How To Hügelkultur AMAZING Grow Method For Raised Beds Vegetable Gardens - Organic & Cheap
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- Опубликовано: 30 сен 2024
- This is how I build a Hugelkultur raised bed vegetable garden or in other words mound culture/hill culture whereby soil is mounded over logs, sticks, and other organic materials to create a superior growing area for fruit and vegetables.
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Self Sufficient Me is based on our small 3-acre property/homestead in SE Queensland Australia about 45kms north of Brisbane - the climate is subtropical (similar to Florida). I started SSM in 2011 as a blog website project where I document and write about backyard food growing, self-sufficiency, and urban farming in general. I love sharing my foodie and DIY adventures online so come along with me and let's get into it! Cheers, Mark :)
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If you're in the USA and looking for a similar raised bed check out this one bit.ly/2zhUrHk Lots of people ask me where to buy something similar to the raised beds I often show in my videos, unfortunately, high sided raised garden beds are not as common in the USA as they are here in Oz but hopefully in the future there will be more options. If you know of other retailer/s in the USA who do stock high sided raised beds (about waist high and especially the rounds ones) no matter what they are made of please send me a message and let me know so I can share it with others. Cheers :)
I just sent a note to that same vendor with your video attached. They wanted to know why I wasn't purchasing beds as often as I used to do, and I told them about your metal, Hugelkultur beds. In comparing your height to those of the beds, they look to be about 1 meter high, and length/diameter varies. Will see what happens, and where this goes.
Another video channel (Answer Garden - she focuses more on flowers, landscape, decor..) also shared this link for Gardener's Supply Co and they sell metal raised beds, though they seem much smaller than yours. I know in the USA you can get large galvanized stock tanks for feeding and watering cattle and horses and such. You might need to drill holes or cut out the bottom for drainage, but they come in small to very large sizes and shapes. They are sold at the Tractor Supply Co stores, animal feed stores and I've seen them online at Amazon, search livestock equipment or livestock tanks, galvanized steel (they come in rubber too).
N. Smith. Correct, mine is a watering tank. I've sent notes to Gardeners Supply, as they asked why I wasn't buying their raised beds as often. I explained $500 for one of their beds is too expensive, and the need for deeper beds, and sent them one of Marks video. Let's see what happens.
Corrugated galvanized is easy to find here in the USA. But what about the corner pieces? What is that called?
i just built mine from scratch. I'm not about to pay someone 500 for 30.00 in materials
I appreciate the long distance shots while wearing a mic. It gives us perspective. Thank you!
James Kopecky totally agree super awesome.
Yeah those were really well made.
it was well done like it myself
A great video! Can you use freshly cut branches and logs? Thanks
Great comment
He's like the Bob Ross of gardening.
Check out Charles Dowding. Def the Bob Ross of RUclips gardening
Yes. This.
That is exactly how I explained it to my wife💜
i like this guy's videos but you compare him to someone like Bob Ross is a bold claim there Bob Ross was on a whole nother level
Today we are going to plant some vegetables? Why? Little vegetables need friends too. XD
I have a Self Sufficient Me videos addiction. There I admitted it
Don't worry, the only side effects are better gardening skills and greater joy in life.
Me too...don't be ashamed.
I caught the same bug
That and multiple aquascaping and hydroponics videos.
be careful 😁
My first hugel was accidental: a large old tree was cut down, but kept growing back from the stump, so I covered it in a mound of soil to prevent it growing back again. As the stump rotted under the soil, the hill became extremely fertile, with grass growing fast and green on it, much more so than the surrounding areas. I since learned about hugels, and made many hugel mounds on my property, which are long oval hills, not surrounded by metal or wood. I made them the proper way, as done in this video: large logs ends up to absorb water on the bottom, then branches, then sticks and leaves. Each year the hugels become more fertile, and hold more water - I see them as living entities full of life. There are many other permaculture techniques, but hugels are one of the best. Thank you for explaining it properly!
Grass grows fast and green on literally everything.
Basically preparing a forrest floor.
RIP great tree, you'll be missed
You could explain anything, and I would enjoy listening to it. 😂😘
Man this is amazing news. We cut down several trees in our back yard recently and they’re all just stacked up in the back. I have more garden bed filler than I’ll ever know what to do with. So now I can build some more beds without having to spend hundreds of dollars on bagged soil since I don’t have a truck to buy in bulk.
Hey Mark, your channel is pure gold. I'll be modeling my garden after a mixture of yours and "Epic Gardening." May even make a channel to showcase how it goes. You're definitely an inspiring beacon of light during these darker times. Thank you for existing.
I am actually from Germany and had to google "Hügelkultur". Yes it is a German word, but I found the term just on English websites. In Germany they say "Hügelbeet" (hill bed) to an unframed one and "Hochbeet" (high bed" to an framed one. I also saw a guy from Germany who build this with a frame made frome turf divot. :)
I was wondering about that. I speak good High German and some Bavarian German (Opa is from Kulmbach) and I half thought this word was swedish or something.
Maybe is just an older word if its an old practice words change by time.
I've been doing this for over 35 years with kitchen waste, fish carcasses, garden waste, leaves, twigs and small logs without even knowing it had a name. I just knew when I was a young boy how I would hunt for earthworms to fish with and I as I turned over logs that would lay on the ground for years in the swamps and forests that they break down and attract all kinds of beneficial worms, beetles, and larvae that feed the soil and in turn create its own composted soil. I love your videos Mark and learn many things from you. Thank you for that.
My favorite RUclips gardener
Hugelkulrtur has been a complete liberation for me. It stops me feeling guilty for being lazy; I can just chuck everything on a heap - cardboard, prunings, weeds, manure - whatever. No more dragging huge loads of grape prunings out to the bin, or having to go to the tip with tree prunings. Its the best concept ever for lazy gardeners. I feel respectable being able to give my rubbish heap a flash German name. By the way, I don't use a frame - I just build a mound.
credenza1 at that point you may aswell get a compost bin
Dylan Zrim nothing wrong with a compost mound/heap. Bins are fancy but heaps work just as well
GeminiStargazer They are heaps good 😃
@@MrJFoster1984 ta boom chshshhhhhh!
giggety goo Some one got it
When I see your videos, I LIKE first then watch. I'm a newbie and you are a great teacher. Many thanks, Mark. Oh, that smile is an instant mood lifter!
One additional tip. Throw some green, (grass, leaves, etc) in with the logs and sticks. It prevents a nitrogen drop as the wood starts to decompose.
Does it matter what kind of wood you put in? Looking at free wood on market place and not sure if it makes a difference if it's pine,gum or anything else
The soil here in Colorado is notoriously clay and really stubborn to grow in. We finally got my beds built at the house and this is what I did! So far I've noticed that the soil is staying wet longer and that the plants I have in there have been much more tolerable of the cold. It's the first year of trying with it and I'm already sold. My parents just built several of these beds in Texas and they are also shocked with the results. My brother in Arizona is starting to build these there too, so will report back with how those go!
Hi Mark, great Job :-) It's funny that there is only a German word for...and than even with a "ü" - I wonder how you found it on your keyboard :-)
I love to work with Hügelkultur-method - it realy works well.
On what material do your raised beds stand on - are these some kind of rubber mat?
Florian
Hi Florian! I had a hard time finding the "ü" that's for sure LOL The mats are around the raised bed (not under) and yes they are rubber made from recycled tyres and work well as a low maintenance pathway/cover for the internal area if our vegetable garden. Under the rubber mats is gravel/sand and then weed mat cloth and then the rubber mat on top. All the best! Cheers :)
Self Sufficient
Great presentation. I think the main difference between your raised beds (hochbeet) and hugelkultur is that hugelkulur provides you with twice the amount of growing space and different microclimates for different plants, which is great for polyculture gardening. It's a very intelligent design and if you are using differnet types of hardwood, it can increase your yields for many years and even decades. Keep up the great work.
logic is trendy =) good vid mate
+OFF GRID with DOUG & STACY hahaha yes it is! Thanks :)
i find that worms love nesting around rotting wood and other similar organic matter. the resulting worms and their waste is great for plants and soil health
It's okay Mark, I don't use terms that many uses in the gardening world such as hugelkultur, back to eden, permaculture, and blah. I do what works whether I learned from somewhere or from my folks or mix ideas to achieve an outcome that works. I have done them all and not knowing it is the same method that people are going crazy about. My style of madness is what you mentioned using what materials you have around you. I could never afford a lot of compost to fill huge beds. I have always filled it with sticks and branches, leaves and garden waste. Then, I top it with what soil or compost I can afford. it works.
Same
totally my way of doing things. use what you have and what works
I'm an addict. Three seconds in and Mark not only calms all anxiety but puts a smile on your face and positive anticipation of what he's up to in the video. I'm trying to find a therapist; they recommended Mark. :)
When I die I'd like my mouldering corpse to be used for Hügelkultur.
I agree or at least feed the zoo lions. Waste not, want not Ole Ben Franklin said.
Done
that is what I told my wife, I have Parkinson on SSDI she is older then me and in bad health as well. told her to bury me in the back yard in one of the garden beds, and continue to collect my Social Security as long as she can heck I worked for it my wife should get my full amount,, she is 61 if she can get it for 6 or 7 year without being caught she can then get her full social security amount or if she gets caught what are they going to to with a 68 year old woman? jail or probation
Please don't tell my wife that is my wish...she is an eager beaver and would like to get a head start....I am not dead yet!
They are actually trying to pass something in California so that they can use bodies of homeless, inmates, etc for fertilizer in commercial farming.
We filled 4 huge raised garden beds using the layer method (hugekulture) after watching your videos, but that the worst garden mistake we’d ever done. We have huge problem with rodents using the lower part of the bed (the broken logs, sticks layer) as rat motels, they dig under the bed to access that area and dig up to the top of the bed to have some sky view while eating their dinner. So warning to all beginner gardeners, research this method widely and use extra precautions to avoid building rat motels.
I will be burying logs and twigs and ferrets
@@josmond3504😂😂😂
Like you I made a Hugelkultur bed without realizing it. My husband works for a factory that has the machine parts shipped in huge crates. He brought home a couple and they are about 2' wide by 15' long and knee height. I knew filling them to the top with the compost mix I ordered would be expensive so I used the small branches and leaves that fell under a tree nearby to fill it halfway. I figured they would break down and contribute to the soil over time and saved me lots of money. So far my plants are doing well in those boxes.
A good way to save money and help the environment is to ask your employer or local factories for things they would normally trash such as these crates. I also get landscape fabrics for free because of small imperfections in the product. I am lucky to live in an area known for furniture and fabric so I dumpster dive for stuff all the time and score big. Just a couple days ago I got a brand new box of fabrics from a local factory. Each piece was 3 yards and perfect but they no longer carried that line. One of my favorite finds was a petrified log in a showroom dumpster that has a new home in my flower garden. When I worked retail resetting I would ask for the displays. My mother-in-law made two amazing quilts for me out of curtain panel displays. You can find free stuff nearly anywhere, you just have to have the guts to ask.
My partner brough me a few of these big crates and I did the same thing...lol.
I grew carrots, kale, ginger, turmeric, peppers, tomatoes, and other random things.
Some people don't like the idea of dumpster diving and what it could imply, but for sure, we can find lots of good things in / around / within arm's reach without actually going into a dumpster. It's just a term that may include going in, but it doesn't have to. Ultimately, though, it's a good way to find and get items that are still usable but someone else just didn't want it anymore.
One of my recent finds was that my friend and I found intact one of those kiddie basketball hoops that you fill with sand or water to keep it from tipping over, and now his brother and nephew are enjoying it at their home.
Just be careful about using wood. Use large pieces and avoid using small/chipped wood too much. It will decompose faster and could lead to overfertilization of the soil, which is not good for crops or you. Larger pieces rot slower and release nutrients at a better rate.
Thats the way it should be done
Victoria! 👍 I call it recombobulating! i’ve done alot of the same things. Free resources!
What happens after the heavy base materials complete break down.Does on start all over?
yeah, I imagine a lot of people do this by accident. The bottoms of raised beds are just a great place to get rid of big stuff that is too big for the compost heap.
Yeah so true! :)
Hi Mark! I hit the jackpot when I found this video. My son has literally just assembled one of the two 1 metre square raised beds which are a surprise birthday present for my 79th birthday. He appreciates my difficulty bending.
I searched for advise on how to fill it up frugally without buying lots of soil/compost.
Your way is the absolutely perfect solution. I can easily get the logs, wood chips, twigs, straw, homemade compost etc., before adding the soil or compost.
Thank you so much for the great tutorial on filling raised beds.
Nice to read your message. It is great that you love to garden. Hope you are fine. Thank you.
Some people add newspaper and cardboard as fillers
We did this as well, my husband works at a wood mill, and he filled the truck bed up with wood chips from the “chipper” we filled the garden bed up about 2/3 the way full added top soil and topped that ....I’m on my second year, and the tomato’s that were left in the bed from last year sprouted, i now have some 400 little tomato plants! But I thinned them out, anyway we did to this ....
Hi Mark - do you protect the base of your beds from eucalyptus roots? I'm in the aussie bush with eucalypts everywhere so I want to go raised bed - but I'm not sure if putting down concrete slabs first or something similar is the way to go. Also, can I fill with eucalyptus trunks and leaves or too allopathic?? Cheers
Thank you, thank you, thank you! You’re clear, precise, to the point without a lot of extra mumbo jumbo. 154 dislikes?! What’s wrong with people?
I wont go as far as disliking this video, but he does not have hill gardens here. He has flat, organic beds.
Pleased to hear you talking about hugelkulture!
Lots of happy helpful wee beasties munching on those old logs and sticks.
And you can be proud for being twice as smart as you thought you were. 😎
Did you put some of that builders plastic at the very bottom of you bed or is it connected to the soil and draining freely?
excellent explanation. thank you! i have been thinking 'surely i can just dump sticks and logs in there'. i am a first time gardener and i'm trying to approach this as simply and cheaply as possible. I love the idea of using what i've got.
thanks for all your great videos. they've been extremely helpful. ps i like the energetic music as your intro/outro.
have a good day!
Nice video Mark....great to listen to someone without an ego. One could probably use the weekly waste; egg shells, green leftovers and such to add to the H.Kultur too over time....keeping a good balance between Nitrogen and Carbon.
I add all that too instead of flushing it down the garbage disposal. I think I am improving my soil.
Thank you so much for this video. I am trying it for the first time today and I am so excited. I took all the soil out of my galvanized stock tanks and will start over with adding tree stumps , branches, twigs and leaves and then the fertilizer and soil. Looking forward to an awesome garden this time. :)
I REALLY enjoy your videos. Yours is the most honest and genuine enthusiasm for the garden. Its brilliant! Thank You!
"Mulch" is also originally a German word :) :)
Do you need to fill it back up with wood/compost/branches over years when it breaks down??
I've had these in my polytunnel for a while. Wood and any fresh manure in the bottom then a good layer of old hay followed by a couple of inches of compost. The wood works really well as a reservoir and slow release nutrients. Fantastic crops. Can wholeheartedly recommend it.
mark does the wood used for this need to be dried out or is it ok or better to use fresh cut?
Good question, and I was wondering about whether it would bring termites into the garden beds and therefore around our home, in Townsville it's a pretty big concern 😬
Doesn't matter I've used semi dried logs but you can use fresh or dried
Several months ago a tree service company dropped off a maple tree for free. They even piled up the wood chips for me.
How good is that! Nice one! Cheers :)
Buster Brown vfguyrygdcbgx
vcjvbb *††£':;:":;%%&:; jhgfg
I have a local tree company drop off all the wood that they would other wise bring to the dump and I use that to heat my house all winter. 2 fireplaces going all winter nice and warm for free.
You will also find after a few yrs the area around the outside of the raised beds becomes super yummy filled with juices from the rotting materials in the nearby bed so you can put a fruit tree nearby or more ground level beds
I keep getting jealous of your warm year round climate. Then I think about how many things in Australia are poisonous. Never mind I’ll take my -20 on April 2 in Canada!
Same here!! It's never perfect!
@@TheAumi Right? I live on a mountain in S. California where the climate is temperate, the terrain is gorgeous, but I'm situated between two major fault lines so earthquakes are frequent.
There are at least 4 different types of rattlesnakes that live up here, and they are THE most common snake I see (besides the human kind). Bobcats and foxes used to get my chickens, until I built them a pen that's a steel fortress, and I had to give my donkey away when a mountain lion began stalking him. The mountain lion moved on to my neighbor's house and ate his two German Shepherd police dogs (he's retired SWAT captain).
Now that marijuana is legal here, I'm surrounded by some scary-looking gang-banger types who live in campers and have LOTS of high-powered, high-capacity firearms. The stuff they grow is trucked to states like Utah and Texas where they can get higher prices since it's illegal there.
We have ridiculously high taxes due to our state government that favors corporations over the working class, and many of our veterans are homeless (no veteran should EVER be homeless!)
I sure have a nice view, though!
I acidently thew some potatos in a hole, they were off. Then the land shifted filled the hole and has washed them down the hill. So ugh all my neighbor's now have potatos growing in their backyards.
Brilliant 😂 sorry for your loss though
I did this with a tote box (intentionally; I had heard to hugelkulture before. :-) ). I took an old plastic tote box and filled it up halfway with sticks from my yard. Then I covered the sticks with a thick layer of leaves to keep the dirt from falling to the bottom--and to make sure I introduced some fungus. Then I took a bit of leaf and rotten food material out of my worm compost box--along with some worms, and added that as a thin layer. Then I topped it with a layer of bagged garden soil deep enough to accommodate an onion bulb. I planted some onions, wet it, then covered it with cling film to keep the moisture in (so I don't have to water it daily). I checked last night and I saw a few tiny sprouts!
Once the tops are really up, I'll give it a top dressing of leaves (or woodchips if I have a load in by then) to keep the soil from drying out and when it's warm enough, the tote will go outside.
The benefits for me with using this method (besides all the ones you mentioned) is that I didn't have to put holes in the bottom of my box, so I don't have to try to put a drip pan under it while it's in the house; the bottom section has a lot of water holding capacity, which my onions can eventually take advantage of, like plants grown hydroponically. (One of the drawbacks to container gardening is that the soil dries out much faster than it does in a regular garden). Secondly, this made the box light enough I could still pick it up to move it! I don't think I could have done that if it had been full of dirt (or had gravel drainage). And lastly, I have come to find that I hate using gravel as pot drainage because when it comes time to get the dirt out of the pot to refresh it, gravel inevitably gets mixed in. And I don't want dirt with gravel in it. But when it comes time to remake my onion box, if some sticks get mixed into the dirt, that's okay; they'll break down eventually and only contribute to the soil.
This video has really made my day. I work in disability sector, and we go to a 'farm' on mondays and its a pesticide free, clean, reuse type of farm, No animals, but we have build 4 raised beds which are up to our chests/abdomins and we have feel slowly trying to build them up with compost, mulch and dirt. But it is taking a long time. This will help us out so much and I can claim the browny points also haha. Great vid. Keep it up.
It is a big help! Thank you.
We just did the same thing with our new raised bed, for the same reason you did, I didn’t want to waste soil! I thought at the time that the breaking down of the branches wouldn’t hurt & might help. Great to know it is a known & beneficial practice. Thanks for the info 😊👍
As the matter on the bottom decays, do you find yourself adding soil from the top layer decreasing?
I've been gardening pretty much my whole life, beginning when my parents had me working in their veg patch when I was young. I'm still learning and your channel is fantastic! Even though I live in a completely different climate, your principles still apply. Thanks for all the valuable info you put out for the world! Can't wait to put this knowledge to work.
Thank for the video i am in Florida and will be using this method for my very first garden! Hope it works.
Brenda Douglas fellow Floridian here
I’ve been working like a dog clearing debris from my plot. Branches, weeds, pine droppings...... now I discover this and feel remarkably stupid. Why didn’t I think of that!? Oh well, every day is a learning day. Thanks for the inspiring videos and information.
First time I've visited your vid, came up as recommended. I' so never heard the term hugelkultur before, so I had to check it out. Too funny when I learned what it was because my husband and I are building raised beds (hopefully this season!) We also lost some large branches off an old maple during a bad winter storm. We try to be strictly chem free in our garden (no chemicals of any type in 15 years now) and I said to him-Why not cut up the tree debris and put in the bottom of the raised beds? It'll fill up space so we won't need as much soil and compost, and it's organic so eventually it will break down and benefit the soil. He said-You're just too cheap to have it hauled away! Well, guess who will be seeing this video when he gets home from work?! Thank you, Mark, I have been justified!!!
I didn't know what it was called either but I have done it for years in my raised beds :) 🌱🇦🇺
Can I use a 50 Gallon drums that cut on Top & base then slice it in half?
i live on a property where we keep having to cut back the trees. so we are left with these piles of sticks and logs that are meters high
doing this would remove those unwanted stick piles as well as be good for the garden.
Ok, so I saw this video last year a couple of weeks into quarantine and I said, I am going to do that. Today I built two raised beds and loaded them with logs. Tomorrow is leaves, grass and other yard waste. Then the soil. Thanks for educating me.
Great video. Thank you.
I tried to build a Hugelkultur mound a few years ago, but it was a flop because I did not have the energy to build it properly with sufficient material. Your method, in an enclosed bed, makes a lot of sense and looks somewhat easier.
I'd like to know what kind of wood and leaves you are putting in the bottom of the bed. Is it Eucalyptus? I seem you have a lot on the perimeter of your property.
We have venomous snakes here . Have you ever had trouble with snakes being attracted in to tour hugel culture beds?
I was thinking the same. I feel the frames beneath don't allow them in. The upper part is exposed and is dangerous for the snake. I don't know.
Love this idea Mark! Ticks so many boxes. A quick question though, how do your plants cope over summer in your Hugelkultur beds? I'm in a part of Australia where temperatures regularly pass 40 degrees in summer. Would that extra heat not be harmful to the crops?
I don’t have an answer doe you but I am in Colorado where the sun rays are very strong and I am concerned with overheating especially when decomposing also creates heat!
Mark uses shade cloth for sun protection (basically sunscreen for plants) and waters more often, where necessary. The wood base keeps the moisture in very well, while also preventing the bed from heating up.
Thanks for the great tip. Like you, I had never heard of Hugelkultur. I am about to start building some raised garden beds and was going to fill them with just soil. I was dreading the cost.
We live in the mountains in SW Victoria, surrounded by state forest and national parks, so there is plenty of fallen tree limbs and undergrowth to pick from.
Being a very cold climate in winter, I like the idea of the soil generating a bit of heat, to help the plants survive.
Thanks again for the great tip.
Garry
Best thing I have learned so far Mark. I have all the branch cuttings from fruit tree pruning just sitting in one big pile on my land. Had no idea what to do with it and now I do. I have tons of leaf mulch and other debris I can now utilise. I'm excited! Thanks so very much for sharing this. Look out Tasmanian gardening here I come!
Yes it's a great way to reuse all that organic matter! Cheers :)
Hi Lynn, I'm in Melbourne and recently pruned our orange trees. I've been wondering what to do with the branches too, and will give this a try in a small raised bed that I am planning. I also have a lot of leaf mulch from a large Chinese elm tree that drops leaves in winter. The neighbours cut off some overhanging branches and threw them in our front yard (lol) so I have those piled up as well.Good luck with your garden!
I am growing tomatoes successfully in the raised bed that I put together. The raised bed seems to water itself!
Thanks again Mate...loving your videos...and you used "divine" a very South African term, pretty much only heard Safas say that.. haha>>> I am from there, but live in OZ.
go to a scrape yard and all the old metal farm cow watering tanks can be got for scrap prices...even old solid iron bath tubs (which work great ) you can buy a roll of hay too. about 30 dollars. about 1300 # of hay. there dig
Beautiful garden! I'm going to try a hugelkultur bed for the first time this season in New Hampshire. :)
Snakes and Lightning we’re in New Hampshire also!!! Yay!
@@julie007ght Cool! We're in Haverhill and dug a 12'x3' bed this weekend. Half full of dead wood so far, got a lot more to do this weekend. :)
Without knowing about this I've been doing the same! Only in a smaller scale. To me it works perfectly! I never knew about this but it even works on a balkony with small pots.
Got my birdies raised bed yesterday. Today I assemble! Over the past year, I have been scavenging my 2.68 acres to save up items you've been teaching us about to use Hügelkultur in my raised bed. Love your channel! Best wishes from North Florida. Namaste. 🙏🦋🌿
I've done this since I was a teenager, didn't realize it actually had a name lol. Cool to know
One thing I love about gardening is there’s always something new to learn
Love these videos ...so informative and straight to the point ie no annoying music and stupid comments. Keep up the good work
I have just constructed a series of raised beds on our newly purchased property and seems that falling into Hugelkultur by accident. Not spending lots of money on the contents was the driving force happened here too :) . Threw in any and all vegetable and wood matter lying around from the previous owner as the base material. So pleased to find your youtube videos as we are also in an Australian sub-tropical zone too. Any suggestions for longer fruiting plantings for citrus varieties that actually fruit well in sub-tropical zones would be much appreciated. Behind the Sunshine coast 500m up. Love your common sense but really informative manner.
Thanks for showing us what you put in your raised bed as I hadn't thought of using such big chunks of wood. I tried Hugelkultur for the first time this year and had phenomenal results in a new raised bed we built this spring (eastern WA USA). I had raspberry prunings, sticks and leaves from a tulip tree, spruce tree cones, arbovitae prunings, and whatever didn't compost in the compost pile over the winter like pea and squash vines, iris stems, etc., and these took up about 1/3 the space. I then put compost and dirt on top of that. I planted corn and sunflowers on one side, cukes in the middle and carrots on the other side. The first 3 have taken off and are over twice as tall as the same plants planted elsewhere in the garden in the same kind of dirt mix. They also look healthier, with bigger darker green leaves, and have thicker stems. I have to keep staking up the cukes and they are keeping me in pickles. Carrots are too immature yet to see much progress. I'm going to change all my raised beds over to this method next year.
Wow! Thank you for sharing your experience in Hugelkultur and the success you have had with this method! Like I said in the video I never knew there was an actual specific name for this method of gardening but I guess it deserves a special tag. All the best. :)
Another method is how the Aztecs used bodies of water and had lush gardens. You tube I think has a few videos on this. Try growing Tayberries they are a cross from black berries/raspberries. My marionberries are over taking my garden.
Ok thanks Rob! Cheers :)
Self Sufficient Me I checked in my hive the other day. I don't know if you have beehives but they tell me when the winter is going to be bad here.
Self Sufficient Me have you ever just planted vegs in the wild or woods around your house or on the wooded property? you get volunteers in your garden all the time, so planting a few different plants out back hahah no pun intended and see if they will volunteers to send up babies next year or if they don't. lets say like sweet potatoes! do you think animals around your place would like the greens as well as roots of that plant?
Thanks a lot Mark for the valuable tips. You are awesome!
Awww I wish I had watched this video before I filled my amazing raised garden beds my husband just made me - I did full the bottoms with leaves and sticks but the logs would have saved me some money in soil - however I am having a couple more made so logs and sticks it is - thanks Mark enjoy your videos
Keyhole gardening is Hugelkultur with a central composting basket where you recharge your bed with scraps from the garden and kitchen. I can see how the two are closely related. I just do not have the money for making metal or bought stone bed walls, but perhaps rammed earth made by mixing portland cement with earth will stand up under the rain and stay in place for many years. Try looking up keyhole gardening to see the many variations of this technique. The best I could find on this was the original African style using rocks for the perimeter and the key hole part, but I would use heavy galvanized fence materials for the central basket. Well, try using the keyhole gardening method, I think you will like it.
Funny there is a name for it. I did the exact same thing because I didn't want to spend a ton on money on soil and compost.
I agree! Seems logical doesn't it! Cheers :)
Hi Mark, new to gardening here in New Zealand and am loving the videos. I'm hoping to set up a very small raised bed (about a foot high) and was wondering if this method will still work on a lesser scale?
cheers from Romania (Eastern Europe)... yes very far away :)
you just gave me a bunch of ideas about what do do with garden waste
I am doing this in one of my two big galvanised beds and will do it with the smaller ones too
I thought I commented already as seen this and share it all the time for info. I did know about Hugelkulture and thought it was great. I walked home after dropping my boys to school with another handful of sticks of different sizes and bark
I must loom quite the sight walking to my house😂🤣😂🤣😂
I also use my old bike trailer to collect
I love this info
Thanks for the awesome info Mark
Shared many times on garden pages as with other videos of yours like the one about using ash in the garden
I just stumbled across an awesome channel 😀 Mark can I ask roughly where abouts in Australia do u live?
He don't never answer questions...
I've ask several.
@@RichardJohnson-cg2ix Just north of Brisbane he mentioned in other videos
@@jonwilson6077 👎
I bought a couple Birdie's raised garden beds and after being subbed for a while, I thought of this vid to fill them. Did the Black Friday sale which I only knew about from your channel. I have a fallen tree to use as a base.
Thanks man!
I use untreated timber for my raised beds and when it comes around to replacement every 3-5 years, i will cut up the old, rotting wood into the bottom thinking that it would provide feed...
Does that count?
Untreated?
Certainly! This spring I lined the bottom of my new garden boxes with half-rotten wood from the old ones. The garden is flourishing like never before!
Such beautiful avatar you've got there friend
Excellent video….just yesterday I was thinking about how much soil it was going to take to fill my 4’x8’ raised garden bed…now I know what to do with all the branches and leaves I have in my yard…thanks Marc
that would be good to save on expensive filler,
Awesome! One question: As the logs decompose won't they leach nitrogen from your soil? Or do you simply compensate this when you fertilize? Perhaps ideal to do it with woody material that has almost entirely decomposed, no? - Ben
Thank you Mark for all these videos. We are planning to get into the self sufficient mode and you sure are one of the influencer for us
I’m new to your channel .. thanks for your garden inspiration ..
Do you sell your vegetables ? Just wondering what you do with all the produce:)
I live in Washington, DC and just love his videos. I'm familiar with most of his approaches, but he brings the ideas to life with clear videos and a good sense of humor.
Mark, we have a 1/2 acre fenced in garden spot that we want to use for the community garden. The problem is that we do not have a well, or spring nearby. My uncle say we will not be able to grow crops without water. I want to try a hugel garden and hope it will help with moisture while I try to create something to catch rain water. (I live in USA-Georgia) What do you think.
Love your work. As a gardener in a botanic gardens and digger of holes in the ground I think this is absolutely wonderful. I am setting up garden beds at home and will definitely be doing it this way. Hopefully at some point I will be able to pass this info on to the general public at our Eco Fiesta.
Hi...... Self Sufficient me, thank you for sharing your video 👋 bye 👋 bye 👋 bye 👋 🎥👍👍👍
i did not save my wood logs unfortunately
High Raised Beds are amazingly useful method....to fill in with logs, organic debris..seriously very thoughtful.. Also very helpful in saving my vegetable plants from my Pets.
I have been pondering for a an easy and useful way of growing vegetables...this is one of the best methods..I will share the pictures with you once i am done with this new project in my garden. Thank you Mark. Very inspiring.
His accent is amazing specially the guddaay
What about tuubas (tubers) lol
I have to admit, I had a dream recently that he came to my ranch and taught me what and where to plant my gahden, I mean garden. I woke up, went in the kitchen and said "g'day" to my son. I was sad when I realized Mahrk, um, I mean Mark is never coming here to help me figure this stuff out. Sigh. I am grateful that he's given us hours of quality advice though, and he's awfully cute! His wife is a lucky woman!
Lazy I Ranch hahah yes the He is a cute guy and that gudday makes my day whenever i hear it from him
Hi Mark, great videos. I am also gardening in the tropics, does hugelkultur attract termites?
Could you build a raised bed around a tree stump? It seems like it would be an easy way to get rid of a stump.
Love this idea!
I don't see why not... I know a lot of people who use sticks and twigs as compost starters! You're right, such a great idea.
I had the best strawberries growing out of and around my tree stump. Now confirmed why 😉
Brilliant idea. I am going to try and see anyway!
Yes, I've done it this summer. The stump just happened to be located where the raised garden bed fit nicely. Before you do it through, it's a good idea to drill many 1" holes on top of the stump to help it retain water and thus decompose faster. That's what I did.
I stick anything in there. Old books with the covers ripped off, ripped up old cotton towels, sheets, blue jeans. 5-6 years ago I ripped up a moldy old area rug that was jute and wool. It's gone. I live in western Tidewater Virginia and I have sandy soil. We get about 47 in (119 cm) of rain a year. I put in anything that will help hold water.
It's informative, it's natural and it's fun to watch you in this very cute way... you are awesome 💛🙏
Excellent idea! I have a question and anyone is free to answer..I have a very large plastic barrel and I will be cutting it vertically and use the two halves to practise juvenile technology. Does those containers.......2 halves of barrel......have to have holes for excess moisture to run out
This is great, now I have a use for all those limbs that seem to overwhelm me. Thanks 🇨🇱
Just found your video. Check out Gabe Brown USA and how he sets up his garden beds. Fabulous work.
Been using this method for a few years now.
So easy to do. 👍