Hügelkultur Raised Beds

[gtaus]

They have a cabin in Wisconsin woods that they put food out for the bears deliberately.

 

[Liz Birdlover]

Enjoying the cheerful sunflowers. Corn is about ready


Still no rain...hot days, cool nights, still watering

 

[gtaus]

Enjoying the cheerful sunflowers. Corn is about ready

Thanks for the pictures. My gardens are pretty much all done for the year. I'm spending more time pulling out dead plants and prepping the beds for next year this past week. Still getting some beans this late in the year. But not much else.

 

[Liz Birdlover]

Oops I meant to post this in the other gardening thread, sorry

 

[gtaus]

Oops I meant to post this in the other gardening thread, sorry

It's all good. I still enjoyed the pictures.

 

[Land of Lincoln]

I’m so glad I found this thread. I’m about to put up some raised beds myself and have been contemplating using wood in the bottom of them or not. I’ve been watching videos and posts on the subject and it’s hard to decide what to do because of all the information out there. However, I have a couple acres of land here with plenty of trees so there’s always a supply of various forms of wood.

Haven’t been on this site in a while but I do visit occasionally since I do have some chickens and a passion for gardening so it’s a natural place for me to visit.

I’ve enjoyed reading this thread and it’s convinced me to go ahead and give the logs a try. I’ve got plenty to use up and will be installing 4 good sized raised beds soon. Who knows, I may even come back and post the progress. I do enjoy seeing the pictures and the results of everyone’s efforts.

The pictures of the sunflowers are very pretty and always seem to make me smile. I grew sunflowers for the first time this year and enjoyed them a lot. Planted them outside the coop and run for the girls to give them a little shade.

Have a great day!

 

[gtaus]

Who knows, I may even come back and post the progress. I do enjoy seeing the pictures and the results of everyone’s efforts.

We hope you have the time to come back and post some pictures of your garden beds. It's always good to hear from people that are putting these hügelkultur methods to work for them. All my raised garden beds use the hügelkultur method since I got turned on to the concept a number of years ago. It just works better for me.

 

[DuckLady]

I got my new beds last week and have assembled the 2 round ones and one oblong. I have the oblong bed ready to plant the garlic I ordered to be here next month. We had a couple nights of frost last weekend, so the season is starting to wind down. I covered the tomatoes, but I will be picking the rest next week and removing the plants. I lost my squash and cucumber in the first frost, even though they were covered. However, the first frost was late this year, so no complaints.

The beds have rolled edges, so they aren't sharp (referring to a previous discussion here) and I am very happy with the results of the one I had for this season. So Many Tomatoes! It's 8 x 4 x 2. I have a good thick layer of logs, then a layer of poopy straw from the ducks and geese, then a layer of good mix of lake bottom peat and screened soil and topped with organic raised bed mix. The one I have ready for the garlic is 6 x 3 x 1 and it has a layer of smaller logs, well, branches, I trimmed last Spring and then filled with organic raised bed mix. I'll do the same with the other three next spring when I decide what I want to plant.

It's been a good growing year.

 

[Land of Lincoln]

I was wondering if any of you have noticed an increase or decrease in your harvests using this method. I’ve searched online for results but am having difficulties finding much.

The 4 I just got are fairly big, 4x8x2 feet high so they’ll each take a lot of material to fill but I have plenty on hand and then some so I’m not concerned with that. I got the higher beds because of increasing age and difficulties with the back so I’m hoping these will makes things a lot easier for me.

I have a huge fenced in area that I’m putting these in as I had started a few years ago with the back to Eden method. I’ve went through 10 truckloads of woodchips and it does work but also requires a lot of tending to keep because of its sheer size. 50 feet wide by 175 feet long, it’s a large area. I had to fence it all in because of the deer population. They kept destroying my young fruit trees so I put up the fence.

Anyway, I was just wondering about results of this method. I’ve been gardening in ground and while the production has been okay, I know it could be much better so I’m hopeful this method is the answer. I have prescribed to taking the best care of my soil that I can because that’s really what produces results.

 

[gtaus]

It's been a good growing year.

I really had a good growing year, too. I had lots of tomato plants that were full of fruit that were growing tall and healthy. Our favorite is the Roma tomato. I planted about 20 Roma plants and they really were coming in great. Dozens and dozens of green tomatoes getting close to harvest.

Then, one morning, I went outside to take care of the chickens and noticed that a herd of deer ate all my tomatoes in one night!

I was heartbroken. Since then, I have been making chicken wire deer-proof protective cages out of pallet wood frames to protect the raised beds and the plants. Next year, the deer will have to go somewhere else for a free buffet.

But until then, I was having a great year gardening.