Quote:
Originally Posted by lifelongMOgal
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.
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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.