so we encourage all additional points of view.

Quick Reply
Message:


Over $104,000 in prizes was already given out to active posters on our forum and additional giveaways are planned!

Go Back   City-Data Forum > General Forums > Self-Sufficiency and Preparedness
Similar Threads

All times are GMT -6.

© 2005-2024, Advameg, Inc. · Please obey Forum Rules · Terms of Use and Privacy Policy · Bug Bounty

City-Data.com - Contact Us - Archive 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16, 17, 18, 19, 20, 21, 22, 23, 24, 25, 26, 27, 28, 29, 30, 31, 32, 33, 34, 35, 36, 37 - Top