Tag: Hugelkultur Raised Beds

The New Garden: Getting Closer To Being Done
Gardening · Homesteading · Urban Homesteading

The New Garden: Getting Closer To Being Done

Sarah

In parts one and two, I wrote about building the new garden. Part 3 was about creating a Hugelkultur Raised Bed style. In April, I also discussed my planning.

The real work waited: moving in the soil and filling the beds. The truth is, I had to do a fence before this; had we not had one up, it would have been far faster. But that is the price one pays for having some of the first beds planted and growing, and keeping deer out.

Peas and Bok Choy.

Middle of September. The first beds were filled, and three of the beds were being used to grow food.

14 cubic yards delivered from Maryland, just across the river from us. A rich blend of mushroom compost garden bed soil. It is from a Mennonite-run nursery.

Slowly, the beds are being filled, one Gorilla cart load at a time.

There were good rains this week, which helped the soil settle into the branches below, and showed us which beds needed more soil.

We also pulled all the 5-gallon grow bags out of storage and filled them. They will be ready in the spring to start planting. But also as a backup for soil. I don’t want to leave the soil leftover, sitting out on the lawn, where it will go to waste. Better to fill up bags and have them ready to use.

When I bought this raised bed kit on sale for just $100, I didn’t think about its size. I almost didn’t have enough room, but then we tried it out in front of the gate – and it fit in nicely, and still allowed access to the other beds. The trellis is quite high. But it is bolted to the bed frames for durability. It wasn’t too hard to put together overall. Our youngest son has built all 16 beds.

These are deeper than the other beds. So we added plenty of wood.

And on the other side. Better to do this and let it slowly develop into rich soil.

As the work winds down.

Side angle view. The final beds need soil added.

If you are wondering why I chose raised beds for this new garden, there are a few reasons.

One, we have groundhogs here, and I don’t need them digging up the ground.

Two, I am not getting any younger. It’s okay to want to do less actual work. Build once, top off the soil every year or two. Don’t deal with tons of yearly work.

Three, I appreciate the lower maintenance and ease of gardening, which allows me to continue my other hobbies, such as camping and hiking. I don’t have to till the land over and over, nor spend days weeding with a hoe when it is 80* out.

Four: We have numerous rock seams on our land. It is more work to figure out where to put everything and deal with the seams that are hidden under a thin layer of topsoil. It is also farther away from the house.

But the biggest reason is planting density. It uses less water and produces good crops using square foot gardening.

~Sarah

Building Hugelkultur Raised Beds
Gardening · Homesteading

Building Hugelkultur Raised Beds

Sarah

Hugelkultur Raised Beds: it’s the fancy German word that plays into permaculture. When Kirk and I took a class on permaculture last year, I planned to incorporate the practice into rebuilding parts of our homestead gardens. Then I hurt my arm and sat out the summer. Then…we moved.

As spring turned into summer, and I started building my raised bed garden, adding many more raised beds, I knew I needed to think it over more deeply. Soil isn’t cheap.

For example. I finally found great bed soil locally, from a Mennonite Nursery across the river, in Maryland.

The soil is $4.99 a bag – it;s heavy in weight, and I would guess is a cubic foot bag each. Price wise that is good compared to the “garden soils” sold at big box stores.

It is a blend of screened topsoil, leaf matter, and mushroom compost. It smells good, not how often “garden soil” smells (usually heavy in animal matter).

It’s on the right, next to the other garden soil. It is a fine soil.

I filled the first two raised beds with bagged soil so I could build a herb bed and one for strawberries. For the third bed, I needed to do it quickly, so I added a thick layer of chipped wood and dried leaves. Then piled in the soil.

The clumps are mushroom compost. The bed was done, but I definitely had to spend far too much to get it ready. An 8 ft by 4 ft by 1 ft bed will take over one cubic yard of soil. This soil by the yard is $58. It’s worth it, though.

It will become the raspberry bed next year on both sides. For the fall, I transplanted a dual-crop red variety that I had been growing. They don’t require caning. Next spring I will add more red and also golden dual crop.

For now, I planted a couple of rows of Patio Pride Peas, which are bush, so they will grow fast. I will transplant my lettuce starts in a week or two.

With so many beds to prepare for next year and so many trees to trim, I put that to work. Save money and have healthy soil.

We trimmed all the branches we cut down (the trees here hadn’t been pruned in many years, and some were in terrible shape). It’s work we can do in the shade and isn’t physically taxing, just tiring from using loppers constantly. We used our chipper to process many branches, but the minor items that the chipper doesn’t like often get jammed.

Haul them to the beds and spread out.

I am filling the beds to the top with the cut branches and leaves. Then I will place the trimmed logs on top to compress them. With rain, the wood matter will break down over the fall and winter seasons. I will also be adding lawn trimmings on top.

Once we have the beds filled and fully prepared, I will purchase the garden mix soil to add to the top, allowing the wood to break down more effectively.

So, as always, it’s a work in progress.I will talk about it more in the coming months.

Now then, is it true Hugelkultur? Not quite. But that is the best part of gardening…You can do what works for YOU. My beds won’t be mounded up and high. They will be in pretty, standardized-sized raised beds. They will look just like they were filled with 100% ready-to-use soil. But I will have a vested interest in it. I oddly took that away from our Permaculture class. Use the principles and make it work for you. Perhaps that isn’t exactly what was being taught, but then my mind has always worked a bit differently.

~Sarah