I am a lazy gardener. That, plus the recent onset of rheumatoid disease, has led me to adopt a largely no-dig approach in my vegetable garden; I say largely because I do engage in the occasional frenzied forking-over sessions to try and discourage the mole and more particularly the field voles. You can read my latest vole rant Here.
Whilst reading up on trying to run a no dig system in tandem with lots of happily digging mammals, I came across a reference to Hugelkultur and more importantly, Hugelkultur raised beds, a highly moisture retentive construction of decaying timber topped with soil.
Moisture retention is high up my list of desirable features for any growing areas because of our heavy clay topped with very thin poor soil, and get summer temperatures in the thirties and weeks, sometimes months without any significant rainfall. I mulch to keep the moisture in, but the idea of a reservoir of damp material that will draw roots down really appeals.
Broadly as I understand it, the principle is to layer up decaying logs and smaller woody material to create a mound which is then finished off with topsoil or compost. Planting then takes place on the top and the sides of the mound and can be anything from quick cropping vegetables to permanent trees or shrubs.
We have a huge amount of decaying timber, mostly the remains of our first allocation of communal fire wood that didn't make it into the woodshed in time, plus rotting trees that we've had to clear from the boundaries. The place where the initial log pile stood will make a perfect location for my first foray into Hugel building: it is on a slope so will collect the water running downhill, plus if I orientate it east-west the north side will give me an area to grow plants that don't appreciate having their roots baked all day.
The planting plan so far is for globe artichokes on the south side; they are currently in a fixed bed in the vegetable plot which I would like to free up for more asparagus, plus I like the architectural statement of the grey leaved plants and the Hugelbed will be clearly visible as you approach the house up the drive. The back of the bed will have a new batch of raspberries; I planted canes in the fruit garden the first year we were here but they didn't do well. The location I chose had lost all its meagre topsoil when the house was built so I had little option but to dig a trench in the clay subsoil and back fill with some growing medium. They hated being in full sun, getting baked dry in summer and waterlogged in winter and succumbed to disease after just a couple of seasons. I hope they will fair better on the Hugelbed where at least they should neither dry out or get waterlogged. The rest of the space will be used for growing various flowers for cutting for the house, and again should look good at the top at the drive.
But planting is a long way in the future. In late August we began the 'build'.
The first stage was to clear the existing woodpile; we sorted through the stack, putting the decaying wood to one side, and then the good stuff was cut to length, split and stacked in the woodshed ready for the winter.
We then measured the cleared space: the base of the bed is approx three by two metres.
Digging out the topsoil and accumulated composted wood material took two days as the weather was scorching; we worked until the sun cleared the woodland trees each morning which was conveniently just in time for coffee!
The biggest timbers then went into the bottom of the trench.
And were topped off with a layer of the partly composted debris from underneath the pile.
The next layer was all the smaller timber which we attempted to tessellate together so there weren't too many gaps!
Next up were two trailer loads of manure.
This was raked out until the ends of the wood were all covered and we had a nice mound shape ready to take the topsoil dug out from the original trench. I'm sure that this should not have been enough to cover the mound, but it was, and comfortably so.
The above picture shows the completed but unplanted Hugelbed.
The plan now is to leave it all to bed down over the winter and then probably throw a sheet of plastic over it once the weeds start growing in late February or March, ready for starting to plant it up from April.
The bed from the other side of the garden - covered in raspberries, artichokes and a load of annual and perennial flowers, it should look fantastic. And no watering!
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