Hügelkultur Raised Beds

[Molpet]

A few years ago I went to a gardening meeting. An older lady, master gardener, told us to plant more than we need and to plant a variety of different crops. Some years one type of plant will grow better than others, and the next year it might be the opposite. You lose some goods to varmints, others to weather. So, just be thankful for what you get and try again the next year with lessons learned from this year.

old adage was:
one for the rock
one for the crow
one to die
and one to grow

I usually plant 4x what I need and hopefully get enough.

 

[Sally PB]

old adage was:
one for the rock
one for the crow
one to die
and one to grow

From one of the Laura Ingalls books, from Pa:

"One for the gopher
Two for the gopher
Three for the gopher
Four don't go far."

Or something like that.

 

[gtaus]

This isn't due to the [sandy] soil, I'm fairly sure. I've grown tomatoes down there (it's downhill from the house) for many years, and gotten LOADS of cherry tomatoes from huge plants.

I'm certainly no soil expert. It was my experience that my tomatoes (and other plants) started off well in the sandy soil, but just never produced much fruit in the end. Maybe some varieties of tomatoes do better than others in sandy soil?

I never got good results from my tomato plants until I switched over to raised beds with better soil, and then later hügelkultur raised beds which stored water much better than a normal raised bed. Now, I mix the topsoil with chicken run compost 1:1 for that top 6-8 inch layer, adding new chicken run compost every year. That is really working well for me.

 

[fuzzi]

From one of the Laura Ingalls books, from Pa:

"One for the gopher
Two for the gopher
Three for the gopher
Four don't go far."

Or something like that.

I think that ditty was from By the Shores of Silver Lake. I've re-read the later books many times, love the characters.

 

[Sally PB]

adding new chicken run compost every year

Chicken compost has DEFINITELY improved my garden! Total game changer for me.

I have a big(ish) pile of compost that is nearly done. Lots of garden waste, kitchen waste, and loads of chicken poop from the daily scooping off the poop board.

This is going on beds as they're emptied and around the asparagus plants. I'll haul some up the hill to put under the grape vines.

I *might* get grapes next year. I just planted them in spring of '23. The grew, a bit, last year. This year they're past the top of the fence, which is 6 feet tall. They look very happy.

Another plant that looks happy? My black raspberries! I should put in some kind of trellis to support the canes so that they aren't on the ground. They'll get a good bunch of chicken compost too.

 

[gtaus]

I have a big(ish) pile of compost that is nearly done. Lots of garden waste, kitchen waste, and loads of chicken poop from the daily scooping off the poop board.

I converted my entire chicken run into a chicken run composting system. All my leaves, grass clippings, weeds from the garden, etc... get tossed into the chicken run for composting. All our kitchen scraps and leftovers get tossed into the chicken run where the chickens eat most everything but what they don't, like maybe the outer peel of a banana or watermelon, will quickly get mixed with everything else and compost down in little time.

Instead of a poop board, I use dry deep bedding in the coop. For the past 2+ years, that has been shredded paper which I make at home from our paper products. All that shredded paper gets cleaned out and removed twice a year and dumped into the chicken run to compost. I like the paper shreds better than the wood chips I used to have for coop litter because the paper shreds compost down in only a few months out in the run.

I have more black gold compost than I can use. Every year, I harvest hundreds of dollars of compost for my raised beds. I used to buy my compost in bags at the big box stores, but I always found bits of metal, plastic, glass, etc... in the store-bought compost. At least I know my chicken run compost is 100% natural and trash free. It really is great for my plants.

 

[akroberts1085]

I'm working on getting some metal raised beds for the garden next year. I have some wood for using the hugelkulture method but I need to get a LOT more. I'm going to try and get the leaves raked up this fall and save them for the garden. I'm also going to go down the road to the neighbors house and raid they're eucalyptus tree debris bc I know that stuff works like a charm in the garden. My husband got me a small rototiller and I told him I want to till the entire garden and fence it, even the top, and hopefully that way I will have enough corn for my family. So far I have 2 raised metal beds. I have the bathtub and toilet that came out of our bathroom when we remodeled it so I will use the tub for onions and garlic and just put flowers in the toilet. This year has been awful for gardeners. The 3 weeks of triple digits was insane but I am getting cherry tomatoes and crookneck squash. I hope we all get better results next year.

 

[gtaus]

I'm working on getting some metal raised beds for the garden next year. I have some wood for using the hugelkulture method but I need to get a LOT more. I'm going to try and get the leaves raked up this fall and save them for the garden. I'm also going to go down the road to the neighbors house and raid they're eucalyptus tree debris bc I know that stuff works like a charm in the garden.

I kind of evolved into hügelkultur raised beds over a number of years. But I really became a believer in the hügelkultur method one summer when we had a drought. The only plants that survived that year were my plants in the hügelkultur raised beds. All my in-ground and "normal" raised bed plants just dried up and died.

I might have gotten only about 60% of my normal harvest that drought year from the hügelkultur raised beds, but I got nothing at all from my other raised beds and in-ground gardening. IMHO, that wood acting like a giant water sponge made all the difference in the world.

I have a few raised beds that have galvanized steel side panels attached to a wooden frame. They are holding up well. Currently, I am making all 4X4 foot pallet wood raised beds. It costs me less than $2.00 to build my pallet wood raised beds using new screws and nails. I hope to get maybe 5 years out of them before they need replacement.

This year has been awful for gardeners. The 3 weeks of triple digits was insane but I am getting cherry tomatoes and crookneck squash. I hope we all get better results next year.

Sorry to hear that. Our weather has been good this year, but I got hit hard by varmints in my gardens. I built a number of chicken wire cages around some of my raised beds. I plan to have a protective cage for every raised bed next year.

I just picked my first 2 cherry tomatoes yesterday for my dinner salad. It is so nice eating what I grow. Things in my garden are just starting to get ready to be picked.

 

[DuckLady]

I just harvested all my onions and they are drying for winter. Tomato plants are loaded but not ripening quickly. I have bacon and sourdough bread in the freezer ready for BLTs. Oh, except my cherry tomato. It's taken over like "The Thing That Ate The Bronx". I have to burrow into it to get in the garden bed. Yesterday I learned I can trim it back and I'll probably do that today. The cherry tomatoes are really sweet and I was eating them as I was pulling onions. I've gotten a few lemon cukes and yellow crooknecks with lots more coming on and I hope the frost holds off til October.

 

[gtaus]

Tomato plants are loaded but not ripening quickly. I have bacon and sourdough bread in the freezer ready for BLTs.

I, too, have lots of green tomatoes, but not as many ripe tomatoes as I would expect this time of year. Still, have been picking a few ripe tomatoes every day.

One thing I like to make when I have excess tomatoes is what my father used to call "poor man's pizza." It's simply toasted bread, some Miracle Whip, sliced tomatoes, cheese, and some garlic powder sprinkled on top - all cooked in the oven until the cheese is melted to taste. I like it when the cheese turns golden, almost a light brown. Makes a great late-night snack.

I use my little toaster oven and can cook up 2 slices of "pizza" at one time. Makes a great snack for me.

If you really want to add some meat for the flavor, you can get that sliced pepperoni and put a few slices on each "pizza" slice. Sometimes I do that, but mostly I just make them meat free.

And, you can't go wrong with BLT's this time of year if you have lots of tomatoes. I hope to have my share of BLT's this year as the tomatoes come in. That sourdough bread sounds great. I will have to learn how to make it.