Hügelkultur Raised Beds

[akroberts1085]

Not sure that is a great idea. People use logs because they aren't treated with nasty chemicals. Avoid any painted or chemically treated wood.

None of the scraps are painted stained or covered in chemicals. I wouldn't think of using such yuck in the garden.

 

[gtaus]

None of the scraps are painted stained or covered in chemicals. I wouldn't think of using such yuck in the garden.

Yeah, I make lots of stuff with pallet wood and/or salvaged lumber. You just have to use a bit of common sense to not use wood that looks or smells like it is contaminated. Wood from the interior of the house should normally be safe to use.

 

[SueT]

The video showed me how to move one of the pre-existing beds, which we will use elsewhere, and in its place went a larger one today.

First put in rotten branches then the soil from the old bed, then all the compost we’ve made over the summer and there were a few bags of soil we bought on sale, leaving room for more compost in the spring, which is cooking now. This will be the tomato bed as it’s next to a fence for them to climb on.

We’ve been growing lettuces in a smaller bed, and after we eat it all, this bed will be moved and used for strawberries next spring. I’ve decided not to grow lettuce all winter this year, I’m taking the winter off.

 

[gtaus]

The video showed me how to move one of the pre-existing beds, which we will use elsewhere, and in its place went a larger one today.

First put in rotten branches then the soil from the old bed, then all the compost we’ve made over the summer and there were a few bags of soil we bought on sale, leaving room for more compost in the spring, which is cooking now. This will be the tomato bed as it’s next to a fence for them to climb on.

That's a good second use for that fence, turning into a tomato trellis! I can't tell by the picture how wide your new raised bed is going to be, but can you reach all the way back to the fence? I can easily reach 2 feet into a raised bed and stretch out to about 3 feet if I had to, but I could not extend out to a full 4 feet.

 

[SueT]

That's a good second use for that fence, turning into a tomato trellis! I can't tell by the picture how wide your new raised bed is going to be, but can you reach all the way back to the fence? I can easily reach 2 feet into a raised bed and stretch out to about 3 feet if I had to, but I could not extend out to a full 4 feet.

That bed is just 2’ wide X 6’ long, and 17” high. And we can pick tomatoes from outside the fence as well. The fence is around the whole garden area to keep armadillos and rabbits out.

 

[SueT]

I would have not put in near as much old branches had I not seen that video this morning, nor did I know how to move the old beds, so thanks, it really helped.

 

[perkolator]

Those are some nice pallet wood raised beds!

Hope you don't mind my contribution on the subject, but I've got some Hugel raised beds too! After I built my coop, I made some raised beds out of the leftover odd sized roof panels I was using. Had heard about and decided to try out Hugelkulture, but had never seen it in practice before, so I pretty much just went for it.

Only 2/3 beds got lots of wood chunks in the bottom before I ran out (fresh logs and well-aged logs). They all got a lot several wheelbarrows of decomposed cedar tree trunk wood and then a few wheelbarrows smaller sticks and leaves from around the property - filled them to maybe 3/4 full because I knew it would drop. On top of that I added homemade compost, commercial compost and raised bed mix from the local landscape supply, and some bagged soils on the very top where the plants would be - it was a lot of material to move to the top of our hill!

Sadly the two full-on Hugel beds didn't perform as well for the first couple years, but now they seem to be doing fine. It seemed as if the plants had nutrient deficiency, my guess is there wasn't enough soil as a buffer to the woody material and it pulled nitrogen as it decomposed. There were many pockets/holes from soil dropping into spaces down below, in the two beds that got logs. I've since added lots of compost and amendments every year, which probably has helped a lot for all of them.

Here’s my raised beds: They're 24" corrugated roof panels, screwed to PVC pipe with stainless hardware, then staked into the ground with rebar. Underneath is 1/2" hardware cloth to keep the voles/moles out and layers of cardboard on top for weed suppression since I have lots of bermuda and johnson grass that want to overtake the garden area - what a PITA that stuff is!

Topped with lots of woody sticks, trimmings and leaves, rakings, etc:

Then topped with compost/soil/bagged soil:

They have ended up doing pretty well over time though, so it seems to be working!

As much as I like my Hugel beds, my inlaws garden performs better than any I've ever seen before. They're not Hugel beds, they have a landscape designer who built and maintains their beds -- the base is a mix of commercial made soil for cannabis growers and mushroom compost. He amends them regularly with more mushroom compost, mycorrhizae granules, and A LOT of this organic chicken-poop based granular fertilizer (Nutri-Rich). They also have non-potable irrigation water and are very generous with it.

 

[Sally PB]

I wish I'd heard about hugelkultur before I made my raised beds 6-7 (?) years ago. The beds are just mounded soil, which I top off with compost and mulch. They do well.

I have thought about digging out the paths between them. I could dig deep trenches, hugel-ize them (my made up word), and then turn the mounded beds over onto the trenches. Three of the nine raised beds now have perennials planted in them, so I wouldn't be able to redo those.

I used the hugelkulter idea in a different part of my garden. I have a large flat area for the "sprawling stuff" like squash and sweet potatoes. I dug 9 trenches there and filled them in with wood and sticks.

I got a fantastic crop of sweet potatoes! I was beyond happy, I was thrilled. I planted regular potatoes in between the trenches, and they did well. I had a short row of beans that did very well.

 

[gtaus]

Hope you don't mind my contribution on the subject, but I've got some Hugel raised beds too! After I built my coop, I made some raised beds out of the leftover odd sized roof panels I was using.

I am encouraging people to share their experiences with hügelkultur beds. I have learned a few things over the years, but I am always open to other ideas and suggestions. Every year, I feel like a first year gardener because there is always so much more to learn.

Sadly the two full-on Hugel beds didn't perform as well for the first couple years, but now they seem to be doing fine. It seemed as if the plants had nutrient deficiency, my guess is there wasn't enough soil as a buffer to the woody material and it pulled nitrogen as it decomposed. There were many pockets/holes from soil dropping into spaces down below, in the two beds that got logs. I've since added lots of compost and amendments every year, which probably has helped a lot for all of them.

In theory, the hügelkultur beds should get better each year. As the wood rots, it retains more moisture, and the decaying wood feeds the soil at the same time.

As mentioned in the YouTube video initially posted, he made a mistake in not filling in all those voids between the logs. From what I understand, if a root hits an air pocket, it stops growing in that direction. That probably makes for a weaker plant above. I fill the gaps between the logs with wood chips I get for free at our local county landfill. But anything that fills those gaps would be better than nothing. Eventually, the soil will collapse into the voids over time, but that will also lead to excessive soil level dropping above. My goal is to maintain a 1-2 inch drop in soil level each year which I backfill with my chicken run compost.

My raised beds are 16-inches high. I have the top 6-8 inches of the bed filled with a high-quality topsoil and chicken run compost mixed 1:1. That seems to work great for me as the plants I grow only need a good 6 inches of topsoil. I don't grow root plants in my hügelkultur beds.

As much as I like my Hugel beds, my inlaws garden performs better than any I've ever seen before. They're not Hugel beds, they have a landscape designer who built and maintains their beds -- the base is a mix of commercial made soil for cannabis growers and mushroom compost. He amends them regularly with more mushroom compost, mycorrhizae granules, and A LOT of this organic chicken-poop based granular fertilizer (Nutri-Rich). They also have non-potable irrigation water and are very generous with it.

As much as I like my hügelkultur raised beds, I don't think I could pretend to compete with a professional who is constantly feeding and watering their plants, even if in-ground or a "normal" non-hügelkultur raised bed.

But I am just saying that my hügelkultur raised beds makes me a much better gardener for my skill level. Although I am not opposed to other people using fertilizers and such for their plants, I am trying to keep my gardening as natural and low maintenance as possible. I put fresh compost in the raised beds in the spring when I put in the plants or seeds, but don't feed the bed anymore the rest of the growing season.

I should probably add some more fresh compost mid-season, but I'm still learning. At any rate, my plants this year produced more fruit than we could keep up with.

Although I have been singing the praises of how well the hügelkultur wood retains water, I have been moving my gardening to my backyard the past 2 years (after we had a drought summer that killed almost everything in my main garden). Now, I have a garden hose from the house that I can use to water my raised beds as often as I want. The wood in the hügelkultur raised beds still performs its duty of retaining water and releasing it to the plants. The plants never get stressed out from lack of water, or overwatering.

 

[gtaus]

Three of the nine raised beds now have perennials planted in them, so I wouldn't be able to redo those.

I have heard that hügelkultur beds are not great for perennials. Because of the rotting wood, the soil level will drop 1-2 inches per year. For some perennials, that would be a disaster. I watched a video of a lady who planted rhubarb in a hügelkultur bed, but it was a failure because the soil level dropped every year, and she could not cover the crowns of the plants without killing them. She advised only to plant annual plants in a hügelkultur bed because of the expected, and desired, drop in soil level each year. With annuals, you just top off the raised bed before planting. She could not do that with her rhubarb and after a few years the soil level had sunk down so far that she had to dig out everything and restart them in a bed that would drop down in soil level.

I only plant annuals in my hügelkultur raised beds. In fact, I don't have any perennials planted anywhere. So, I really don't have any personal experience with them in hügelkultur beds or in-ground gardens.

Would love to hear if anyone plants perennials in their hügelkultur beds and if they are successful or not.