hugelkultur - the ultimate raised garden beds

http://richsoil.com/hugelkultur/
http://permies.com

Hugelkultur is raised garden beds that reduce or eliminate the need for irrigation and fertilizer.

This video shows the why and how of this type of raised garden bed. Hugelkultur can be built by hand or with machinery; urban lots or large acreage farms;

The focal point of this video is a project in Dayton, Montana where Sepp Holzer installed nearly a kilometer of hugelkultur beds in early May of 2012. Then the video shows the results in mid September.

Michael Billington is currently the land manager there. He explains how the beds have not been irrigated and goes into some detail of the qualities of the food from the different aspects of the hugelkultur: the north side tends to be sweeter and the south side tends to have more bite (lettuces tend to be more bitter and mustards tend to be hotter).




Special appearances by Christy Nieto from Bellingham, Washington (see her smaller berm / raised garden bed in the background - she reduced, but did not eliminate irrigation); Melanie and Brad Knight from Sage Mountain Homestead in Corvallis, Montana (building hugelkultur with a bobcat); Sepp Holzer adding branch mulch plus throwing seed; Jessica "Jessi" Peterson showing the mulching technique.

The recipie is: wood and brush covered with soil; immediately plant seeds; a bit of mulch helps.

Because the sides of the raised garden beds are usually steep, adding mulch is done by pinning the mulch to the sides with branches shaped like pegs (referred to as nails in the video) that hold on branches that hold on the mulch.

Once the hugelkultur beds get to be about three years old, the plant growth will be about five times greater. This is just the first year and the wood has not yet rotted much.

Hugelkultur also extends the growing season. Areas that have 90 frost free days can now have 150 frost free days!

Notice how ALL of these feature polyculture. Polyculture is one of many ingredients which help to reduce the need for irrigation.

The end of the video features the attendees of the 14 day intensive permaculture design course offered in Dayton, Montana in April of 2012.

Relevant:
http://www.permies.com/t/17/permacult...
http://www.permies.com/t/15981/permac...
http://www.permies.com/t/12206/permac...
http://www.permies.com/t/15068/plants...
http://www.permies.com/t/12649/bugs/T...
http://www.permies.com/t/16366/permac...
http://www.permies.com/t/16405/permac...

music by Jimmy Pardo http://permies.com/t/6301#62570

• Category

  Science & Technology

[Talal Aladwani]

Would this work in a desert?

[paulwheaton12]

This has been done, with great success, in many deserts.

[Andy Sprinkle]

Paul, do you need to replant the annuals each year or count on them reseeding themselves?

[paulwheaton12]

I think the answer is "it depends." Suppose we travel two years into the future. We see that a lot of things have reseeded themselves, but we have too many tomatoes and not enough squash.  So I might discourage tomatoes and plant some squash seeds.

[Dave Robbie]

It seems like a ton of work for something that won't last and you need heavy equipment to build it. I am still sold on the "Back to Eden" method by Paul Gautschi with ground up tree limb wood chips as mulch. Keep applying layers for a few years then the soil building goes on autopilot getting better each year indefinitely. It has worked out for me .

[paulwheaton12]

Yeah, chipping wood is zero work. And those people moving things around by hand, I guess you would call those people "heavy equipment".

[paulwheaton12]

It would seem you have a lot yet to learn about edge and polyculture.

[pinkwoolsocks]

Confused by purpose of these. What are they used for, who owns land, and can you grow food on them. Also, does diseased rotting bark, spread disease, fugus & insects, to new plant growth?

[Janes F.]

you americans need the letter "Ü"

[kantwinnada]

Archeologists of the future are going to wonder what the hell these are for.lol

[Pesadelo Silva]

Like this you can barricade your farm hehe.

Very interesting design of nature around.

Congrats

[1spicytomato]

every year we take up the **yard waste** and make new mounds all the leaves sticks and branches in a pile and then compost from same and some new soil then garden in it easier than the new garden i put in this year more for eye pleasing of the neighbors than function really but, gotta do what ya gotta do back yard is all mounds and it grows good food

[Dave Robbie]

Paul - Yes, you are right. Thanks for the reply.