Brit Barnes

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!

Jenny Wright wrote: What do you have growing in the one horizonal bed?

Thanks for your reply! Nothing there yet, but was planning on using that for squash and other vining plants in the spring. I'll def. see if I can fit some Kale in the bed this year too!

Thanks! We're actually pretty blessed with great weather. This past winter was very wet but usually get an average of 3-4inches of rainfall during the winter months... always very dry during the summer.

Hello All! I'm new to the forums, but not new to gardening. I am, however, trying my hand at fall planting which I don't usually do.
I used the Permaculture Plant Data (https://permacultureplantdata.com/) website to find compatible plant pairs, and a local Plant Schedule for my zone (9b)
but would love some feedback on placement. Each row is going to be a 4' wide hugelkultur mounds topped with compost, with 3' walkways between.


My biggest issue in this area is poor soil (hardpan clay) so the hugelbeds will help with moisture retention, and hopefully also fix the problem of water collecting in low spots every year where my beds are going.  Thanks for your feedback!