hugelkultur
It's a german word and some people can say it all german-ish. I'm an american doofus, so I say "hoogle culture".
I had to spend some time with google to find the right spelling. Hugal, hoogal, huegal, hugel .... And I really like saying it out loud: "hugelkultur, hoogle culture, hoogal kulture ...." - it could be a chant or something.
I learned this high-falootin word at
my permaculture training. I also saw it demonstrated on the
Sepp Holzer terraces and raised beds video - he didn't call it hugelkultur, but he was doing it.
Hugelkultur is nothing more than making raised beds filled with rotten wood. This makes for raised beds loaded with
organic material, nutrients, air pockets for the roots of what you plant, etc.
I do think there are some considerations to keep in mind. For example, I don't think I would use cedar. Cedar lasts so
long because it is loaded with natural pesticides/herbicides. Not a good mix for tomatoes or melons, eh? Black locust, black cherry,
black walnut? These woods have issues. Black locust won't rot - I think because it is so dense. Black walnut is very toxic to most plants, and cherry is toxic to animals, but it might be okay when it rots - but I wouldn't use it until I had done the research.
Another thing to keep in mind is that wood is high in carbon and will consume nitrogen to do the compost thing.
This could lock up the nitrogen and take it away from your growies. But well rotted wood doesn't do this so much. If
the wood is far enough along, it may have already taken in sooooo much nitrogen, that it is now putting it out!
Pine and fir will have some levels of tanins in them, but I'm guessing that most of that will be gone when the wood has
been dead for a few years.
So I guess a person could think of the wood used in hugelkultur as "wild compost"! Available in twig, stick and log
sizes!
So I popped on out to my local hugelkultur store and I saw this:
Yummy! I'm guessing that somebody did some thinning and stacked this to use for firewood in the future. Only they
never came back and got it. So the years passed and the wood rotted ...
I took most of it and put it on my tractor:
I left stuff that was so rotten that it would not transport well. Besides, it's going to do some good for the forest if
not for my raised beds.
Instant raised bed! Just lay down wood, and cover with dirt! That's all there is to it! Just two easy steps!
That's a hurky big bed! It will probabably be about 1/3 the size a year from now. Then we'll place rocks around it and
rework it a little into a slightly more elegant raised bed. This year: potatoes!
