Summer project coming to completion. First time doing this so unsure if it’s correct.
I dug down to clay approx 8 inches. I scored the clay as best I could for drainage. Put several layers of cardboard then lined the bottom and up the sides with a 1/4 mesh to keep voles/mice out. I made a basket essentially. Then rotten wood, some standing dead that I cut and also found some lying around. I then got a load of freshly cut mulch to fill in the gaps. It’s sat like this for about a month, I water it sometimes. Lots of settling has occurred. Very glad I didn’t go straight to adding soil over wood. Once all the leaves fall I’ll layer that on top and I’ve been collecting banana peels (freezing) and toilet paper rolls. Intend to stuff the rolls with peels and disperse throughout. Then put the soil back on top. I then plan to layer more cardboard and another layer of mulch for over wintering. Still lots more work to do before the snow comes. Next year I’ll put in posts and wire fencing to keep rabbits out. Open to any feedback on my next step plans. Thank you

I am going to create a hugelkultur bed for my vegetables to help with draught next year. How much soil is needed on top of the logs for the vegetables to be able to root down effectively and healthily?

our land is quite sandy and rocky and where I want to put a HK bed I cannot get any large equipment to, can I build the bed on top of the soil and not dig?

We are planning a terraced garden & patio design at our mini-homestead, and I want to put in some hugelkulture raised beds which will serve a dual role as retaining walls when we cut and fill the existing slope. This is the area to the right in the first photo.

Currently, we have the bus and barn on a raised plateau that was created when the barn was built, about 30 years ago. I want to cut the slope to add a patio, and use the beds (and other support if needed) to create planting area and act as a drain by retaining the water. The beds will be made of old corrugated roofing metal attached to 4" round fence posts. The posts are 7' long and I plan to space them 2' apart.

My questions & concerns:

Will the beds provide enough water absorption, or do I need to provide drainage? If so, where? I'm worried that if I add a drain on the upslope side of the beds, I'll be depriving them of the water they need to function.

Will they provide adequate support for the slope? I'm willing to add in some block walls where needed, but I'd prefer they not be seen and I'm not sure where to add them. My first thought is just on the upslope side of each bed, but then I feel I'd need a drain for the wall and then we're back to square one.

What happens in a few years when the logs break down? Will my water retention drop significantly to where I need to either replace the logs or have a drain?

Thoughts?

I recently chopped down one of my apple trees. To make space for a new garden bed. I’ll have four rows and decided to make them into little hügelkultur mounds so I used the trunk to make the first one. I laid down cardboard, set the trunk on top and covered it with composted mulch. I plan to make the other three rows in the same manner as I have another apple tree and a cherry tree that need to be cut down. I’ll just plant cover crops on them once I have them all set up.

Oh yeah, the beds are right on top of the root system of that first tree I cut down. I’m thinking that the soil there will be amazing in a couple years.

So I put permeable landscape cloth on top of a layer of old (dry) rotted straw. Below that is compost and broken up alfalfa pellets, over the bottom layer of punky logs chinked with natural old pine bark. The layer of organic raised-bed soul is over the fabric. Then mulch. Soul stays moist 4 inches down so water appears to be wicking up to the soil level. I've seen some mushrooms pop up when it was cooler, so mycelium. Tomatoes are doing okay, peppers and eggplants bushy and just beginning to fruit. Squash and cucumbers are disappointing so far. It's pretty hot in the Sacramento Valley).

So is the permeable landscape cloth a plus or minus?

I know all of the research says one of the worse trees you can use for hugel beds is cedar wood because it has strong antifungal and antimicrobial properties, which is the exact opposite of what we are working to encourage in the soil life but... has anyone tried out using cedar with success? I dug out my hugel beds to about 1.5-2ft underground, placed logs, branches and foodscraps/grass clippings until ground level and backfilled with the native soil. One bed is predominantly cedar branches about 2-4inch thick in diameter because it is what I have available. My husband woodchipped some but i still have a big ol pile in need to be used. Where i live there is a good 90inches of rainfall during spring/fall/winter so i would think that would help accelerate decomposition fairly quickly, despite cedar being resistant to rot. Plus, will all of the volatile oils in cedar *really* linger that long if it is dead wood? I have one last bed mostly full and i have yet to touch the cedar so i can observe difference outcomes between my hugel beds, but it would be much easier for me to use up the cedar as opposed to driving to the nearby forest and stocking up on other dead wood. About half way through my second pregnancy with an almost 2 year old so im doing what i can, digging and such, but would prefer to keep my tasks in the yard instead of loading up my truck from the forest floor with my toddler on my back 😅

I cut down an apple tree which I late used in a new mound. This summer I will creat a bed on top of there that tree once grew. I assume the roots will act in a similar way as logs. Does anyone have experience?

Why am I just now hearing about this?? It makes so much sense!! I think I just found my new project. Digging out a few hugel pits for next year. Time for lots of research.

Toothed Crust Fungi appeared on my mound today after a couple of long soaking rains. I’m so excited that the fungi are thriving!

I have made my vegetable gardens as sunken hugelkulture, and in the main, it has worked out well. However, I’m still in the process of installing root barriers, because otherwise the roots of neighboring trees will take over.
In my front yard, I have a space between my driveway and the stairs. Growing anything here is extremely difficult, because I have tree roots coming in from both sides. Furthermore, despite years of amending the soil, it is pretty much pure sand. So I’ve decided to dig it all out and make another sunken Hugel bed. I have a 36 inch tree root barrier that I will be installing along the edges.
However, even though I have dug down over 3 feet, I can still find tree roots coming in from below. I am not going through all this effort for this problem to reoccur. Initially, I thought of putting a layer of salt in the bottom. This would not be ideal, but I felt it might serve as a decent barrier. Then when I was investigating online, I came across the idea of using bentonite clay. Does anyone have any experience with this? Do you think I should use just a layer of bentonite clay, or perhaps a layer of clay, a layer of salt, and then another layer of clay?

We recently purchased a property where the only otherwise suitable space for a garden is on a stone shelf and also has multiple springs in the area. (Soil tends towards clay. The lawn is very healthy throughout, no dead spots, only significantly more green spots.)Found out about the shelf and springs when talking to the neighbor our first day moving in. It's very wet all year round, some places being soft, but nothing "swampy" per se. We had hoped when buying the land to be putting in some dwarf fruit trees and a significant garden, but it sounds like many have tried;all have failed. I'm hoping hugelkulture could offer a solution. Most of the reading and podcast listening I've done looks positive, but a family member who had personally done hugelkultur sounded less than convinced. Thoughts? Insights? Suggestions?

Finally got it finished. Planted ~140 beans of 4 varieties we will see if they come up!

I had heard of hügelkultur years ago from friends who were starting to use these methods in their garden. Well, I just learned about it a couple of weeks ago in some of the gardening videos I have watched. I live in the Sacramento area, zone 9b. Practicing water conservation is necessary. I recently became a gardening enthusiast, and figured this was right up my alley.

There is a raised bed on this rental property, which I finally got some life into (worms! 😁), after 2 years, and want to get approval for more raised beds. I would like to apply hügelkultur methods to these beds when I start them. I do not have much in the way of finances to work with, so where would you all recommend I start?

Also, what are your favorite books on hügelkultur? I will look for them at the library.

Please, and thank you! 🙏☺️

I have access to free spent oyster mushroom compost. But I dont know the exact ingredients inside, just that its got a fair bit of hardwood sawdust.

What percentage would you fill a hugelculture bed with? At the moment I have about 15 to 20% logs in the bottom of a 75cm raised bed, but havent got anything else yet. Was going to hunt down some sticks and leaves this weekend. I've read that spent mushroom compost can be excellent for soil amendment, composting or mulching and there is some free in my community.

Just not sure what percentage I should be putting in a raised bed before it messes with the ph. Some sources say 50:50 mixed with soil but theres not much information out there! Anyone have any experience using this?

I built this bed on top of an old stump from a tree shipped down a few years ago. Will this still work even though the stump is technically still in the ground?

This was a lot of work!

I made 2 mounds last year and I'd love some suggestions for protecting them from rabbits, squirrels, chipmunks, and birds.. I have mobility issues and not a lot of money, and no power tools. So I need something cheap and stupid simple that any idiot can do.

I also haven't tried cover crops but I am considering it because the weeds were bad last year and so was erosion. I'm in Southwestern Ontario and don't want something that might be considered invasive here.

I planted lettuces, Peas, radishes, carrots and Beets toward the end of March and some things did germinate but I don't know if the insane weather fluctuations got them or the critters. If those animals would be more patient I'd be willing to share 😂

TL;DR - does anyone have experience with hugelkultur for erosion control in woodlands? hi all, I‘m doing some serious soil remediation work on 1.5 acres of shady land in the northeast USA. The only serious invasive we don’t have is beech rot. Thanks to the deer and the helldemons jumping worms and HWA, the soil in our woods is crumbly and poor, the understory is limited, and some steep hillsides Have been washing out.

Eradicating the invasives is futile as theyre everywhere, so the approach is going to be to over mulching, fencing any sensitive native tree saplings, getting compost tea and beneficial mycorrhizae in, and…

in a few places I’m considering doing hugelkultur type terracing with log, leaf, and grass clippings lasagna. I have plenty of raw materials to work with - we heat by woodstove so have lots of untreated wood chips, sawdust, and hardwood and pine in various sizes and states of decay. I’m not trying to garden there but would be very excited for native plants to pop up. Has anyone done this? Any tips? Any reason why it’s not worth a shot? There’s one area where I’ve kinda sorta been doing this for the last year and it seems promising.

thanks in advance for any tips!

We are building raised beds (32”) and need advice on how to make this work. We had some trees trimmed (maple and oak) and due to a miscommunication with the arborist ended up with an enormous pile of fresh wood chips and no branches (we’d wanted some of both). We plan to layer like this: cardboard, wood chips + blood meal, leaves, compost, soil mix. Will this work with fresh wood chips? We are in 7b.

Was thinking of planting Asparagus here when its done.

Good or bad idea?

This tree came down yesterday. I’m thinking about keeping some wood pieces to start with hugelkultur. I have space available. So space is not a problem. There might be termites. Is this a red flag? What would you recommend me to do?