New modified Hugelkultur bed

Last weekend, I put together a new hugelkultur bed. I had a dump truck load of horse manure and hay that I have been composting for about 2 months, and loads of old wood and newspapers; so I thought, "what the heck?"


First I mowed the grass and weeds down, leaving the cuttings in place.

Then, I added several layers of newspapers, wetting them along the way.

Next I stacked put some rotten wood down, with the biggest logs in the middle.

Finally, I shoveled a dump truck load of composted horse manure, hay, and sticks on top of all that.

You can't really tell from the photos, but the middle of the bed is almost 3 feet tall.

I plant to keep adding mulch and compost as I plant.

I have already started a "3 sisters" garden, with three different patches of 6 sweet corn plants.

I will try to keep y'all updated on its progress.

Nice work!

Update:

I don't know if you can see it, but I have pole beans planted around the corn, and a zuccino rampicante cucurbita moschata.

I am very surprised as to the success of this corn, especially since I planted immediately after building the hugulkultur.

Corn loves rich soil high in nitrogen oh and a LOT of water sometimes.

Nice pix too.

Ever use a horse trough? Or fire ring?

Easier to contain things, easier to maintain, easier most all around.

Kai Walker wrote:Corn loves rich soil high in nitrogen oh and a LOT of water sometimes.

Nice pix too.

Ever use a horse trough? Or fire ring?

Easier to contain things, easier to maintain, easier most all around.

I have never used these particular things for raised beds. I used to try to get really neat square raised beds with untreated wood, but I have found that I much prefer the look and function of mounded beds.

The third sister has arrived, with a vengeance.I planted 1 Tromboncino D'Albenga seed 3 weeks ago and it has nearly taken over. I am pinching back vines twice a day to keep it contained. It is starting to try to set fruit now too, but none have taken yet. I am going to supplement them with some diluted calcium acetate solution to encourage the fruit to set a little better.

Here is my tromboncino harvest from the hugel bed.

Beautiful work! And great reward!

Morris Heading Collards and Romanesco Broccoli are doing very well right now!

Very nice bed! Did you have to irrigate it very often last summer?

Kc Simmons wrote:Very nice bed! Did you have to irrigate it very often last summer?

We had a very dry summer, for our area, this year. Luckily, once the mochata covered the whole bed, I didn't have to irrigate it anymore. I did have to water a little bit more while the first round of plants established themselves, but this was not really the case for the winter planting.

Here are some updates to the garden. It is no longer a Hugelkultur, so mods, feel free to move the thread if necessary.


Pictures from May 19th 2021

Here are the updates from 5-25.