Has anyone else tried hugelkulture?

[daddykirbs]

I love the concept of this. We'll see if it produces!

 

[ChickenCanoe]

It takes forever but I do it. It's great for old wood, limbs and logs that would otherwise rot in place, go into the trash or be burned.
I've been doing it for a couple years since I always have an excess of that stuff.
I've considered innoculating the pile with some mushroom spawn.

 

[daddykirbs]

It takes forever but I do it. It's great for old wood, limbs and logs that would otherwise rot in place, go into the trash or be burned.
I've been doing it for a couple years since I always have an excess of that stuff.
I've considered innoculating the pile with some mushroom spawn.

What types of things do you plant on them?

 

[yinepu]

Not quite hugelkulture... but the closest we came to it was piles and piles of chipped wood mulch from the electric company. For most of one summer they used our front yard as a dumping ground while they were clearing out around the power lines in our area. Every week or sometimes several times a week we would get dump truck loads of chipped wood for free (still had the green leaves on it and chopped up into it)
they would just dump it into piles.. the chickens would scratch through a bit.. but we didn't do much else with it as we waited for it to compost.

During the winter you could see steam rising from the piles of shredded wood.. later on as we dug through it we also found the rotted remains of large chunks of wood much like you show in your video.

 

[daddykirbs]

I wish i could get piles of mulch dumped on my property! There is a farm nearby that gets it and I go get it, but it would be much easier for them to bring it to me

 

[Kilsharion]

I wish i could get piles of mulch dumped on my property! There is a farm nearby that gets it and I go get it, but it would be much easier for them to bring it to me

We have so many trees on our property that we are having to cut down, and we have so little top soil...this just made the most sense for us. We're doing a mix up, though - kinda a blend between keyhole gardens and hugulekulture.

 

[yinepu]

I wish i could get piles of mulch dumped on my property! There is a farm nearby that gets it and I go get it, but it would be much easier for them to bring it to me

I just called the electric company and asked who was in charge of clearing out around the power lines.. they transferred my call and I gave them my address and directions of how to get here.

The hardest part was getting them to stop coming by! I tried to tell one of the drivers that we had enough.. but his english wasn't any better than my spanish. so i ended up calling around until I got their supervisor.. lol.. otherwise they would have kept bringing it!...

 

[Kilsharion]

I just called the electric company and asked who was in charge of clearing out around the power lines.. they transferred my call and I gave them my address and directions of how to get here.

The hardest part was getting them to stop coming by! I tried to tell one of the drivers that we had enough.. but his english wasn't any better than my spanish. so i ended up calling around until I got their supervisor.. lol.. otherwise they would have kept bringing it!...

You can also call around to various tree services. A lot of times they will dump on your lot if they are working in your area. It saves them time and gas to dump out where they are rather than going to their dump site and coming back. My son actually put me on to that (he's an arborist), and it works pretty well. Between the utilities and the tree services, you can get pretty lucky.

 

[yinepu]

Quote:
well.. since they are putting in the bypass I had no problem at all getting a bunch.. but hey.. who calls a tree service when everyone out here owns a chainsaw!

 

[daddykirbs]

wow, lots of great suggestions! I'm gonna have to give it a try