2022 Hugelkultur Bed

Excited to see what crops up from this year's (2nd) Hugelkultur bed! Due to the massive wildfires & limited rain fall here in northern New Mexico , I have scaled back to two beds this year. Last year's Hugel bed out performed my regular flatbeds 2:1! What have you planted in your this season?

Bruce, I am impressed as that is a great-looking hugelkulture bed.

I don't have any.

What did you plant in your other hugelkulture beds?

Since I settled into a new property last autumn, I used the previous homeowner's large, abandoned pile of 'firewood' - which had been put in a poor spot with no protection from the elements and was rotting in place - and turned it into a stout hugel bed.

Tbh I've been treating it as a very long, 3-foot-high compost pile, tossing brush & lawn clippings, dry leaves, weeds, kitchen scraps, and various other things on top as they arrive.

I sowed some corn along the top, with watermelon and pumpkins interspersed, and a few volunteer tomato plants popping up in the sides.
I've been told corn will fall over from wind, due to their shallow roots, but the hugel is conveniently planted right next to a tall fence, which blocks most of the incoming wind - so I'm not super worried about that.  I've been mulching atop the hugel, around the corn, just in case.

There's a highbush cranberry tucked along one of the sides that I'm excited to see is growing very vigorously.

Toko Aakster wrote:Tbh I've been treating it as a very long, 3-foot-high compost pile, tossing brush & lawn clippings, dry leaves, weeds, kitchen scraps, and various other things on top as they arrive.

We do the same thing, especially for beds "under construction" which really means we started a new one then got busy with something else. It all gets buried and broken down at some point.

I used wood chips for hugel beds.   Hum I have a huge pile (free) of wood chips   Maybe I can take a few wheel barrows trips to fill in gaps of hugel beds.