I have very little tree logs/branches. I have 32 inch raised beds.... Wood chip mulch and low quality soil is about the same price, which should I use? I also don't have much green leaves or yard scraps, but I do have food scraps from veggies and fruits. Would that be okay?
I have very little tree logs/branches. I have 32 inch raised beds.... Wood chip mulch and low quality soil is about the same price, which should I use? I also don't have much green leaves or yard scraps, but I do have food scraps from veggies and fruits. Would that be okay?
I’m in the process of building a very large bed and was wondering if anyone has ever used aquatic vegetation?
Hi Hugelfolk,
We laid our hugelbed last fall with poplar logs and leaves and grass clippings. Have peas and blueberries in and am planting beans as the soil warms.
It’s been may fly season here and the first wave just died off. It was a calm day so I went to the lakeshore and collected 20 gallons of dead flies and spread over the garden. I’m hoping for lots of calcium and protein for greens and legumes.
Anyone else have favourite seasonal fertilizers?
Thoughts on adding grass as a layer after logs and sticks?
The fall before last I tried an experimental lite version of a hugelkultur mound with dried in ground bolted lettuce stalks for the base. I got a pile of worm castings so fine and rich I couldn't grow in it but it helped my other beds when added. Last fall I decided to do a similar thing but in a trench dug out in my path, and instead of mostly dry fall leaves inside, I added Rumex Acetosella (sheep's sorrel, as it chemically weathers clay) as well as broccoli stalks, spent coffee grounds, some chopped up banana peels here and there etc. I included the pumpkin seeds so I could see when the worms had finished their work, and in zone 7a pumpkin seedlings showed up in early April. I did this in my path so it is mostly for a worm casting rich addition to two new beds, but this could be used for a new bed as the pumpkin seedlings showed. Hope it's allowed, I'm new, but here is a short I made to document what I did. Sorry the last pic was after a very bad hail storm.
I'll go first.
One of my hugel beds is simply much too wide. Reaching the center is impossible without stepping onto the hugel, and so the weeds congregate in the middle.
What would you do differently?
Hello. We put in a bunch of new raised beds in our garden this year. They are very tall so we did the layering method with the logs at the bottom to take up some space. I just realized the logs we used are black locus tree logs. They are at least 3 years old as they were cut down and left on the property by the previous owner. It's my understanding that black locus can be toxic if ingested (bark, seeds ect.) Are these ok in my raised beds or do we have to remove them and start over. I've been seeing people say black locus is amazing for constructing raised beds but nothing really says if they are ok with bark on as filler in raised beds. Any advice would be appreciated.
We just cut down this pecan tree and were considering getting a wood chipper to create mulch and spread enough on the grass to smother it and create a place for a vegetable garden. Now I'm wondering if we could just put down a layer of all these smaller fresh branches without chipping them, then cover with wood chips from the free city service and compost and dirt to get a garden going. I'm in northern CA, so the weather will be hot and dry for the foreseeable future.
Can I use weeds in the green layer or, only grass clippings?
They are usually considered too toxic to compost, will this be safe for a Hugelkultur bed with veggies in year 1, actually more like immediately?
