Huglekultur

[Jewell]

I was left with a problem area when we removed three large filberts. The stumps would be difficult to remove and this new sunlit area was going to be my new veggie area.

What a mess with some of the wood too big/long for the stove without a lot of extra work. Here I was trying the smother method on the stumps that still wanted to sprout. I had read depriving the stump from sunlight would help keep it from sending up suckers. It does work, but you still have to be vigilant and pull any out if they come up. I have had trouble keeping the stumps covered deeply enough.

I stumbled across Huglekultur on a blog that I follow. Mine is modified to be self contained because of a sloping lot and limited space. Also I just needed some definition to this mess.

Here it is shortly after its initial creation. Lumpy, bumpy and needing time for the pile to settle of which I didn't give it.

Here is how it is looking today.

The Huglekultur is permaculture at its best. The microclimates created within the berm are interesting to observe. I planted tomatoes on the south side. There are squash, cucumbers, mustard greens, wheat grass, chard, cabbage and kale making for a pretty chaotic covering. The wood base will start decomposing and providing moisture retention and nutrients for plants in the future. This year I fertilized (I usually only mulch) because the initial impact would be nitrogen depletion from the wood breaking down.

There is a lot online about Huglekultur. The only thing about not giving the pile a winter to settle is that I did have some significant holes develop. This attracted a few critters which cause me to do the stomp dance on the pile on two occasions. (Ground yellow jackets and a young rat that the dog quickly dispatched). The bumble bee nests I didn't disturb.

The holes created by settling needed to be filled in, but fortunately I was leveling a small area and had the soil. This I think is a great use of the materials I had and I get a pretty good sized veggie bed for the space I had.

I am collecting logs and tree trimming for a second Huglekultur I'll make in the fall. It will also put all of my garden cleanup materials right back into the garden.

 

[Chuck]

Looks like a lot better way to utilize the stumps than drilling holes in them and filling up the holes with salt peter to quicken the decomposing process

 

[Jewell]

I did that last summer. The Huglekultur gave me much more of the quick results I wanted.

 

[Chuck]

I did that last summer. The Huglekultur gave me much more of the quick results I wanted.

And a lot better than drilling holes and filling them up with diesel fuel and burning them out

 

[Jewell]

And a lot better than drilling holes and filling them up with diesel fuel and burning them out

Totally illegal where I live.

 

[Chuck]

Totally illegal where I live.

What I can see from the pics is that the stumps and log sections are soft woods, woods that deterioate rapidly anyway. If it were white oak, hickory, yellow cedar, cypress or juniper or any other hardwood or semi-hardwood, it would take years to decompose by just covering it up with dirt Is there anything else that you do to speed up the decomposition process. If I am on the wrong track here I appologise. It looks like a great medium for some gardeners but for many of us I don't think it will work. Please let us know the hows and whys of it all and the types of tree stumps involved. If there is something that will speed up getting rid of stumps I would dearly love to know, because here in Texas we have more stumps than dogs have fleas

 

[Pat]

Beautiful job. I read the article posted here about Huglekultur gardening and found it to be very information. It was the first time I had heard of this process, it uses the land and trees along with gardening waste to help sustain the new garden rather than throwing all of the limbs and leafs into the trash. I was very impressed, it opened my eyes to ways we could be using the land in a more natural way. We have tree limbs falling all the time in our yard, I would like to take all of those limbs that are thrown away and start a very small Huglekultur area, I would have better soil and healther plants.

 

[Jewell]

What I can see from the pics is that the stumps and log sections are soft woods, woods that deterioate rapidly anyway. If it were white oak, hickory, yellow cedar, cypress or juniper or any other hardwood or semi-hardwood, it would take years to decompose by just covering it up with dirt Is there anything else that you do to speed up the decomposition process. If I am on the wrong track here I appologise. It looks like a great medium for some gardeners but for many of us I don't think it will work. Please let us know the hows and whys of it all and the types of tree stumps involved. If there is something that will speed up getting rid of stumps I would dearly love to know, because here in Texas we have more stumps than dogs have fleas

Chuck, you should put some of those stumps to the test and see if you can make a garden out of them. Here is one of your fellow Texans telling about his hugel http://allthingsplants.com/ideas/view/dave/41/Building-a-Hugelkultur-Raised-Bed/

Here is a beginners intro to Hugelkultur. It helped me with my limited understanding of the process. http://www.richsoil.com/hugelkultur/. It has a good video too.

For myself and my small gardening area I have noticed that with the vertical sides I get more growing area out of the same square footage. With permaculture you are finding plant combinations that work well together. My perennial garden is based on this and it will be fun to take this practice into my veggie garden. Notice the photo is only one side of the bed. Same amount of growing space on opposite side with a different microclimate


This method is being used a lot in my region. My neighborhood community garden has made all of their edible forest on hugel beds and are creating more large raised bed areas using the method. Theirs are significantly larger than my little one.

Sorry, I keep spelling Hugelkultur incorrectly.

Thanks Pat. I really like the process. I think you would like the results too.

 

[Rhondi]

I like this. I have a lot of branches - LARGE branches- in my backyard. This will definitely be a part of my gardening in the not to far away future. Thanks for the pictures as well; that really helps! I will be reading your links and doing further research on this method and hopefully have some pictures to share as well.

 

[Cassie K]

I love the Huglekultur techniques. It is an example of no-till gardening. Very good use of free resources you may have lying around as well.

 

[Raff_Out_Loud]

This is awesome! I love finding techniques I've never seen before. Definitely something else to try when I finally have a house!

 

[Trellum]

Awesome! What a wonderful idea to use a tree stump! Very eco friendly Kudos to you! I never thought of using a tree stump this way, but if I ever face a similar situation I'll surely try the same. It's a wonderful idea

 

[Cassie K]

I have started some Hugelkultur beds, which you can see in this video: Practicing Hugelkultur methods

 

[Pat]

I like the idea of using the limbs and branchs that fall from the trees in the Hugelkultur beds. Do you plan to add some leaves to that pile also now that they are falling off the trees the leaves can be an easy source for your compost.

 

[TheElephantsCafe]

Your yard turned out beautifully! This seems like a great idea, we have a portion of our yard where the surrounding trees always drop leaves and branches, as well as a tree that we found out died and we had no idea what to do with all of the wood. I may have to try this.