Getting Started With Hugelkultur Beds

Cory Ray wrote:This is my first Hugel bed, I'm in South Texas so I did a buried style. Hopefully it works! The bed is about 2.5ft deep. The long side is oriented north-south so it gets max sun through the day. I'm planning on planting some moringa and/or a trellis on the west side to help protect against that afternoon heat.

The underground portion is mostly bigger logs, with random bits of chopped opuntia and cow manure. The mound part has some smaller sticks/branches, more manure, and coffee grounds. My only concern is that I didn't put enough smaller material on the upper layers

Any suggestions are welcome 😀

Double digging on steriods!

Hi Im only new to this method, and am going to read through the threads thoroughly on hugelkultur raised beds as well as the doco, however one thing that came to mind straight away regarding this method is termites. By placing wood in the beds and covering them up for rotting, would that not be an optimal environment for termites? My thought was having wood in contact with the ground, and when wet, is optimal for termites, unless it is a hardwood.

I might be wrong, that's why I would love all your feedback.

Megan Gaudry-Weir wrote:Hi Im only new to this method, and am going to read through the threads thoroughly on hugelkultur raised beds as well as the doco, however one thing that came to mind straight away regarding this method is termites. By placing wood in the beds and covering them up for rotting, would that not be an optimal environment for termites? My thought was having wood in contact with the ground, and when wet, is optimal for termites, unless it is a hardwood.

I might be wrong, that's why I would love all your feedback.

Do you have a problem with termites? If you have a nearby structure that's termite susceptible my guess is the termites move into the hugel mound and natural predators keep them in check.
I personally don't mind termites (if I have them in my mound) because they help decompose the logs.  Good luck, Huxley.☺

Huxley Harter wrote:

Megan Gaudry-Weir wrote:Hi Im only new to this method, and am going to read through the threads thoroughly on hugelkultur raised beds as well as the doco, however one thing that came to mind straight away regarding this method is termites. By placing wood in the beds and covering them up for rotting, would that not be an optimal environment for termites? My thought was having wood in contact with the ground, and when wet, is optimal for termites, unless it is a hardwood.

I might be wrong, that's why I would love all your feedback.

Do you have a problem with termites? If you have a nearby structure that's termite susceptible my guess is the termites move into the hugel mound and natural predators keep them in check.
I personally don't mind termites (if I have them in my mound) because they help decompose the logs.  Good luck, Huxley.☺

Thanks for your reply Huxley, we have had old termite damage to some fencing prior to moving in (we have been here since Jan 2018), and a tree had current termite activity which has since been sorted. We do get annual termite inspections, and I guess I am a little paranoid given the damage they can do Im going to do more reading on Hugelkultur Beds method. Thanks, Megan

Hugelkulture is a lot of hard work to start off, but they really pay dividends into the future! Just look at how lush the giant hugel bed at Wheaton Labs basecamp is, after 5+ years and mostly utterly neglected.  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=roRaRDoObJE  Proof positive that it is worth the effort!

Because you have to start somewhere.

I built my first hugel many years ago. It was by chance, not because I had learned about hugelkultur. You see I have a small business doing lawn care and landscaping. I generate a lot of material that their are disposal fees for. I take it home and pile it up in the back yard. I'm a little quirky some think. I'm fascinated by compost since I was a child. I love to dig in it. So thats how I work out. I have probably 150 cubic yards of hugels in various states of decomposition. I piled it all by hand. I process the oldest pile into sifted humus for reseeding lawns. The results are excellent. The hugels are also an excellent place to keep trees and shrubs to transplant later.

5 years ago I built a bunch of 4' x 4' raised beds out of old palets for my garden.   Did the hugelkultur bed in them with logs and sticks from my property.
Have to add some compost and soil each year to keep the soil level up, I put the straw from the chicken coop mixed in with compost on them. but they are fantastic for growing!

I have been building hugelkultur beds for many years (since the mid 70's) and even before I knew what they were called and before I even heard the word hugelkultur. I did remember reading in the wonderful book "1491" by Charles Mann where he describes the indigenous people in the Amazon digging 10 foot pits and throwing logs, compost and any kind of organic matter and covering it up this creating over eons huge expanses of ultra rich acres of land for their Brazil nuts, mangos and myriad fruit grown in uneven mixed non-rows. Hence the experts were fooled into thinking these discovered lands were untouched wilderness (and not fruit farms).
After building my house with recycled timber and boards from a 150 year old farm house given to me and disassembled over the winter of 1976 I found myself with loads of leftover hand hewn logs and boards. Taking the 3 bottom plow east and then west I had a ditch down through a thin soiled field. After laying down the wood scraps I plowed it shut and allowed it to rot.
Most of the time though I practice hugelkultur in smaller ways. Burying the contents of the compost bin,  scraps of wood from the wood shop, tomato vines from the summer along with the rotten poles-dig a pit and throw em in along with weeds, old mulch and anything that rots. As long as it's 6" below the soil you are good to go. It all rots eventually and your soil will come alive. The microbes will do the work-just add water and voila-bloomin super soil!

What about Pocket Gophers, will lots of decaying wood discourage them?