Northern MN Hugel Bed

I've been working on a small prototype hugel bed for a few years now.  I'm sold on the concept, and I'm ready to go bigger.  I've got an aim to make one mostly with materials from around my yard, and building it by hand.  I've got a notion to build a whole area of hugel beds over time, and I'm simply gonna start on one end and get to building it.  

I'm planning to use poplar logs as a rim on the hoog to keep the grass from creeping up.  Then I'll fill with brush and other wood I take down around my solar panels.  I've got about 30 yards of black dirt, so I've got plenty to build with.  I envision having a few very long ones, and as I work on it, I'm just going to lay it out like a tube and eventually dead end it with another poplar log.  

For now, I'm trying to figure out how I'm going to move the logs, and how long I can make them.  I've got a 10 yard load of wood chips coming that I'll mix into the dirt as i pour it on, but otherwise, this is going to be made completely of logs, firewood, and brush.  I'm hoping to find a good blend of big and small, hard and soft, and chips.  I'll eventually top it with alfalfa pellets.  That seems to be a good mulch for me.  A tad expensive, but a bag goes a long way, and lasts a long time.  Also, the plants don't mind growing through it.  

I plan to cut my wood into firewood sized pieces and then throw them randomly into the hoog to have intentional pore space for the soil to fill in.  Over time, I'd love to be able to just slowly top it up with wood chips to keep the height.  If it really sinks, I'll make another layer of firewood and top it up again with soil.  Stay tuned, I hope to bring some pics to this as i get it going.  

For now, here's my prototype.  

Exciting project Christopher!  Keep us posted.

Best wishes for your project Christopher. Rather than use wood chips, use whole logs.  The wood chips can build up either side of your hugel to suppress the weeds.  Your prototype looks fabulous and a great start.  There is a great video of Paul Wheaton talking about using a hugel as a sun trap.  I made my trench straight  but are now moving to extend it to form a half circle to construct a sun trap hugel.

Really looking forward to see your progress.
:-)

Things are happening fast now.  I'm still new to posting here, so bare with me while I try this multi-pic posting out.  These three pics:  

1.  My pink jumbo banana squash plant is getting huge quickly, and the potatoes have canopied the past few weeks!  
2.  I planted spring wheat in July to replace the barley that had matured out.  I zapped the barley with my weed whacker and tried to leave the thatch on the hoog.  
3.  I watered it quite a bit in July for the first time, and I also caught about three inches of rain in ten days.  I've got mushrooms popping up all over this thing now.  I can only assume that means my fungal network inside the hoog is in high gear now.  

I am anxious to harvest potatoes.  I haven't had a potato fresh outta the ground in years.  

There are also forage collards in there, a version reserved for farmers looking to graze their cattle.  They are remarkably cheap and the tonnage is outstanding.  

I love this stuff!  

Overall it looks great Christopher. One thing concerns me though. Is that tall grass cogon grass? Looks like it might be. Is the rib off center a bit & do the edges of the leaf feel like tiny saw teeth? If so, that's extremely invasive stuff. It spreads via seed & the roots. Try to get every bit of it out as soon as possible. Not sure if it grows that far north, it might just be an ordinary weed.

Mike Barkley wrote:Overall it looks great Christopher. One thing concerns me though. Is that tall grass cogon grass? Looks like it might be. Is the rib off center a bit & do the edges of the leaf feel like tiny saw teeth? If so, that's extremely invasive stuff. It spreads via seed & the roots. Try to get every bit of it out as soon as possible. Not sure if it grows that far north, it might just be an ordinary weed.

We don't have that anywhere near here.  Never even heard of it.  I'm certain that is my spring wheat.  

Wheat sounds great!

I looked up the cogon grass range tonight. Nowhere near MN. Mostly southern coastal states.

I was excited to see that spring wheat doing well.  I'm counting on that being a major tonnage maker in my food plots for deer hunting this year.  I threw some in my hoog to keep an eye on how fast it's growing, without going in the woods.  So far, it is matching the pace of my food plots.  After late August, I won't go in the woods again until I hunt, and even then, I won't get close to my food plots.  

We couldn't plant our food plots this year due to too much rain & mud. Plenty of volunteer food plants there though!

I'm on the other end of that spectrum.  I've been in ever worsening drought all year.  

I built a hugel food plot starting in the winter of 2019.  I had a spot that was all brush, stumps, ruts, holes, and too low to grow anything.  I laid everything down with the chainsaw.  

Then I dug a pond next to it, and buried it all.  I planted it to every darn thing I could think of.  I just mowed it last weekend for the first time.  It's been a shining star during this drought.  It never looked like it was struggling.  

My potato plants looked like they were done this weekend, so I finally pulled them.  It was so dry, I just picked them right outta the soil and it fell off.  I also swapped out the wood chips around my fire pit.  I had grasses starting to punch through, so I raked out all the old, piled it up, and put in some fresh mulch.  I will use the old chips for my next larger hugel bed.  It looks primed and ready to rock right outta the gate.  

I didn't think my pink banana jumbo squash was going to do anything with the time left this season, but this one is growing nearly an inch per day right now, and it's got 70 degree highs for the 14 day forecast.  It has the moisture to go the rest of the way, so it'll be fun to see how far this goes before we hit our average first frost date of Sept 30th.  

The cover crop barley on the hoog is also rooting down nicely since I pulled the taters last month.  

Next season is here.  This is the third growing season for this test garden.  I'm already sold on it.  This year, I've got faba beans, forage collards, jalapeno peppers, green peppers, onions, and I've still got to add cucumbers and try dill again.