“Rabbits need food too”.....I thought I could not admire you more......I was wrong......the simple honor and respect that you pay to the creatures you garden with is so wonderful and so rare in this day and age.
I have access to free abundant coffee grounds from the local shops (I encourage everyone to go to their coffee shops and ask! Or the bins out back) and when making a couple hugels last year, used them abundantly. Those hugels are the only thing that survived my rainless California summer! My takeaway is: add a ton of nitrogen, in whatever form you can find, which will balance out the wood and you're basically building a long term compost pile.
There was no difference from my traditional raised bed and hugel bed the first year. I had to water both. The second year I didn't have to water the hugel bed as much. This [2018] is my third year and I don't plan on watering much, if at all. I love the hugel bed and am going to convert one of my traditional beds over each year until I have them all replaced.
Lovely video. I planted my first four hugels this spring, in my garden in southern England. Two are already doing amazingly well - especially the one on which I used my own homemade compost. It started bursting into life after a couple of weeks and didn't even need planting/seeding. While I have planted a couple of small trees, perennial 'walking onions' and wild strawberries, courgettes, peas, rainbow chard and beans have all appeared spontaneously, from seeds in the compost.
Pretty cool. I'm looking for a new home where I can put in a large garden. I hope I can afford something where I can have animals. I would like chickens, rabbits, and goats.
we are on a residential lot, and have a small garden. Additionally, we have added 3 raised beds. In building those beds, I simply put down cardboard, and then followed the hugelmound theory - sticks and twigs...some branches that fell from our surrounding trees, then leaves and then added compost manure and dirt. As you said, it takes a little bit for it to get going well, but our zucchini and yellow squash were quite happy and produced well, we think. We're looking forward to next year. Our newest one will have garlic planted next month for harvest in June 2018. I'm enjoying your channel!
I am so glad to watch this video. I have made 3 Hugelkultur beds and have planted out one, and it is doing just ok, but feel really relieved to listen to you say that year 1 sucked lol. Next year and the year after I will look forward to good fertility and better growing plants. Thank you!!
I was out today saving some parsnip seed...tricky stuff that shatters and flies everywhere...four plants and you've got a bucket full...don't even like parsnips that much lol.
I’m so excited to see what can be done with a forsythia thicket! I have one here, at least 8 feet wide and about 20 feet long. The previous owners were also kind enough to take cuttings or suckers and plant forsythia all along the back fence, maybe 40 yards. 😳 I was imagining needing to dig them out but behold! A much easier alternative. I have been thinking of putting elderberry and other shrubs there, because it also serves as a hedge between my property and the next door neighbor, blocking the view of the Trump signs. 😉
I think this was a watershed video/explanation of Hugel mounds. All the rest show the building and sort of skip over the 'dry period' between crerating a mound and its usefulness. Thanks.
Really my pleasure to share. I suspect you can get an instantly productive hugel if you focus on covering them with ample ample soil to kickstart the whole process, but without big machines it isn't necessarily a practical work flow, so it's good to know that they are wonderful if you wait!
I find that forsythia resprouts and that branches root into the ground, in my environment which is similar to yours (so VT z5). I’m drying the forsythia branches to circumvent that tendency. How has it been for you? Also did you dig out the forsythia roots? They’re extensive in the ground. I’m tackling the forsythia all over at my place. For years now. Most exciting this year is that 2 forsythia sites ate now an amelanchier snd a Nanking cherry!
They absolutely resprout for sure... What I have done before is simply keep cutting them back or pulling the shoots and laying them on top until the root system dies back. No digging or intensity, just a few rounds of cutting/tugging and they pass along and leave all that goodness in the ground!
It looks great , I shall be constructing one this spring . At my English allotment . What variety of beet are they ?? Are they a beetroot ,?? Cheers James ,
I love the concept of HUGELKULTUR gardening. We built several raised beds last year using this method which were all productive. This year, I am struggling with pill bugs attacking the melon starts in one bed. They are being slowed by Sevins powder (diatomaceous earth didn’t work) I imagine this is because of the breakdown of the wood down deep? Any advice on what to do?
I understand it more like the Nitrogen available in the soil is locked up during the decomposition of the wood and then available again later. But most certainly there is a dip in available goodness early on, but it overflows with niceness later!
@@edibleacres although I meant putting them into tubs of water until they're saturated as prep work before they're put into the ground, I'm not sure if winter would be the best time to
It seems like soil based on rotting wood would be high in potassium. Could you accellerate the process w/ chicken manure especially for nitrogen loving plants such as beets and alliums?
Hi. Nice video and garden. Patience will win out. :D Would you please tell me the name of the plant directly in front of the corn @ .40 in the video? Thanks.
1. What's the toilet paper at 3:42 for? 2. What's that purple-flowering plant at 5:19 called and do you know if it can grow in a Washington-ish climate?
1) It's actually an old bone from a cow! I see how you'd think it's TP! :) 2) The purple plant is a type of amaranth. I believe Hopi Red Dye. You can certainly grow it up there...
I do not doubt the effectiveness of hugelkulture, but I rarely ever use it. Ive always found that it is far more work with no appreciable advantage or increased fertility over a regular bed. It is useful for mounding up a bed or berm if you have limited soil to create the mound, or in a situation where you already were digging anyway...Other than that I've never found it necessary. Any thoughts?
It was a way to transform a huge amount of woody and herbaceous biomass into a garden without transporting it elsewhere. Incredibly effective use of onsite resource in this case, and in general I've found.
Question! :) I have a 6 month old hugelmound that I randomly threw radish and melon seeds in to just amend the soil.-which are doing pretty well! The hopes was for a next year spring bed. Soooo- just discovered a wasps nest in the mound - the hard way :-/ how would you suggest I manage them? I thought a glass bowl over the entrance but I'm not even sure where it is exactly. I don't want to burn it as it's a masterpiece in progress. And def no chemicals. I've thought of a mild dish detergent/water mix over the area in the fall to kill them off. I'm at a total loss as there is no help on 'google' about wasps and mounds. Thanks :)
I would go with that dish detergent and water mix. Or a hose and just apply the detergent directly. I guess it's needed to help break down the nest. I think you should find that entrance and try the glass bowl, as well, if you can. In other words, I have nothing to add to what you're already thinking. LOL. I have siphoned soapy water and successfully taken out a ground nest before. It took more than one night's application. I think I did five gallons the first night, and ten the second, and that was sufficient, but I guess it depends on the size of the nest. Just stuck the hose right in the entrance.
Jeremy Briggs thanks Jeremy :) might wait until it gets a bit cooler so they are in there dormant and I can get them all. Someone also suggested boiling water to me as well
Sorry to hear you got the aggressive, biting kind of wasp. I was lucky that mine only seem interested in hunting the insects eating my garden. Maybe you could sign a peace treaty with them :)
If you are on a slope then ideally the hugelmounds are on the contour so they can absorb the most water. If a very flat area then ideally perpendicular to the strongest winter winds to help buffer the landscape. North South in that scenario for us...
Great video!! This is off topic but do you have any recommendations for preparing beets? I really want to love beets, but I just don't. I'm thinking there's got to be ways to prepare them that must be better than what I've tried since so many people happily eat them lol
Borsch, AKA Beet soup. Find your local Ukrainian lady and ask her for a recipe or find one online. Ukrainian Borsch is better than Russian Borsch because it's vegetarian and meat isn't as good in Borsch. Borsch is pretty much a root veggie using soup (historically) so you can have some fun with combinations too.
Peel and dice them then throw em with some butternut squash, onions, garlic and carrots, coat with ghee, coconut oil or olive oil and then into the oven for 45 minutes at 415. I loveeee slow roasted beets. Take the roasted veggies and put them on a salad with goat cheese crumbles and a balsamic or lemon dressing. Bam! Delicious
Peel and dice them then throw em with some butternut squash, onions, garlic and carrots, coat with ghee, coconut oil or olive oil and then into the oven for 45 minutes at 415. I loveeee slow roasted beets. Take the roasted veggies and put them on a salad with goat cheese crumbles and a balsamic or lemon dressing. Bam! Delicious
You can make beet salad. Boil or steam beets in pressure cooker. Like 8 minutes. Then cool 3 beets Garlic cloves to taste Mayo Cauliflower, cut finely and steamed Dried soaked prunes cut up Salt to taste Peel beets, grate, mix with mayo, and finely chopped garlic add cauliflower, salt.
“Rabbits need food too”.....I thought I could not admire you more......I was wrong......the simple honor and respect that you pay to the creatures you garden with is so wonderful and so rare in this day and age.
In the scheme of things we have it so incredibly easy that it would be insane to be mad at rabbits.
I have access to free abundant coffee grounds from the local shops (I encourage everyone to go to their coffee shops and ask! Or the bins out back) and when making a couple hugels last year, used them abundantly. Those hugels are the only thing that survived my rainless California summer! My takeaway is: add a ton of nitrogen, in whatever form you can find, which will balance out the wood and you're basically building a long term compost pile.
Going back and watching some of your older videos - such a wealth of knowledge that you have shared over the years. Thank you so much!
What a treat to see a hugelkultur video showing an actual harvest.
And some of my favourite edible weeds. Mmm, curly dock. I love my hugelmound.
Right!? Almost every video shows them being made, but very few show what comes out...
I love how you garden, wonderful to see this bed!
There was no difference from my traditional raised bed and hugel bed the first year. I had to water both. The second year I didn't have to water the hugel bed as much. This [2018] is my third year and I don't plan on watering much, if at all. I love the hugel bed and am going to convert one of my traditional beds over each year until I have them all replaced.
Bloody Dock is a highly nutritious green
Lovely video. I planted my first four hugels this spring, in my garden in southern England. Two are already doing amazingly well - especially the one on which I used my own homemade compost. It started bursting into life after a couple of weeks and didn't even need planting/seeding. While I have planted a couple of small trees, perennial 'walking onions' and wild strawberries, courgettes, peas, rainbow chard and beans have all appeared spontaneously, from seeds in the compost.
Pretty cool. I'm looking for a new home where I can put in a large garden. I hope I can afford something where I can have animals. I would like chickens, rabbits, and goats.
I love having food that plants itself. Take what you need, and let nature do the rest!
we are on a residential lot, and have a small garden. Additionally, we have added 3 raised beds. In building those beds, I simply put down cardboard, and then followed the hugelmound theory - sticks and twigs...some branches that fell from our surrounding trees, then leaves and then added compost manure and dirt. As you said, it takes a little bit for it to get going well, but our zucchini and yellow squash were quite happy and produced well, we think. We're looking forward to next year. Our newest one will have garlic planted next month for harvest in June 2018. I'm enjoying your channel!
Nice. Thank you. Amazes me what's going on under the surface. Folks hardly ever see. Living soil. Htgde.
"Crop & Drop"
Fantastic, as usual! :-)
I am so glad to watch this video. I have made 3 Hugelkultur beds and have planted out one, and it is doing just ok, but feel really relieved to listen to you say that year 1 sucked lol. Next year and the year after I will look forward to good fertility and better growing plants. Thank you!!
Happy to share our experience.
First year wood takes nitrogen. Put green weeds in bucket, stir roughly every day, mix w/water after 3 days.
I'm getting fairly cavalier with my hugels/compost mounds. Throw in enough seed varieties and *something* will grow in it...
That really works well with seed saving where vast quantities of seed are obtained and they can be thrown around with abandon :)
Heh! Oddly enough _precisely_ what I've been doing this year....
I was out today saving some parsnip seed...tricky stuff that shatters and flies everywhere...four plants and you've got a bucket full...don't even like parsnips that much lol.
Sure is a great reason to save seed and let plants drop their own! Makes it all fill in quite nicely!
This is the second year of my hugel! Still have a ways for it to go before it’s like yours. Think I’ll put down tree kale this year!
I’m so excited to see what can be done with a forsythia thicket! I have one here, at least 8 feet wide and about 20 feet long. The previous owners were also kind enough to take cuttings or suckers and plant forsythia all along the back fence, maybe 40 yards. 😳
I was imagining needing to dig them out but behold! A much easier alternative. I have been thinking of putting elderberry and other shrubs there, because it also serves as a hedge between my property and the next door neighbor, blocking the view of the Trump signs. 😉
The transition worked out well, but I had to go through and cut back new shoots at least a few times
I think this was a watershed video/explanation of Hugel mounds. All the rest show the building and sort of skip over the 'dry period' between crerating a mound and its usefulness. Thanks.
Really my pleasure to share. I suspect you can get an instantly productive hugel if you focus on covering them with ample ample soil to kickstart the whole process, but without big machines it isn't necessarily a practical work flow, so it's good to know that they are wonderful if you wait!
I see your meaning first year sucks lol next one will be much better tho I'm new to this but very excited at this concept
I find that forsythia resprouts and that branches root into the ground, in my environment which is similar to yours (so VT z5). I’m drying the forsythia branches to circumvent that tendency. How has it been for you? Also did you dig out the forsythia roots? They’re extensive in the ground. I’m tackling the forsythia all over at my place. For years now. Most exciting this year is that 2 forsythia sites ate now an amelanchier snd a Nanking cherry!
They absolutely resprout for sure... What I have done before is simply keep cutting them back or pulling the shoots and laying them on top until the root system dies back. No digging or intensity, just a few rounds of cutting/tugging and they pass along and leave all that goodness in the ground!
The wood chips are probably the best thing you did for your plants.
Beautiful!
It looks great , I shall be constructing one this spring . At my English allotment . What variety of beet are they ?? Are they a beetroot ,?? Cheers James ,
I believe they were/are '3 Root Grex' beets. Perhaps we got them from Fedco originally? I bet you can find them...
I love the concept of HUGELKULTUR gardening. We built several raised beds last year using this method which were all productive. This year, I am struggling with pill bugs attacking the melon starts in one bed. They are being slowed by Sevins powder (diatomaceous earth didn’t work) I imagine this is because of the breakdown of the wood down deep? Any advice on what to do?
I never knew daikon could grow on East coast.
Thank you. Very helpful. It would help to know about how much rain you get in the summer.
Sure. We're roughly 34" as an average from what I understand...
Oh, 34" as a yearly average... not sure what the summers average out in rain... but that figure includes snow melt.
I've heard that the decomposition of the woods leaches nitrogen the first year or so so this doesn't surprise me.
I understand it more like the Nitrogen available in the soil is locked up during the decomposition of the wood and then available again later. But most certainly there is a dip in available goodness early on, but it overflows with niceness later!
love it.......
I wonder if soaking the logs until they're waterlogged would help speed this process
I think thats a very reasonable idea... We're trying that actively this winter, I'll try to remember to share notes on how it unfolds
@@edibleacres please do and thank you
@@edibleacres although I meant putting them into tubs of water until they're saturated as prep work before they're put into the ground, I'm not sure if winter would be the best time to
Even though it's not great at first is do you recommend something to plant in it during the early stages?
adaptable annuals, like radish/turnips and the like as well as things like squash and cukes.
It seems like soil based on rotting wood would be high in potassium. Could you accellerate the process w/ chicken manure especially for nitrogen loving plants such as beets and alliums?
That could make sense... I didn't know that about the potassium, but I do know that with enough time it all seems to resolve...
I heard that horse manure excelerates decomposition and helps to release nutrients
have you ever experimented with hugelcontainers? permaculture on the porch of an appartment!
+Cory McSnizzle I haven't tried it myself, but would be interested to see examples if you have any!
What would you advise tp do to get the knowledge you have?
Hi. Nice video and garden. Patience will win out. :D Would you please tell me the name of the plant directly in front of the corn @ .40 in the video? Thanks.
Wshew, not sure which one! Maybe its dock!
1. What's the toilet paper at 3:42 for?
2. What's that purple-flowering plant at 5:19 called and do you know if it can grow in a Washington-ish climate?
1) It's actually an old bone from a cow! I see how you'd think it's TP! :)
2) The purple plant is a type of amaranth. I believe Hopi Red Dye. You can certainly grow it up there...
This is very reminiscent of the Back To Eden Garden tradition.
I do not doubt the effectiveness of hugelkulture, but I rarely ever use it. Ive always found that it is far more work with no appreciable advantage or increased fertility over a regular bed. It is useful for mounding up a bed or berm if you have limited soil to create the mound, or in a situation where you already were digging anyway...Other than that I've never found it necessary. Any thoughts?
It was a way to transform a huge amount of woody and herbaceous biomass into a garden without transporting it elsewhere. Incredibly effective use of onsite resource in this case, and in general I've found.
Question! :) I have a 6 month old hugelmound that I randomly threw radish and melon seeds in to just amend the soil.-which are doing pretty well! The hopes was for a next year spring bed. Soooo- just discovered a wasps nest in the mound - the hard way :-/ how would you suggest I manage them? I thought a glass bowl over the entrance but I'm not even sure where it is exactly. I don't want to burn it as it's a masterpiece in progress. And def no chemicals. I've thought of a mild dish detergent/water mix over the area in the fall to kill them off. I'm at a total loss as there is no help on 'google' about wasps and mounds. Thanks :)
I would go with that dish detergent and water mix. Or a hose and just apply the detergent directly. I guess it's needed to help break down the nest. I think you should find that entrance and try the glass bowl, as well, if you can. In other words, I have nothing to add to what you're already thinking. LOL. I have siphoned soapy water and successfully taken out a ground nest before. It took more than one night's application. I think I did five gallons the first night, and ten the second, and that was sufficient, but I guess it depends on the size of the nest. Just stuck the hose right in the entrance.
Jeremy Briggs thanks Jeremy :) might wait until it gets a bit cooler so they are in there dormant and I can get them all. Someone also suggested boiling water to me as well
Katharine James Hi find the entrances,after sun down pour gasoline in it,about a quart.
Sorry to hear you got the aggressive, biting kind of wasp. I was lucky that mine only seem interested in hunting the insects eating my garden. Maybe you could sign a peace treaty with them :)
What's the best orientation for hugelmounds? East-west? Or, north-south?
If you are on a slope then ideally the hugelmounds are on the contour so they can absorb the most water. If a very flat area then ideally perpendicular to the strongest winter winds to help buffer the landscape. North South in that scenario for us...
@@edibleacres
Thanks for the quick reply.
Been watching you for years. Quite inspiring!
did you dig out the soil and then bury the wood, and if so how far ? it looks beautiful.
I know I should have... but we didn't. Just laid the branches and material over the stumps we were cutting. But its working, so I'm happy!
Great video!! This is off topic but do you have any recommendations for preparing beets? I really want to love beets, but I just don't. I'm thinking there's got to be ways to prepare them that must be better than what I've tried since so many people happily eat them lol
Borsch, AKA Beet soup. Find your local Ukrainian lady and ask her for a recipe or find one online. Ukrainian Borsch is better than Russian Borsch because it's vegetarian and meat isn't as good in Borsch. Borsch is pretty much a root veggie using soup (historically) so you can have some fun with combinations too.
Peel and dice them then throw em with some butternut squash, onions, garlic and carrots, coat with ghee, coconut oil or olive oil and then into the oven for 45 minutes at 415. I loveeee slow roasted beets. Take the roasted veggies and put them on a salad with goat cheese crumbles and a balsamic or lemon dressing. Bam! Delicious
Peel and dice them then throw em with some butternut squash, onions, garlic and carrots, coat with ghee, coconut oil or olive oil and then into the oven for 45 minutes at 415. I loveeee slow roasted beets. Take the roasted veggies and put them on a salad with goat cheese crumbles and a balsamic or lemon dressing. Bam! Delicious
You can make beet salad. Boil or steam beets in pressure cooker. Like 8 minutes. Then cool
3 beets
Garlic cloves to taste
Mayo
Cauliflower, cut finely and steamed
Dried soaked prunes cut up
Salt to taste
Peel beets, grate, mix with mayo, and finely chopped garlic add cauliflower, salt.
"Genetically promiscuous" = lol
How would you get enough to put by for the winter using lugelmound?
Can you get rid of Laurel the same way as you did with the forsythia?
I don't have specific experience with it so I don't know.