jturbo68 Hatfield

Hello All,

I planted a poly-culture hugel bed last year, with good results! It is a large bed, approx 100' long x 4' tall.

MY question relates to planting this bed this spring.
Unlike when the bed was new with fresh dirt, the bed is now harder. Broadcasting the seeds on the surface seems like it will be less productive than when the bed was new.

What do you all do to refresh the tithe your beds each spring prior to planting?
A layer of compost to plant into seems like a decent way to go? Scratching the surface seems seems like a ton of extra work at scale.


Thanks,
John

Hello all,

I am new to Hugelkultur but getting ready to make pretty intensive use of it in some hilly forest that I have cleared.

My location is in Kentucky, which can get lots of rain thru the winter and spring, but is generally quite dry from July - October
I am planning on developing a couple of different types of terrain features. Both Swales and HugelKulture Beds to hold water on my property.

My Soil is a couple inches of heavy humus ( not so much topsoil as clay with organic matter. )
Followed up by layers heavy clay and plate rock.  

This clay holds water quite well and it is able to form ponds quite easily despite the layers of limestone rocks throughout.

Anyway, not the best conditions for gardening.....


Here is my plan and questions for comment from you all.

1.  Build Swales across the contours of the property  about 3-4 foot deep and say 10' wide.  It is possible that these swales will act more like ponds.
but , If they drain readily, fill them level with wood and build Hugel Beds.

2.  Running more down hill, below the swales, build a series of Hugel Beds.  Trenching down 2 foot or so. and maybe 6' wide and 6' tall.
My thought is that the swales will trickle water to be absorbed by the hugel beds.

My questions.

1.  Would it be better to avoid filling the swales because my land doesnt typically drain terribly fast?  That seems to be the gist of some earlier posts on the subject.

2.  Are new logs alright for use in Hugel?  I just cleared the land where these will be placed.

3.  He soil placed on the hugel beds will be largely heavy clay mixed with the smaller rock that I wont be bale to separate from digging out
the trenches.  Is that a big problem?  I will have a small amount of the hummus soil to place as the final inch or two.  I can get some topsoil if it is needed to create better soil, but that is addl expense.

4.  I will be building more beds than I will initially use.  Planning on using white clover to cover the beds for the first year or two.  Is that a decent plan, or should I come up with something more polyculture-ish as a cover crop?

5.  Should I use Compost / Straw on the beds to make a kind of sheet much on the beds to build soil and stop erosion of the soil on the beds?

6.  I dont have any type of fresh grass or hay to place between the Trees and Soil to boost Nitrogen in the Hugel?  Is this an issue?  I see some beds with a layer of N and some built without.  I can find something if important, but as I will be building several hundred feet of beds, this could be an issue.

Thanks for all your thoughts.

John

Hi All, New member.

I was watching a dozen or so videos on Sepp last night and today.

I think that the raised beds are placed perpendicular to the prevailing wind for micro-climate purposes.

Guessing that this might not be a good idea if the slope was too steep, but given how covered all the slopes appear and that they are sandwiched by terraces, there probably wouldnt be a huge amount of runoff anyway.

Thx,
JOhn