hugelkultur - gardening without irrigation

[paul wheaton]

This is a short video from a workshop two weeks ago. The general idea is that if you build your raised bed with a lot of wood in it, you should be able to go the whole summer without irrigating or fertilizing.

http://www.youtube.com/paulwheaton12#p/u/0/sp_IObIkInQ

 

[patandchickens]

I have some tomato-growing book in which a guy in Florida (note: point being, very sandy soil) apparently has great success burying big ol' logs a few feet deep under his tomato beds. They have to be replaced every so many years but apparently they do very well at providing a water-retentive 'sponge' down there for the tomato roots.

I don't have to do tricky things to avoid irrigating though. I am on clay in a low-ish spot. I pretty much don't water anything all summer, except newly transplanted woody plants get a bit in dry spells. If we are having a real drought I might give the beans and tomatoes water a couple times per month.

So, everybody move into a clay mosquito-swamp and you can conserve water! LOL


Pat

 

[Farmfresh]

After watching the video I would be more inclined to dig a pit, add the logs and then top it off to make the bed shorter and more easily accessible. I guess that would work as well.

Also a question - If you used primarily a nitrogen HOT filler like un-composted manure and bedding instead of basic soil, how would that effect the nitrogen lowering aspect of the wood in that first year? Say for example, what if you were to build the bed in the late summer or fall for use the following year to allow time for SOME of the manure to compost slightly?

Also you mention no conifers. How about oak which is full of tannic acid or walnut which produces juglone? How would they effect the bed?

 

[paul wheaton]

hugelkultur in florida: it is gonna decompose about five to twenty times faster in florida than in montana.

hugelkultur in a pit: Yes, that is how it is more frequently done. However, with the bed being so tall, there are a lot of other perks such as a longer growing season as the growies are lifted out of the pooling cold frosted air.

hot compost: most growies won't be able to tolerate that. I think you are on the right path for mitigation - but I would just go with some supplemental fertilizer the first year.

oak and walnut: similar problems. They can be used if they are sufficiently rotted already. Although i would be especially nervous about the black walnut - it is possible that the juglans is excreted only from the living tree, but I would want to research it a bit.

 

[paul wheaton]

A friend saw the video from two days ago and emailed me to say that he
made something like that ten years ago. And here is a video of his
ten year old hugelkultur bed:

http://www.youtube.com/paulwheaton12#p/u/0/lWaEEdB6GZM