Hügelkultur Raised Beds

[gtaus]

My mother used to take kitchen scraps out to her garden and dig them in next to her plants.

That's a form of trench composting. Just dig a trench alongside your row of plants in the garden and the compost will break down and feed the plants. The next year, you plant in that trench from the previous year and start a new trench where the plants were grown last year.

I love that method of composting and used it a lot in years gone by. But now I have chickens, so they get all our kitchen scraps. I take the chicken manure and litter to make chicken run compost now. That works out even better for me as the chickens are eating some "free" food which helps cut down my feed costs, while at the same time giving the girls something else to eat. Variety in the diet is good. Chickens are omnivores.

 

[gtaus]

WV clay is much easier to work with but the rock is a nightmare.You have to dig the rocks out or go around them

I live on a lake, and we have poor quality sandy topsoil. I spent years trying to improve my native soil by adding all kinds of compost. I made it better, but it was still not great garden soil.

My gardening efforts really improved when I decided to build raised beds and fill them with high quality soil. Made a world of difference. I went from building soil to growing plants and getting food.

I'm at an age where I don't count on having years of time to improve my native soil. I think in more immediate pay back terms. Eventually I ended up making hügelkultur raised beds as my preferred method. If I were a much younger man, I suppose I would continue to try to improve my native soil but still use the raised beds which grow the food this year. I only use raised beds now. I pick and choose which battles I am willing to fight.

 

[gtaus]

Hey all! How’s your gardens going?

Just starting to sprout seeds for transplanting the end of May, mid-June for the peppers and other warm weather plants. I'll have a good 6-8 weeks of indoor starts, I hope. Love hearing how others are already working in their gardens.

 

[gtaus]

Do you think veggies would grow in a mix without actual “soil” per se? I guess I could try and see. Just wondering if any of you have experience growing in a soilless mix and what the results were.

I'm no expert, but I do know that some plants will grow fine in compost. I asked my local greenhouse "expert" a similar question and he told me that most plants do better in a soil/compost mixture. Each substance brings certain nutrients to the plants.

I did pose your specific question to MicroSoft CoPilot AI to see what it could find. The information following agrees with my experience. This might help...

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Yes, some vegetable plants can grow in 100% compost, but there are important considerations to keep in mind. Compost is nutrient-rich and provides excellent organic matter, but it lacks certain structural qualities of soil, such as stability and water retention. Here are some insights:

Vegetables That May Thrive in Pure Compost

1. Zucchini and Squash: These plants are known to grow well in compost heaps, often thriving in the nutrient-dense environment.
2. Pumpkins: Like zucchini, pumpkins can grow in compost piles and often produce large fruits.
3. Leafy Greens: Spinach, lettuce, and kale may do well in compost, as they require less root stability compared to larger plants.

Challenges of Growing in Pure Compost​

• Water Retention: Compost drains quickly and can dry out faster than soil, requiring frequent watering.
• Root Stability: Compost is lighter than soil and may not provide the necessary support for deep-rooted plants.
• Nutrient Balance: While compost is rich in nutrients, it may lack certain minerals essential for plant growth.

Tips for Success

• Consider mixing compost with other materials like sand or perlite to improve drainage and stability.
• Monitor moisture levels closely to prevent drying out.
• Use compost for short-term crops or plants that don’t require deep root systems.

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I hope that helps.

 

[gtaus]

Does anyone do hydroponics? My dad bought a couple small Spyder hydroponics/lights kits a couple years ago but didn't have much luck with them.

I would love to try hydroponics for growing food indoors in our long, cold, Minnesota winters. I have never done it. I think the people that are successful with hydroponics are part chemists. There is a lot of science behind growing plants successfully in water.

My mom and step-dad are trying hügelkultur this year! I'm excited to go over in the summer and see how everything is doing. Mom has some tomato plants started in little pots but she started them too early so they might just die before the weather gets warm enough to transplant them outside. We have lots of dead wood and leaves here that she can take for the beds. Got a log pile that's hardly been touched in over a decade so there's lots of nice, pulpy stuff.

Sounds like they have the start of some great material for hügelkultur raised beds. I have had great luck with my beds starting in year one, but each following year, with fresh compost top offs, my beds seem to get better as the hügelkultur wood rots out and feeds the roots of the plants. It's a system that works for me.

 

[Sally PB]

I'm making more "hugel holes" in my heavy soil garden this year. I dig a deep hole, put in some wood, cover that with a layer of last year's leaves, and bury it. The top few inches will be some compost.

The wood is a dry-rotted maple that came down last fall/winter. Hubby cut up the good wood above the dry rotted base, and the base is my hugel hole wood.

I'm going to make sure I water the wood well before I fill in the holes. That dry rotted wood will soak up water like a sponge.

 

[gtaus]

I'm making more "hugel holes" in my heavy soil garden this year. I dig a deep hole, put in some wood, cover that with a layer of last year's leaves, and bury it. The top few inches will be some compost.

It's great to hear so many other ways of using wood to improve our soil. Your "hugel holes" idea sounds like it might work great for some people, like me, that have really poor native soil.

 

[DuckLady]

I’m wanting to fill the beds with compost and composted chicken manure that’s sat for well over a year. Im not planning on buying any soil if I don’t have to. Would rather try to use what I have on hand and what I can make on my own.

Do you think veggies would grow in a mix without actual “soil” per se? I guess I could try and see. Just wondering if any of you have experience growing in a soilless mix and what the results were.

Before I knew what I was doing when we moved to a rural property ala Green Acres , I got a load of horse manure, dumped in in front of the house and planted bare root roses in it. They were the most beautiful roses I ever saw. The manure was pretty fresh.

 

[gtaus]

Before I knew what I was doing when we moved to a rural property ala Green Acres , I got a load of horse manure, dumped in in front of the house and planted bare root roses in it. They were the most beautiful roses I ever saw. The manure was pretty fresh.

I grew up in a small rural town. I can still smell (in my mind) the cows on the pasture up wind from us! I'm sure you had beautiful roses, but how long was it before you felt comfortable working in that fresh manure garden?

I talk a lot about my Black Gold chicken run compost. It's great stuff. But the chicken manure is only a small fraction of the chicken run compost made up mostly of leaves and grass clippings. My compost has a nice earthy smell to it, like a forest floor. Very nice and refreshing to my senses.

I don't know any of the farmer's around where we live now. But I have often thought that it would be great to get a load of cattle manure to toss into the chicken run. But I'd probably cover the fresh manure with lots of leaves to cover the smell. Dear Wife is a city girl. I don't know how much farm smell she could handle!

 

[TOMTE]

I grew up in a small rural town. I can still smell (in my mind) the cows on the pasture up wind from us! I'm sure you had beautiful roses, but how long was it before you felt comfortable working in that fresh manure garden?

I talk a lot about my Black Gold chicken run compost. It's great stuff. But the chicken manure is only a small fraction of the chicken run compost made up mostly of leaves and grass clippings. My compost has a nice earthy smell to it, like a forest floor. Very nice and refreshing to my senses.

I don't know any of the farmer's around where we live now. But I have often thought that it would be great to get a load of cattle manure to toss into the chicken run. But I'd probably cover the fresh manure with lots of leaves to cover the smell. Dear Wife is a city girl. I don't know how much farm smell she could handle!

I've never minded cow poop smell. Maybe it's because I grew up around it... And I used to play barefoot with my cousin and neighbor at the neighbor's dairy farm...

The people across the street from us have cows. They must keep everything pretty clean because I rarely smell cow poop. I wonder if they'd be willing to give us some manure for our garden, whenever we finally get around to it. But they're weird... One of them shot a rifle toward our property for target practice and didn't stop until my dad yelled across the field that we were getting ricochet in our yard. The same guy (I'm pretty sure) also burned rubber out of his driveway to race over and ask what I was doing when I stopped down by our mailbox to watch a pair of hawks flying over their field. So maybe I don't want to approach them. They might shoot me on sight or something