Chas de Geofroy

     I should start by saying I have not built a Hugel Garden yet (this year) but I have been reading the posts and have an idea to keep the dirt in place. You could use some thin long sticks such as the stems of Saplings that could be layered horizontally half up the mound. They would act as a retention fence and hold the dirt in place, the sticks would only protrude about as far as the amount of thickness of dirt you want to hold up on the pile. Just a thought, Chas.

Hi Thomas,
   First and foremost thank you for your information, I have that wall insulated and I do have the book in my hands and it is a great book. I used some salvaged insulation on the exterior of the concrete foundation any areas above grade going below grade as I remember about 2 to 3 feet down it is not insulated all the way down to the footings. Your set up looks to be what I will model mine after. Thanks so much, Chas.

    Here is my idea, presently I heat my barn with a catalytic wood stove with a single wall stove pipe running up 12 feet to an insulated pipe that passes through a loft and then out through a metal roof. I use my barn to work on my equipment so I need as much floor space as possible so what I am planning is to go about 15 feet along a concrete wall away from the woodstove and put my rocket stove in that location then run a straight pipe from there through a cob bench and then intersect with the woodstove chimney. I was also thinking of using Matt's idea of making it just a stratification bench, my objective is to not only heat the bench but also heat the mass of the NW concrete foundation wall because my barn is built into a small hill so is half below grade, any suggestions would be welcome, thanks, Chas.

Travis, Thanks that's what I kept thinking I would do I have tons of rock around the yard I will put them to good use, as long as the Wife approves of a pile of rocks in the living room. I will at some point send a picture of how I get the wood from the woodshed into the house I build roads so I have a wood shute made from ADS 2-foot dia. running from the shed to a box outside the window with the window next to the stove works quite well, Chas.

Chas again with another idea I am working on, I have a Jotul F 50 TL Rangely which is a non-catalytic wood stove which if burned correctly is very clean with one drawback without thermal mass it uses a good amount of wood. I have been brainstorming of ways to build thermal mass around it to help store more heat, the firebox is firebrick lined which helps the clean burn but I have a good amount of heat going up the chimney which is insulated stovepipe.  Because of the design of the house, it would be very hard to build a rocket mass heater in the house I am thinking of building one in the barn however if I can find the time. Thanks in advance for any ideas, Chas.

Thanks all you have given me some great ideas, these panels look the one that Dave Burton had diagramed thanks. I will take some good pictures at some point at the moment they are buried behind a bunch of stuff next to the barn and I am trying to focus on getting my wood in for the next two Winters, thanks all, Chas.

Any suggestions would be welcome, I am trying to figure out if I can use 2 old thermal water heating panels and thermosiphon air through them to help warm my barn it may be a crazy idea but it might add a bit of heat, maybe? I also want to build a rocket mass heater in the barn as well and have Ernie and Erica's book, I just hate to see things not used if there is a way to use the panels without water it would be awesome any information I would welcome, thanks, Chas de Geofroy.