Hey there,
I'm completely new to this site, have minimal experience with growing, but I'm keen to learn and work hard! I'm looking for some northern-specific guidance on creating a hugel bed. I live in the Yukon so our growing season is short and we have a particular native plants/vegetation (boreal forest).
I have a few non-hugel raised beds on our small residential lot where we've grown carrots, beets and potatoes with some success.
Our yard is flat and gets a fairly balanced mix of sun and shade in the summer. We have a vigorous 'wall' of raspberries along our back fence that are slowly colonizing their immediate area and I'd like the hugel to NOT turn into a giant raspberry jungle!
For the new hugel experiment, I was thinking I will dig a trench about 60cm deep, 1m wide and 3m long. Collect some large branches and deadfall from the nearby woods (mostly spruce, poplar and pine) and layer smaller branches (willow, shrub-like stuff) on top of it, leaves, some compost, some of the dug-out soil (which tends to be a bit sandy). Water it profusely and let it sit until next spring. And then plant? That will be a whole other process I guess. I'd love to have the hugel-bed be low maintenance and a perrenial sort of thing. I don't have the space or resources to 'start' plants inside in the early spring so am looking to plants that do well in a short, intense growing season.
For those of you in far-northern areas, (or even if there are are a few Yukoners out there!) I'd appreciate any ideas that you think I should consider or if there are some Yukon-specific considerations that I should make.
Thank you!
Joel
