I'm grateful for all who've shared ideas and info here and so am sharing my experience/results in the first year of using techniques I learned on this forum.
The garden is in NW Montana Zone 5a. Long term goal is a food forest on ~ 1/2 acre of sandy soil with good sun exposure. Challenges included low water retention and limited humus. Also fenced in the area to keep deer out. Area flanked by large birch to the west, small spruce to the east, and a tall fir in the center.
2 Years ago, planted 2 apple trees (Liberty and Honeycrisp). This year, sheet mulched around them to kill native grass and overplanted with white dutch clover. Added daffodils and chives around base. Both trees produced better than ever this year, with larger and more abundant fruit. The pollinators loved the clover all summer long. Will be planting clover as groundcover instead of lawn going forward.
Hugelkulture beds:
Bed 1: using tractor, dug a 70 foot long x 5 foot wide trench 18 inches deep. Final constructed depth with edging is 40". Laid down layer of dead birch trunks and branches. Added layer of fresh horse manure, Added layer of dead leaves and old corn stalks. Topped with layer of native sandy soil and watered all in thoroughly to remove air pockets. Then another layer of dead birch, 1 year old horse manure, sandy soil and watered it in. Edged the beds with planks cut from a big spruce tree downed in a storm. Topped the beds with 2-3 year old composted horse manure. Dressed the top 6" of compost with addition of sand and clay, along with azomite. Perrenial plantings added this spring: chokecherry, elderberry, jostaberry, currant, hazelnut, asparagus. Annual plantings this June: pumpkin & winter squash, lettuce, swiss chard, carrots, radish, cucumbers, onion, potato, broccoli, brussel sprouts, basil. Other plantings: buckwheat (early season), marigold, alyssum, sunflower, nasturtuim, and clover. Mulched with wheat straw.
Bed 2: using tractor dug a 20' x 5' x 18" trench. Laid down dead birch logs. Covered with 2-3 year horse manure compost. Transplanted raspberry bushes from another location. Planted clover.
Bed 3: another raised bed lined with spruce as in Bed 1 but without trenching, and much smaller (16' x 4' x 18"). Core of bed is dead birch and fresh horse manure. Topped with composted manure and amended with clay, sand and azomite. Planted determinate tomatoes, onions, basil, beans, sage, petuniia, marigold, alyssum.
Results & Lessons Learned:
This was a cool wet summer which positively affected results despite late planting due to delays in constructing the hugelbed.
Bed #1 kept moisture very well. Only watered it a few times in August. I planted too densely and with too many flowers which crowded out the onions and many carrots but there were very few weeds. Other than potatoes and brassicas, everything else was interplanted. The profusion of plant life made it challenging to find the veggies sometimes: I'll plant fewer flowers next year and train cucumbers up trellises. All season long we had lots of honeybees and bumblebees. Cabbage butterfly did nominal damage to broccoli and brussel sprout leaves: sprayed them with neem oil to contain the damage. Nasturtiums had no bug damage whatsoever. Grasshopper damage minimal (we encouraged birds in the garden with feeders and water and they helped limit the hopper damage I believe). The wheat straw mulch sprouted wheat which was a bonus crop (actually used for crafts) Very pleased overall with the results!
Bed #2. Due to late transplanting, was concerned how raspberries would do this year. They flourished, producing 8 gallons of juicy berries. I expect they'll do even better as they get established.
Bed #3. Very pleased with production and lack of pests. Tomatoes and spring onions did exceptionally well.
My sincere thanks to Paul Wheaton and all the contributors to this forum for teaching me so much and helping me get this food forest off to a wonderful start! May your harvests be plentiful!
