This will be a collection of posts, hopefully documenting my journey along the way.
Location: Northern California, zone 9b
Soil Condition: Hardpan clay, rocky dirt
Goal: Luscious garden, low
water
We recently moved in with my Mother-in-Law, 10acres. They've lived here for 40ish years, and my FIL tried many many times to try and make
gardening work, with little luck. Part of our move included cleaning out a long abandoned shed, full of boxes of junk and some family treasures. Additionally, there's a corner of the property that's been a dumping ground for FIL's friends.
Solution: Hügelkultur raised beds.
Here's where I decided to place them: a 40x40' area behind the house that gets partial morning sun, and the rest of the day full sun, until the evening when it's shadowed by the garage.
Here's the source of our
wood: Old "fire pond" full of dumped
trees and limbs aging for the last 8-10 years. Very dry, some of them broke just picking them up!
Here's how I started: Bigger logs/trunks on the bottom, full of sticks about 2' high and 4' wide. Aiming for 3-4' walking paths between each rows, large
enough to get the wheelbarrow through. I used up all those junky
cardboard boxes, and will finish it off with decomposed granite on top once the
compost has been laid in.
Closeup:
My two (unwilling) helpers for scale:
And here's the current state: Added some leaves, but I have 2-3 garbage bags full of leaves from last fall I planned on putting into the compost, which i'll add into the cracks of the beds.
Next step: I'll have 4 yards of compost delivered next week, so I can start covering them. I may have enough time to get my fall planting done, fingers crossed.
The idea is to start saturating/supersoaking them with water while being constructed, along with them soaking up the winter rains, so that by spring they'll be fully saturated, and will require less daily watering in the spring/summer.
Over the winter I mapped out all the low-points that gather water during the rains... The red box is where we plan on putting in an extension on the garage (10') and that will be raised up to match the existing foundation. The low spots (light blue) naturally collect standing water, so hoping that isn't a problem any more and the raised beds will soak them up like a sponge. (The top-most red boxes are where my compost piles now live!)
Thoughts? Feedback? Thank you for any insight I might have overlooked!
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