i'm making paul do a hugelkultur podcast - what questions should I ask him?

Ivan Russian wrote:

Kevin Morland wrote:My brother in law created his first Hugelkulture in Northern Wisconsin and it was immediately infested with voles. Is there an obvious mistake people make to cause such a thing? Is there a trick to keep them out of it?

Thanks!
Kevmo

The hugel is, pretty much, an ideal habitat for rodents; like it or not.
It is what it is.

I got them too in my hugel bed (even though my hugel is inside the fine wire mesh fenced garden).
They still found it.
I just trapped them best I could.

Added: I also think that the rodents in the hugel mean - the hugel mound is dry inside.
This is what the animals are looking for. Dry, warm and safe - perfect habitat for voles. Bad for gardening.
This also means that the particular hugel was build incorrectly in some way or is just not meant to be in that place at all (bad design, bad location, unsuitable local climate, etc).

Yes, mine is a varmint hotel, mainly rabbits, but also something that eats eggs and my newly hatched chickens

Could you ask Paul about the carbon sequestering potential in hugelkultur? There has been some discussion on the forums as to whether or not you end up with a net carbon gain in the soil or if you loose a bunch in the form of respiration from the decomposing soil organisms making hugelkultur no good for sequestering carbon.

Sue Rine wrote:something that eats eggs and my newly hatched chickens

Rats.

Sue Rine wrote: something that eats eggs and my newly hatched chickens

Snakes?!?!

Sue Rine wrote: something that eats eggs and my newly hatched chickens

a Human with questionable culinary habits?

In about two minutes Paul and I are going to record this podcast finally! Yippiiieee! Stay tuned!

Too late?
Pros/cons on log placement, should the be placed vertically or horizontally?

Got done about an hour ago.

It ended up being 3 hours long. VERY INFORMATION RICH.

I am excited to share it with all of you.

Let us know when it's ready. Did you leave the restraints on during questioning, or take 'em off?

This is propably a stupid question, but... Where I can find this podcast episode?

Juha Imberg wrote:This is propably a stupid question, but... Where I can find this podcast episode?

Not stupid at all!

We are working on getting it all edited and posted as we speak! We will post a message here in this thread once it's done.