Thanks for watching! Who’s using this method? Did you find air pockets effected the results? There is one subscriber here who will hopefully be posting links to the land mass she’s working with. She has the perfect situation for this method.
The first one I made had air pockets everywhere. I re-made it last year and made sure to lay the wood parallel and fill between each layer with soil. This year it is performing great, I've barely had to water (Florida) and the plants are huge. I collect scrap buckets from a deli so it's also full of egg shells, coffee grounds, fruit rinds, and bagels
The benefits I've seen are -improved moisture retention -releasing various nutrients as the organic matter breaks down (although as you said, the wood would be tying nitrogen up at first) -generating bottom heat, like a big compost pile; you'd have to use a lot of organic matter for this though, idea being that it would extend the growing season -if you have poor soil (or random shit like an old driveway, buried foundations, etc), it's easier to amend it by building new soil on top than to remove the poor soil/obstructions if using the raised form -better drainage -easier to harvest from especially for old people because there's less bending down involved -larger surface area to grow on (don't entirely agree since the north side of a steep mound would get less sunlight and not be as usable)
I actually did use this method, after removing an asphalt parking lot and all the topsoil under it. I'm in USDA zone 6b. USGS maps of my are indicate thin silt, followed by silty clay loam, and clay loam underneath, with the water under that, as high as 3' under the soil. Once I started digging: after removing the parking lot and all possibly contaminated soil underneath, I was left with orange-red clay. After a rain, it was slimy and stuck to my shovel; after a few days of baking in the sun, I needed a pick axe to work it. The water table on my property is definitely farther down than 3', or else maybe it's just been a few dry years. I'm in too dry an area to do raised beds or mounds without irrigation (which I didn't want to pay for). So I wasn't going to do either the mounds, or a Charles-Dowding style no-dig garden (and I also wasn't going to pay for soil or compost). My resources included a hole in the ground with red-clay loam, a local (FREE!) city leaf mulch pile and wood chip pile, a 10' long, 4-6" thick branch that fell in a storm, a lot of smaller branches, some shredded office paper, and some green matter that I had saved growing over the parking lot (some grass and a lot of euonymus). I put the branch 3' down in the pit, and layered all my resources lasagna-style over the top. Over the summer I heavily mulched with grass clippings. I only watered at the beginning of the season to get things started. I did have a difficult time direct sowing with no topsoil; my transplants took off a lot faster. Despite starting with only red clay-loam subsoil, I had a successful garden on this spot this year. I feel like as the organic matter composts and I develop some topsoil, it may do even better. Hugelkultur (lochkultur in my case) seems to be a good idea for people lacking resources ($$) and good soil who are willing to do a very labor-intensive garden. Germany is an extremely rainy country where the mounds will likely get plenty of water and a hill actually help the topmost veggies get more sun. Obviously adapt the idea to your own climate: in Midwestern U.S., it's been really dry lately and sun is plentiful, so if you're gonna do this put it in a hole or trench. I dug mine as I went, so the bottom was not even and if there was water pooling I didn't notice. Edit: forgot to mention, this was next to a walnut, so maybe that was the issue with direct sowing?
This past fall I set up 4 experimental raised beds in large plastic totes (approx 2x4x1.5 deep) set on cement blocks with a drainage port. To save on soil, I filled two 1/2way with green tree prunings before top filling. The other 2 were filled with 15-yr old firewood (3-4”dia logs about 1’ long) vertically in the tote. Soil mix was placed over the top and between logs. Time will tell if lettuce and chard do well on top of the wood log ‘wicks’.
Hugel mounds remind me of my parents rock garden back in the day. Built with broken up ciderblocks covered in soil and nicer looking rocks and of course plants. It was a constant wash out nightmare. The reason why I went for a hugel raised bed was to cheap out on soil, to use up a brush pile and to help retain water in my sandlot soil. I will find out this summer weather it is viable. I expect to add top soil and compost to the surface as it decomposes down each year.
@@GardeningInCanada I dug a three foot deep pit (neighbours probably thought it was a grave), and layered in 2 feet of coarse to fine debris with a few 3 inch layers of sandlot soil in between, capped with leaf litter, compost and purchased garden soil. I did it last summer, hoping to have some sort of prototypical soil to work with this spring. We shall see.
its specifically not recommended for that purpose as it has little mechanical strength. there is a good youtube video showing this. as water builds up against the "swale" it has a risk of suddenly failing and now you have a bunch of water with some force behind it. the guy out west that used it with swales, he basically build his swales out of soil properly, then built hugelkulture on top of them.
That is helpful! I was planning to fill the bottom half of a 15 inches tall galvanized steel raised bed, with twigs and branches, up to 4,6 inches diameter. To save money on soil. Now, I'll know to really compact it. Would you please share a good recipe for raised bed soil mix?
Good point Toni George, I’m glad you mentioned that. As I was watching the vid I found myself asking why? What was the point of this method, but didn’t think about it in terms of a deep, raised bed which I myself considered doing exactly what you were going to do. 👍🏻
I live in south Saskatchewan. Watering my garden is expensive and there is a high amount of chlorine in our town water. I use rain barrels to collect rain water to water my garden as much as possible. What other ideas and advice would you have for reducing the amount of watering. I have very dry sandy and hard soil.
I can do a video on this for you actually because it’s a great question lots of people are wondering about. I know how expensive water can be even in southern Saskatchewan. But to give you an idea think like mulch, increasing the organic material in the soil with peat moss, cover cropping, intercropping & wind breaks are some of your best options
Thanks For This Vid About Hugelkuturing: Im in Canada and I create beds like this with Pete moss and top soil which I have very little of 3 inches with basically sandy soil underneth. Native plants like blueberry's and Elderberry's are doing well in the raised mounds and this year I'll be trying it out with legumes & vegetables and as for the last long row that im creating now in an indent along a back I'll thanks a million make sure not to get lazy and make sure that the soil mix that I add to it fills in all of the cracks and crevices and that the logs aren't covered too deeply in soil like the case for most of the beds that are completed. What didn't work well that still grew corn last year was a bed that was filled in with mostly sand that hardly decomposed in 3 years. ONCE ADING HUMMUS LIKE SOIL AND WITH PETE MOSS its coming around and the logs are finally softening up cause of the moisture.
In my 3 back beds I have used this method for the upcoming season. One of those beds had it already last season and I did see some advantages...less watering mostly and did not see many or any negatives. That said, I dig my raised beds down well below the soil surface on which the bed rests. When filling I made sure to have 12 to 18 inches of soil above the wood/twig material. I don't know if that negates the purpose of doing this but I'm having fun with it. As for air gaps...as I am dumping my soil onto the wood material, I would get into the bed and basically agitate the soil to work it into those air pockets. Further, I will leave the bed for several months for it to settle.
Thank you thank you thank you!!! I have been waiting for this, You have helped tremendously ! I'm sure my husband thanks you too...LOL! Please keep sharing your knowledge, it's appreciated.
I built three largish raised beds last year and layered the bottoms with woody bits, but not true hügelkultur. The idea for me, being in the high desert with cold winters and hot dry summers, is that the extra OM down there packed with soil would only help with water retention. The raised beds are temporary, but the wood is untreated and as yet I have not seen any decomposition. The sun out here is brutal, though, so wood is more likely to rot due to sun rot than to water. I'll let you know how year 2 goes. Year 1 was a success!
I plan on doing a raised bed that's quite high so filling it halfway up with free resources like wood, branches and leaves might be necessary. I don't have the backyard yet so I've plenty of time to learn more before actually doing it😊 I don't want to be gardening literally on the ground level so something like birdies raised bed would be my dream... As years go by, I think there will be more affordable options on the market. I don't want to build a wooden structure that would just decompose over time.
I've had great success with hill gardens, over a clay soil and didn't experience any of the "may happen statements". I also tried high density planting in these beds and had very good results. Mine were built in raised beds and I haven't tried the mound type yet. I also had access to logs and fire wood that had clear signs of mycelium throughout the wood. And an accidental finding was discovered last summer with all the heavy rains we had in Atlantic Canada, the raised beds didn't experience any issues we being overwatered throughout the growing season; that may have nothing to do with hügelkultur but more so with the raised beds.
Oh that’s a smart way to use it as well. There is one subscriber who I advised to use it on an old foundation plot because it’s easier then ripping out concrete piles
I love the way you say “and I’m a soil scientist” you make it sound like the coolest thing 😎 😄 I find out i did a lot of things wrong 😅 i put fresh cut wood to raised bed and i put a lot of it, it even sprouted 😆 It was walnut tree wood which is supposed to contain a lot if chemicals that repel microbes, fungi, bugs and other plants 🤷🏻😅. Only brassicas and tomatoes did poorly but all different kinds of plants did great.
Haha I don’t like saying it actually I feel bossy. But I do it give me a leg in the race with all the bigger pros. And nothing wrong with that just extra greenery!
I'm moving to the Sonoran Desert in California and plan on trying Hugle culture, Straw bale growing, container and raised beds maybe even create a Swale or two. I imagine that finding trees for the Hugle culture experiments is gonna be difficult. I'll try and remember to update you on progress and results!
I'll be building a hybrid in ground garden this year that I hope to have ready for next year. My plan is for deep till transitioning to no dig with very deep arborist chip perimeter and paths. My plan is 12-18 inches deep on the chips. The beds in this garden are going to have a lot of decomposing wood around them. That's almost Hugelkultur ;).
ok so continuing the discussion from your nitrogen depletion video context: the sunniest spot in my yard had about 6-8 inches of pea gravel on the surface and I wanted to get rid of it so I could use the area for growing crops that like full sun (tomato, cucumber, zucchini, pepper, melon, bean). I dug a 2 ft deep trench for my bed and threw the gravel at the bottom so it wouldn't be in the way of plant roots, but that also means that all the topsoil got buried along with it. Now I backfilled a decent amount of subsoil I excavated to create the trench and I'm trying to create a "new soil" for my plants to grow in. The subsoil was mostly sandy, although there was also some lenses of compacted clay. Probably 80% sandy, 20% clay. So I think that's enough sand to avoid waterlogging/perched water tables. If anything, I'd rather increase the water retention, so organic matter would help. The wood I was planning on using was spruce I cut last week, plus some tree roots I dug out of the trench (from a big tree that was cut down about 3 years ago). I split the wood down to about 1-2 inches in diameter so it can break down faster. But maybe I don't want it to break down so fast since that would consume too much nitrogen? I guess when it comes down to it, you're building a compost pile, so you want o get the right mix of brown and green material for the same reason as you would with a compost pile? Unfortunately I'm not to all of this, not just hugelkultur but composting too, so I don't know if I have the best sense for the proportions. Maybe I should swap out that freshly cut spruce wood for some older wood from the firewood pile? Although I'm not sure if older firewood is really that much better since it's kept dry so it's still not really rotted even if it's a few years old? For brown materials I have -wood from spruce tree & dug out tree roots (or older firewood) -branches from spruce tree with needles on -branches from pruned bushes -partially decomposed leaves -more spruce/pine needles from under trees Green material -turf I dug up to make the bed -algae from the creek in my backyard (just a small bucket full but I think it's quite nitrogen rich) -a few bins of weeds and other green plant material -manure
@@GardeningInCanada ok so the soil I bought at the grocery store yesterday is maybe not that good after reading some comments online? It was "Organix Black Earth" and "Organix Sheep Manure mixed with Black Earth" from St Eugene Packaging based in St Isidore Ontario that was being sold at my local Longos. I haven't opened any of it yet so that I can hopefully return it if it turns out to be no good. Now, I didn't necessarily expect it to be Ukrainian Chernozem or anything, but I was hoping it would have a fairly high compost content. However, I read a blog post online that said it's just nutrient poor low-grade peat?
@@GardeningInCanada It sounds like you'll go over it soon? But basically I was just wondering how the "black earth" soil should be used, like should it be used with manure mixed in, or can it be used as the main growing medium in a vegetable garden? Like can it be used like garden soil or what is it exactly?
I have place leafs and small branches under my garden plot 1-2 feet to help with moisture content but it not mounded. Not sure how well it works but I tried it last year.
I've amended my Ohio clay base soil 5 years and have 6 inches looking good, As people always say tomatoes plant deep, I planted some 14 inches deep they almost died, I believe that my digging into the clay was like a mud hole causing root-rot ( believe you said that but about the log holding excess water. After almost losing tomato plants I pulled out replacing only about 8 inches and they came out OK. Thanks for your teaching Lady Because my last season lose my tomatoes are now looking great yes little early but I've time for replacing if I would need. So far no knats
We have removed 98 Northern/Yellow Pine trees on our zone 3 Mountain property. Soil is over 75% clay with rock. The 1st 31 Pines tree guy hauled away. The next 67 we sawed in 5' lengths stacked on a hillside. We can't give these 150' tall Pines away. Eventually will build a 6' retaining wall infront of the stacked Pine. Can we use Pine for hugelkultur ? Considering planting acidic loving plants on the hillside.
Yea absolutely you can no reason why not. The soil sounds like it’s a bit unreasonable to deal with so Hügelkultur is going to be you best alternative. I wouldn’t worry about the acidity too much it’s actually a common misconception that pine trees are heavily acidic.
Great video! I am getting a 32” high corrugated steel raised bed (like Kevin of Epic Gardening’s birdies, but from a BC supplier). Two questions: 1. If the only wood available is fairly fresh, i know it will take a very long time to decompose. But i was thinking that it would still be good filler for the bottom half of the bed. Is that a problem? 2. Is it ok to put fresh garden waste (all the potted annuals, tomato plants etc with the soil from their containers etc) as the next layer? Thanks for all the great knowledge you impart!
This was a good review. I am planning to use this method in my raised beds in my hoop house. I thought it would save some soil in that it takes up a lot of the volume. My beds are open bottom steel containers so not too concerned about them. My first thoughts on this were that it would rob N so I put it off till the logs were aged a bit I still think this may be a problem. I also wanted to ask you what your thoughts were on sprinkling cinnamon on seed trays to combat insects and algae / mold. I have also heard peppermint oil for same purpose.
Yea I should do a video on that it’s a common question. I personally use it but it only works to an extent. If it’s high humidity with little air flow cinnamon won’t save use right. And the lock up of nutrients is an issue with the newer stuff but the older it is the better. It also depends on depth as well right, if you have it out to the root zone does it really matter.
@@GardeningInCanada I was thinking about that (being out of the root zone) till you said anaerobic. That got me to thinking about what gasses might be created. I'm going to do it anyway.
Anerobic won’t matter out of the root zone too much. It just effects the rate of decomposition right. So it just won’t decompose as quickly. I wonder if you drilled holes in the wood how that would effect it
@@GardeningInCanada It is difficult to convey these "science-y" thingies to a broad audience. I believe in the proper atmosphere you are a shining star. The more positive people in S.T.E.M. the better. Either by furthering your skills or adapting or taking them into the education field.
Just moved to Nova Scotia! U have a mixed forest and a driveway which runs east west, opening up the south side. It’s basically rocks. Lots of trees though, too many! There’s enough rock that hast to be moved to make a rock wall. So I could make a raised rockery with huge boulders popping out every now and then. Would this method work? Most of the wood is new cut. There’s a forest full of fallen trees and quite rotten trunks. Better to use this? Oodles of moss and lichen
Im making a large dug vegetable patch in the north of iceland and im putting a some thicker logs, twigs and woodchip (as diverse range of species as possible from the area) at the bottom, though nothing crazy and not completely covering, and soil with horse manure above that so its about 30-70% ratio maybe... we do have clay soils but its actually mostly just a whole load of rocks, so its probably gonna drain a little too well, so im hoping the wood can help maintain enough moisture. Also biologically the soil is pretty lacking in iceland so hopefully this will help with that too
I agree with a few comments, in a sloped land with heavy clay soil its ideal for water retention as long as they can drain a bit using (hugel swales or terraces) however if your in a low flat land you will most likley have problems with it.
do you have a video where you discuss the nitrogen being tied up by fresh wood? can you point me to a paper that explains it? i'm curious about the mechanism and how context dependent it is. thank you so much!
Good info. Started because of poison soil! OMG, they didnt realize ROOTS will reach the poison ground? This is not for me! Trying to change from synthetic gardening to more organic gardening. You help immensely cutting through all the BS on the internet!
I did it in a metal raised bed with dry rotted wood on my property. I didn’t know about compaction. I have heavy clay soil. Does the type of wood change anything?
so i live in the north east ive done 3 types of hugelkultures over the past 8 years with very diffrent results. I have very heavy clay type soil. The mound version took many years approx. 3 before it was really a viable planting medium and then another 2 years of care to really get it set in however the water sink benefit only really helps with tap root plants and still requires as much watering as a traditional bed for all other plants. This same method used on a messier larger scale where i turned an old green dump area into layers of dead wood grass clippings and unwanted soil has after many years taken on a life of its own growing pumpkins and other native plants that have found there way in. My next method was to dig down 2-3 feet layer large logs then sticks and so on up to the ground level then build a 12 raised bed on top of this......These were initially successful but the clay seemed to take back over after 2 years and required quite a bit of amending. Finally i dug only 16 inches out and did a layering method of 2 inch dead sticks/logs some food scraps topped with 6 inches of year old mulch large coarse perlite and mushroom compost as the base then built 2 ft or higher raised beds on top with amended soil and this method has seemed to hold up for long periods with minimal amendments and has so far not reverted back to a mostly clay. after the first season in both the dig methods i would typically see a drop of about a foot in the soil level from the decomposition however when ive re topped up with soil the beds seem to suffer where as adding a bit of compost to the sunken beds and using them as is has been the winner every time.
Hi! I was wondering if you could link the papers you are referencing in this video, I might be doing a research project on hugelkultures and am looking peer reviewed sources. Thank you!
I would love to talk with you about my Hugelkulture Mounds. I made an experimental no-dig mound that worked pretty well last summer and I grew a LOT of basil in it without any issues. I had some ideas while listening to your video. Of the grow mediums I had a lot of good luck with one of my aquaponic setups, which was using a porous rock called haydite. That was such a great addition to my aquaponic grow bed, so I used extra in a shallow trench and made a mini mound and everything loved it mixed right into the dirt that way as well. I would love to talk more with you about this topic. I live in Missouri, so yep, heavy clay soil in some areas of my property. Thank you for the great video you made!!!
Hey, so what if you had heavy clay soil, could you dig down break up the clay and use rotting logs along with maybe a green layer to amend it? I'm trying to use this next year, soil isn't anerobic just heavy clay.
You definitely could try digging in some organic material to help loosen things up. My biggest concern would be lack of air flow causing low rates of decomposition. But if you can provide a solution to that then it will work.
My yard is on a slope and I had a rather large patch of mostly clay because the rain washed away the topsoil, so I put 3 logs across it to help retain soil and slow the flow, I would dump all my grass clippings on and around it as well as leaves and sticks out of the yard for about a year. I started making wholes in it, fill them with soil and plant things like beans and pumpkins. The plants didn't do very well the first year but I did get a fair crop. Now, 3 years later, it is my best garden. I have water loving plants like coleus and flowers that die in every other part of my dry, Australian garden. Even the Lemon tree a few feet away has doubled in size and completely covered in very large fruit. I am now a believer and will start building more and more of these xx
I'm German, my family in the East always had a garden. I learned what Hügelkultur is from yt. I'm of course not every German, but it's not necessarily a typical thing here let's just say.
Something Forgotten about burying hard wood in Canada Why do they call it a "Canadian" Nightcrawler? They love the bacteria growing in it & Guess what night crawlers do when they eat?
I say Howieculture lol i have a food forest friend named Howie lol it fits he helped me understand the layers Ive done this in a hole and a mound great results Need to keep feeding these layers i believe
@@GardeningInCanada ya I hear ya on trapping moisture that's kinda the point But it's a layer thing some plants love it some not so much I think of it as a pile of branches getting covered up by leaves every year It will decompose after time and other plants like raspberries take over a thicket kinds thing My squash loved the pile mounded up and they helped it break down...it climbed the brush no problem and compost on top with rabbits bedding worked perfectly but need to keep feeding it some or assessing the substrate Taking a clue from weeds or plants showing signs of low nitrogen;)
@@GardeningInCanada ya we will have to watch as it ages I don't like to dig but sometimes you need to dig to burry things so layers to fill everything back in I find mounds warm up quickly and stay warmer too but might be the layers decomposing adding heat too
We stuck load of logs in the bottom of our tall (3’) raised beds, just to take up volume really. And yeah, I thought I was being trendy so go ahead, laugh at the old man lol😂
Thanks for watching! Who’s using this method? Did you find air pockets effected the results? There is one subscriber here who will hopefully be posting links to the land mass she’s working with. She has the perfect situation for this method.
The first one I made had air pockets everywhere. I re-made it last year and made sure to lay the wood parallel and fill between each layer with soil. This year it is performing great, I've barely had to water (Florida) and the plants are huge. I collect scrap buckets from a deli so it's also full of egg shells, coffee grounds, fruit rinds, and bagels
The benefits I've seen are
-improved moisture retention
-releasing various nutrients as the organic matter breaks down (although as you said, the wood would be tying nitrogen up at first)
-generating bottom heat, like a big compost pile; you'd have to use a lot of organic matter for this though, idea being that it would extend the growing season
-if you have poor soil (or random shit like an old driveway, buried foundations, etc), it's easier to amend it by building new soil on top than to remove the poor soil/obstructions
if using the raised form
-better drainage
-easier to harvest from especially for old people because there's less bending down involved
-larger surface area to grow on (don't entirely agree since the north side of a steep mound would get less sunlight and not be as usable)
Yes! Very well said
@Ni-dk7ni idk, I've had lettuce bolt in pretty shady locations, a lot of bolting seems temperature rather than sunlight dependent.
I actually did use this method, after removing an asphalt parking lot and all the topsoil under it. I'm in USDA zone 6b. USGS maps of my are indicate thin silt, followed by silty clay loam, and clay loam underneath, with the water under that, as high as 3' under the soil. Once I started digging: after removing the parking lot and all possibly contaminated soil underneath, I was left with orange-red clay. After a rain, it was slimy and stuck to my shovel; after a few days of baking in the sun, I needed a pick axe to work it. The water table on my property is definitely farther down than 3', or else maybe it's just been a few dry years.
I'm in too dry an area to do raised beds or mounds without irrigation (which I didn't want to pay for). So I wasn't going to do either the mounds, or a Charles-Dowding style no-dig garden (and I also wasn't going to pay for soil or compost). My resources included a hole in the ground with red-clay loam, a local (FREE!) city leaf mulch pile and wood chip pile, a 10' long, 4-6" thick branch that fell in a storm, a lot of smaller branches, some shredded office paper, and some green matter that I had saved growing over the parking lot (some grass and a lot of euonymus). I put the branch 3' down in the pit, and layered all my resources lasagna-style over the top. Over the summer I heavily mulched with grass clippings.
I only watered at the beginning of the season to get things started. I did have a difficult time direct sowing with no topsoil; my transplants took off a lot faster. Despite starting with only red clay-loam subsoil, I had a successful garden on this spot this year. I feel like as the organic matter composts and I develop some topsoil, it may do even better.
Hugelkultur (lochkultur in my case) seems to be a good idea for people lacking resources ($$) and good soil who are willing to do a very labor-intensive garden. Germany is an extremely rainy country where the mounds will likely get plenty of water and a hill actually help the topmost veggies get more sun. Obviously adapt the idea to your own climate: in Midwestern U.S., it's been really dry lately and sun is plentiful, so if you're gonna do this put it in a hole or trench. I dug mine as I went, so the bottom was not even and if there was water pooling I didn't notice.
Edit: forgot to mention, this was next to a walnut, so maybe that was the issue with direct sowing?
if you are struggling with water absolutely sounds like a great system
This past fall I set up 4 experimental raised beds in large plastic totes (approx 2x4x1.5 deep) set on cement blocks with a drainage port. To save on soil, I filled two 1/2way with green tree prunings before top filling. The other 2 were filled with 15-yr old firewood (3-4”dia logs about 1’ long) vertically in the tote. Soil mix was placed over the top and between logs. Time will tell if lettuce and chard do well on top of the wood log ‘wicks’.
That seems like a great set up I love the age of the wood. That’s awesome
Hugel mounds remind me of my parents rock garden back in the day. Built with broken up ciderblocks covered in soil and nicer looking rocks and of course plants. It was a constant wash out nightmare. The reason why I went for a hugel raised bed was to cheap out on soil, to use up a brush pile and to help retain water in my sandlot soil. I will find out this summer weather it is viable. I expect to add top soil and compost to the surface as it decomposes down each year.
Yea and I think that’s a fair justification. I seriously regret not doing this in my raised beds.
@@GardeningInCanada I dug a three foot deep pit (neighbours probably thought it was a grave), and layered in 2 feet of coarse to fine debris with a few 3 inch layers of sandlot soil in between, capped with leaf litter, compost and purchased garden soil. I did it last summer, hoping to have some sort of prototypical soil to work with this spring. We shall see.
Ahaha a grave 🤣
ive used it in swales on slopes for erosion control and stormwater management
I live on a river that floods. I'm working on this method to plant above the flood zone which is usually about 12 inches.
its specifically not recommended for that purpose as it has little mechanical strength. there is a good youtube video showing this. as water builds up against the "swale" it has a risk of suddenly failing and now you have a bunch of water with some force behind it. the guy out west that used it with swales, he basically build his swales out of soil properly, then built hugelkulture on top of them.
That is helpful! I was planning to fill the bottom half of a 15 inches tall galvanized steel raised bed, with twigs and branches, up to 4,6 inches diameter. To save money on soil. Now, I'll know to really compact it. Would you please share a good recipe for raised bed soil mix?
Yea absolutely! And yea just really stomp on it.
Good point Toni George, I’m glad you mentioned that. As I was watching the vid I found myself asking why? What was the point of this method, but didn’t think about it in terms of a deep, raised bed which I myself considered doing exactly what you were going to do. 👍🏻
I live in south Saskatchewan. Watering my garden is expensive and there is a high amount of chlorine in our town water. I use rain barrels to collect rain water to water my garden as much as possible. What other ideas and advice would you have for reducing the amount of watering. I have very dry sandy and hard soil.
I can do a video on this for you actually because it’s a great question lots of people are wondering about. I know how expensive water can be even in southern Saskatchewan. But to give you an idea think like mulch, increasing the organic material in the soil with peat moss, cover cropping, intercropping & wind breaks are some of your best options
I like mine very much . Had three in raised bed form . Added three more worked good from the get.The older they get the better they seem to work.
Thanks For This Vid About Hugelkuturing:
Im in Canada and I create beds like this with Pete moss and top soil which I have very little of 3 inches with basically sandy soil underneth.
Native plants like blueberry's and Elderberry's are doing well in the raised mounds and this year I'll be trying it out with legumes & vegetables and as for the last long row that im creating now in an indent along a back I'll thanks a million make sure not to get lazy and make sure that the soil mix that I add to it fills in all of the cracks and crevices and that the logs aren't covered too deeply in soil like the case for most of the beds that are completed. What didn't work well that still grew corn last year was a bed that was filled in with mostly sand that hardly decomposed in 3 years. ONCE ADING HUMMUS LIKE SOIL AND WITH PETE MOSS its coming around and the logs are finally softening up cause of the moisture.
In my 3 back beds I have used this method for the upcoming season. One of those beds had it already last season and I did see some advantages...less watering mostly and did not see many or any negatives. That said, I dig my raised beds down well below the soil surface on which the bed rests.
When filling I made sure to have 12 to 18 inches of soil above the wood/twig material. I don't know if that negates the purpose of doing this but I'm having fun with it.
As for air gaps...as I am dumping my soil onto the wood material, I would get into the bed and basically agitate the soil to work it into those air pockets. Further, I will leave the bed for several months for it to settle.
Thank you thank you thank you!!! I have been waiting for this, You have helped tremendously ! I'm sure my husband thanks you too...LOL! Please keep sharing your knowledge, it's appreciated.
Haha oh that’s wonderful! Hopefully it helps you make a decision 😊
Hi , do you have a video about peat moss ?
I recently was told that it's bad for the environment and ruining bogs.
I do! Here you go I actually touch on the idea of it not being renewables ruclips.net/video/8KQbmkwNa54/видео.html
I built three largish raised beds last year and layered the bottoms with woody bits, but not true hügelkultur. The idea for me, being in the high desert with cold winters and hot dry summers, is that the extra OM down there packed with soil would only help with water retention. The raised beds are temporary, but the wood is untreated and as yet I have not seen any decomposition. The sun out here is brutal, though, so wood is more likely to rot due to sun rot than to water. I'll let you know how year 2 goes. Year 1 was a success!
That sounds awesome! Please do let me know how year two goes. It will take a while before it degrades I think
I plan on doing a raised bed that's quite high so filling it halfway up with free resources like wood, branches and leaves might be necessary. I don't have the backyard yet so I've plenty of time to learn more before actually doing it😊 I don't want to be gardening literally on the ground level so something like birdies raised bed would be my dream... As years go by, I think there will be more affordable options on the market. I don't want to build a wooden structure that would just decompose over time.
I've had great success with hill gardens, over a clay soil and didn't experience any of the "may happen statements". I also tried high density planting in these beds and had very good results. Mine were built in raised beds and I haven't tried the mound type yet. I also had access to logs and fire wood that had clear signs of mycelium throughout the wood. And an accidental finding was discovered last summer with all the heavy rains we had in Atlantic Canada, the raised beds didn't experience any issues we being overwatered throughout the growing season; that may have nothing to do with hügelkultur but more so with the raised beds.
i saw it being used as a partial windbreak as part of a permaculture forest. i suppose it really just depends on longterm plans.
Oh that’s a smart way to use it as well. There is one subscriber who I advised to use it on an old foundation plot because it’s easier then ripping out concrete piles
Windbreak for the win!!!! 😀
Haha yes!
I love the way you say “and I’m a soil scientist” you make it sound like the coolest thing 😎 😄
I find out i did a lot of things wrong 😅 i put fresh cut wood to raised bed and i put a lot of it, it even sprouted 😆 It was walnut tree wood which is supposed to contain a lot if chemicals that repel microbes, fungi, bugs and other plants 🤷🏻😅. Only brassicas and tomatoes did poorly but all different kinds of plants did great.
Haha I don’t like saying it actually I feel bossy. But I do it give me a leg in the race with all the bigger pros. And nothing wrong with that just extra greenery!
I'm moving to the Sonoran Desert in California and plan on trying Hugle culture, Straw bale growing, container and raised beds maybe even create a Swale or two.
I imagine that finding trees for the Hugle culture experiments is gonna be difficult.
I'll try and remember to update you on progress and results!
I'll be building a hybrid in ground garden this year that I hope to have ready for next year. My plan is for deep till transitioning to no dig with very deep arborist chip perimeter and paths. My plan is 12-18 inches deep on the chips. The beds in this garden are going to have a lot of decomposing wood around them. That's almost Hugelkultur ;).
Haha that’s kind of like the deep mulch method I’m doing a video on shortly. Sounds awesome!
ok so continuing the discussion from your nitrogen depletion video
context: the sunniest spot in my yard had about 6-8 inches of pea gravel on the surface and I wanted to get rid of it so I could use the area for growing crops that like full sun (tomato, cucumber, zucchini, pepper, melon, bean). I dug a 2 ft deep trench for my bed and threw the gravel at the bottom so it wouldn't be in the way of plant roots, but that also means that all the topsoil got buried along with it. Now I backfilled a decent amount of subsoil I excavated to create the trench and I'm trying to create a "new soil" for my plants to grow in.
The subsoil was mostly sandy, although there was also some lenses of compacted clay. Probably 80% sandy, 20% clay. So I think that's enough sand to avoid waterlogging/perched water tables. If anything, I'd rather increase the water retention, so organic matter would help.
The wood I was planning on using was spruce I cut last week, plus some tree roots I dug out of the trench (from a big tree that was cut down about 3 years ago). I split the wood down to about 1-2 inches in diameter so it can break down faster. But maybe I don't want it to break down so fast since that would consume too much nitrogen? I guess when it comes down to it, you're building a compost pile, so you want o get the right mix of brown and green material for the same reason as you would with a compost pile? Unfortunately I'm not to all of this, not just hugelkultur but composting too, so I don't know if I have the best sense for the proportions.
Maybe I should swap out that freshly cut spruce wood for some older wood from the firewood pile? Although I'm not sure if older firewood is really that much better since it's kept dry so it's still not really rotted even if it's a few years old?
For brown materials I have
-wood from spruce tree & dug out tree roots (or older firewood)
-branches from spruce tree with needles on
-branches from pruned bushes
-partially decomposed leaves
-more spruce/pine needles from under trees
Green material
-turf I dug up to make the bed
-algae from the creek in my backyard (just a small bucket full but I think it's quite nitrogen rich)
-a few bins of weeds and other green plant material
-manure
Yea I would do the swamp 100% it’s going to be worth it. But everything else sounds fantastic
@@GardeningInCanada ok so the soil I bought at the grocery store yesterday is maybe not that good after reading some comments online?
It was "Organix Black Earth" and "Organix Sheep Manure mixed with Black Earth" from St Eugene Packaging based in St Isidore Ontario that was being sold at my local Longos. I haven't opened any of it yet so that I can hopefully return it if it turns out to be no good.
Now, I didn't necessarily expect it to be Ukrainian Chernozem or anything, but I was hoping it would have a fairly high compost content.
However, I read a blog post online that said it's just nutrient poor low-grade peat?
It will work fine it’s just considered more money.
@@GardeningInCanada It sounds like you'll go over it soon? But basically I was just wondering how the "black earth" soil should be used, like should it be used with manure mixed in, or can it be used as the main growing medium in a vegetable garden? Like can it be used like garden soil or what is it exactly?
This is so awesome..a Canadian channel . Southern Ontario here...frozen and closed.
Right!?! Go Canadians go! We need more of us though 😂 I keep trying to share the channel but can’t seem to get traction 🥲
@@GardeningInCanada I will share it..I have a good following on twitter not so much on Fbook,
Haha oh! That’s awesome. Maybe it’ll work.
I have place leafs and small branches under my garden plot 1-2 feet to help with moisture content but it not mounded. Not sure how well it works but I tried it last year.
That sounds awesome. The bigger the log and the more degraded the more moisture holding ability you have.
I've amended my Ohio clay base soil 5 years and have 6 inches looking good, As people always say tomatoes plant deep, I planted some 14 inches deep they almost died, I believe that my digging into the clay was like a mud hole causing root-rot ( believe you said that but about the log holding excess water.
After almost losing tomato plants I pulled out replacing only about 8 inches and they came out OK.
Thanks for your teaching Lady
Because my last season lose my tomatoes are now looking great yes little early but I've time for replacing if I would need. So far no knats
Try filling the hole with compost this year too it will help
We have removed 98 Northern/Yellow Pine trees on our zone 3 Mountain property. Soil is over 75% clay with rock. The 1st 31 Pines tree guy hauled away. The next 67 we sawed in 5' lengths stacked on a hillside. We can't give these 150' tall Pines away. Eventually will build a 6' retaining wall infront of the stacked Pine. Can we use Pine for hugelkultur ? Considering planting acidic loving plants on the hillside.
Yea absolutely you can no reason why not. The soil sounds like it’s a bit unreasonable to deal with so Hügelkultur is going to be you best alternative. I wouldn’t worry about the acidity too much it’s actually a common misconception that pine trees are heavily acidic.
Great video! I am getting a 32” high corrugated steel raised bed (like Kevin of Epic Gardening’s birdies, but from a BC supplier). Two questions:
1. If the only wood available is fairly fresh, i know it will take a very long time to decompose. But i was thinking that it would still be good filler for the bottom half of the bed. Is that a problem?
2. Is it ok to put fresh garden waste (all the potted annuals, tomato plants etc with the soil from their containers etc) as the next layer?
Thanks for all the great knowledge you impart!
This was a good review. I am planning to use this method in my raised beds in my hoop house. I thought it would save some soil in that it takes up a lot of the volume. My beds are open bottom steel containers so not too concerned about them. My first thoughts on this were that it would rob N so I put it off till the logs were aged a bit I still think this may be a problem. I also wanted to ask you what your thoughts were on sprinkling cinnamon on seed trays to combat insects and algae / mold. I have also heard peppermint oil for same purpose.
Yea I should do a video on that it’s a common question. I personally use it but it only works to an extent. If it’s high humidity with little air flow cinnamon won’t save use right. And the lock up of nutrients is an issue with the newer stuff but the older it is the better. It also depends on depth as well right, if you have it out to the root zone does it really matter.
@@GardeningInCanada I was thinking about that (being out of the root zone) till you said anaerobic. That got me to thinking about what gasses might be created. I'm going to do it anyway.
Anerobic won’t matter out of the root zone too much. It just effects the rate of decomposition right. So it just won’t decompose as quickly. I wonder if you drilled holes in the wood how that would effect it
Thanks for mentioning Dr Linda Chalker-Scott, wow she has tonnes to talk about.
She’s pretty amazing very level headed and just about the science. She’s my inspiration
@@GardeningInCanada Maybe to further your education? You have proven a number of times you ability to educate.
Haha I still feel like I’m not good at explaining 😂
@@GardeningInCanada It is difficult to convey these "science-y" thingies to a broad audience. I believe in the proper atmosphere you are a shining star.
The more positive people in S.T.E.M. the better. Either by furthering your skills or adapting or taking them into the education field.
🥳 agreed. I try to keep it light there is no reason for using big fancy language
Just moved to Nova Scotia! U have a mixed forest and a driveway which runs east west, opening up the south side. It’s basically rocks. Lots of trees though, too many! There’s enough rock that hast to be moved to make a rock wall. So I could make a raised rockery with huge boulders popping out every now and then. Would this method work? Most of the wood is new cut. There’s a forest full of fallen trees and quite rotten trunks. Better to use this? Oodles of moss and lichen
Sounds beautiful! Sounds like a good setup for your situation
this can maybe help in sandy soils ... so you can keep some dirt and some moisture around the roots :)
Yea absolutely
Im making a large dug vegetable patch in the north of iceland and im putting a some thicker logs, twigs and woodchip (as diverse range of species as possible from the area) at the bottom, though nothing crazy and not completely covering, and soil with horse manure above that so its about 30-70% ratio maybe... we do have clay soils but its actually mostly just a whole load of rocks, so its probably gonna drain a little too well, so im hoping the wood can help maintain enough moisture. Also biologically the soil is pretty lacking in iceland so hopefully this will help with that too
What about filling those gaps or air pockets with wood chips and charcoal even maybe moss to help fill gaps will that work basically the same?
I agree with a few comments, in a sloped land with heavy clay soil its ideal for water retention as long as they can drain a bit using (hugel swales or terraces) however if your in a low flat land you will most likley have problems with it.
do you have a video where you discuss the nitrogen being tied up by fresh wood? can you point me to a paper that explains it? i'm curious about the mechanism and how context dependent it is. thank you so much!
Good info. Started because of poison soil! OMG, they didnt realize ROOTS will reach the poison ground?
This is not for me!
Trying to change from synthetic gardening to more organic gardening.
You help immensely cutting through all the BS on the internet!
Haha 😆 isn’t that wild. We’ve come so far with our knowledge
I did it in a metal raised bed with dry rotted wood on my property. I didn’t know about compaction. I have heavy clay soil. Does the type of wood change anything?
so i live in the north east ive done 3 types of hugelkultures over the past 8 years with very diffrent results. I have very heavy clay type soil. The mound version took many years approx. 3 before it was really a viable planting medium and then another 2 years of care to really get it set in however the water sink benefit only really helps with tap root plants and still requires as much watering as a traditional bed for all other plants. This same method used on a messier larger scale where i turned an old green dump area into layers of dead wood grass clippings and unwanted soil has after many years taken on a life of its own growing pumpkins and other native plants that have found there way in. My next method was to dig down 2-3 feet layer large logs then sticks and so on up to the ground level then build a 12 raised bed on top of this......These were initially successful but the clay seemed to take back over after 2 years and required quite a bit of amending. Finally i dug only 16 inches out and did a layering method of 2 inch dead sticks/logs some food scraps topped with 6 inches of year old mulch large coarse perlite and mushroom compost as the base then built 2 ft or higher raised beds on top with amended soil and this method has seemed to hold up for long periods with minimal amendments and has so far not reverted back to a mostly clay. after the first season in both the dig methods i would typically see a drop of about a foot in the soil level from the decomposition however when ive re topped up with soil the beds seem to suffer where as adding a bit of compost to the sunken beds and using them as is has been the winner every time.
if anyone is interested in seeing any of these methods and results i have documented the entire process.
that is very very cool!
Would you recommend this method for wet soil? We have slot of water in our garden. Thats why im looking for the smartest method
Yes absolutely if you are in a low spot 100%
Thank you so much ❤
Hi! I was wondering if you could link the papers you are referencing in this video, I might be doing a research project on hugelkultures and am looking peer reviewed sources. Thank you!
I would love to talk with you about my Hugelkulture Mounds. I made an experimental no-dig mound that worked pretty well last summer and I grew a LOT of basil in it without any issues. I had some ideas while listening to your video. Of the grow mediums I had a lot of good luck with one of my aquaponic setups, which was using a porous rock called haydite. That was such a great addition to my aquaponic grow bed, so I used extra in a shallow trench and made a mini mound and everything loved it mixed right into the dirt that way as well. I would love to talk more with you about this topic. I live in Missouri, so yep, heavy clay soil in some areas of my property. Thank you for the great video you made!!!
What is the variety name of your perennial cucumber please.
Hey, so what if you had heavy clay soil, could you dig down break up the clay and use rotting logs along with maybe a green layer to amend it? I'm trying to use this next year, soil isn't anerobic just heavy clay.
You definitely could try digging in some organic material to help loosen things up. My biggest concern would be lack of air flow causing low rates of decomposition. But if you can provide a solution to that then it will work.
My yard is on a slope and I had a rather large patch of mostly clay because the rain washed away the topsoil, so I put 3 logs across it to help retain soil and slow the flow, I would dump all my grass clippings on and around it as well as leaves and sticks out of the yard for about a year. I started making wholes in it, fill them with soil and plant things like beans and pumpkins. The plants didn't do very well the first year but I did get a fair crop. Now, 3 years later, it is my best garden. I have water loving plants like coleus and flowers that die in every other part of my dry, Australian garden. Even the Lemon tree a few feet away has doubled in size and completely covered in very large fruit. I am now a believer and will start building more and more of these xx
Explain perched water tables please
I love your channel! I really want to hear about azomite. My plants thank you for your videos
Glad your enjoying it! I’ll write that one down
Not for me either, unless you have equipment to do the work, it is too labor intensive. Beside, it looks ugly lol.
Right?!? So it’s not just me that thinks it looks messy?!?
I thought hugelkulture was to mitigate soggy ground. That’s what I’ve used it for
It depends right. So if it’s a classic mound it helps. But if it’s recessed in a clay bed I have my concern.
I'm German, my family in the East always had a garden. I learned what Hügelkultur is from yt. I'm of course not every German, but it's not necessarily a typical thing here let's just say.
Wow.. Nice video
Thanks!
Something Forgotten about burying hard wood in Canada
Why do they call it a "Canadian" Nightcrawler?
They love the bacteria growing in it
& Guess what night crawlers do when they eat?
I say Howieculture lol i have a food forest friend named Howie lol it fits he helped me understand the layers
Ive done this in a hole and a mound great results
Need to keep feeding these layers i believe
Yea good point you do need to feed
@@GardeningInCanada ya I hear ya on trapping moisture that's kinda the point
But it's a layer thing some plants love it some not so much
I think of it as a pile of branches getting covered up by leaves every year
It will decompose after time and other plants like raspberries take over a thicket kinds thing
My squash loved the pile mounded up and they helped it break down...it climbed the brush no problem and compost on top with rabbits bedding worked perfectly but need to keep feeding it some or assessing the substrate
Taking a clue from weeds or plants showing signs of low nitrogen;)
That sounds like an awesome setup wow
@@GardeningInCanada ya we will have to watch as it ages
I don't like to dig but sometimes you need to dig to burry things so layers to fill everything back in
I find mounds warm up quickly and stay warmer too but might be the layers decomposing adding heat too
Just need to stick a pipe in it and use that for heating a greenhouse 😂
We stuck load of logs in the bottom of our tall (3’) raised beds, just to take up volume really. And yeah, I thought I was being trendy so go ahead, laugh at the old man lol😂
Participatory Commenting
Hahah ❤️
💚💚
❤️❤️❤️
Yes we could not burn because of the ya know so we did this lol and bunnies ate lots too lol
Haha Awee that’s cute
@@GardeningInCanada yes tree eaters lol they earn their keep around here lol
@@GardeningInCanada lol furry woodchippers lol
Ahahaha do you have any of those giant lop ear ones
@@GardeningInCanada no giant ears but we have some giant rabbits lol
At least 500 jabillion I think.
give your fishs more room
Okay great info but more importantly, what happened to your hands?!? 😂
Your poor fish!🤣
hmmm...sounds like a hellish nightmare, lol
I don’t have a patience for it but for some people with hard soil it maybe the only option
@@GardeningInCanada If that was the case just go with containers . . dontchathink?
Yea you definitely could do that. This is a community endeavour so cost factors in a bit.
Not pronounced huggle.