Oregon Newcomer

[Roxanne Falkenstein]

It took a week to make my way back, Thank You all for your warm welcomes. I live in a little town called Cave Junction ..an odd mix of soggy frozen fog to roasting hot in the summer!
Being that we are dirty with wood in this region, I have begun using a soil building method called hugelkultur (mound cultures) to create naturalized plantings.

I have an old blog entry outlining the process and there are other well written articles. I'm not trying to promote my blog here right when I first meet ya'll .. so here is the other article https://richsoil.com/hugelkultur/ I personally recommend them for creating perennial self watering hedges with height (more privacy) There are also dozens of good youtube videos too. The main thing is to use the right wood or rather just avoid the wood types known not to rot..

Cedars, Redwood types, Madrone, are not the very best choices because they are known not to rot and have properties that are unhealthy to plant growth. That said they can be used in small amounts or around edges of pile as a border if desired.

USE; Soft woods ..Cottonwood, Apple, Pear, Alder, Maple, Oak. Yes..Pine, and yes despite what you might read or see Fir and Pine types tho acid at the start are okay if dead for a few years. Some choose it to plant acid loving bushes like blueberry.

Quality Hardwoods are valuable for other uses like building furniture or firewood but if too remote to make good use of, they will slowly break down..
Dead brambles, Wild roses, Trees or bushes that root easily from cuttings like willow should be dried out completely before being buried unless you are trying to make a willow fence! I have heard it suggested to burn willow or other questionable wood down to bio-char if you are in a rush.

Anyway gotta get busy making a gingerbread creation for our New Years Eve Gingerbread Burn. A yearly ritual where we bake unique structures, have them judged and then we burn them all down at MidNight
It's as nutty as it sounds

 

[sumi]

Great info, thank you for sharing! I actually started a discussion on hugelculture here a few months ago: Anybody used hugelkulture? share thoughts, please I'm curious about the method.

Now, I'm curious about this New Years Eve Gingerbread Burn? That sounds interesting and fun And nuts, yes.. lol Please tell us more?

 

[milkmansdaughter]

Very interesting article. I'll be following your posts. Please DO feel free to promote your own blog. I've got tree branches down in my yard almost every day, and this is a great way to use them. Thanks for posting!

 

[milkmansdaughter]

Ps, is that a gourd in your avatar picture??

 

[milkmansdaughter]

We started a hugelculture pile today because we were clearing our property line and pruning our grapevines. My son, incidentally, just got back from Germany. I'm so glad I read this. We're planning on adding several to our property.

 

[baymule]

We had a lot of dead fall trees, so I built a few hugel beds. What seems to work best for me is low or flat beds. Our soil is sand, so anything that holds moisture is a win-win.

 

[Chic Rustler]

I want to try hugelkulture one day. Lord knows I have plenty of brush around.

 

[CrealCritter]

Welcome from the heartland of southern IL. Another gardener - YES!

 

[milkmansdaughter]

@Chic Rustler, yes, us too! It seems like we're always picking up branches, clearing brush, or pruning something, so instead of burning it all this time, we piled it.
@baymule, in that area, we have the opposite problem, it gets too wet. We have great soil but one whole section that gets standing water even with drainage ditches. That whole area is covered with clover. I'm hoping putting the HC pile where we did will reroute the water to the left and away from that yard. We have pecan trees that can be kind of fussy. They don't like ash from burning or too wet or too dry or too much competition for sun...
I'm totally ok with the grapevines rerooting up out of the hugelculture pile. The other two grapevine trellises are to the right of that bed.

 

[baymule]

I built a high hugel bed as touted on the permies site. It is hard to keep the dirt on it, and it is hard to take care of something that I have to crawl up on the thing in order to reach anything. The whole thing grew up in weeds and I let the sheep have at it. I'm letting it rot down for a fertile spot. I have a load of wood chip mulch next to it that I'll recover the mound with. Going to spread manure all over it too. I'll try planting on it again this spring.

I dug a trench and half buried a bunch of logs, that seemed to work a lot better. I planted asparagus next to them.

Note; if piling up for a hugel bed, build it in layers. Place a layer of wood, then cover with soil or manure or compost. If you pile up all the wood and then try to cover it, you will have a LOT of air pockets.