Hugel and permies noob here, with some questions

Hi all - just getting started here at Permies - looks like a really great place to hang and learn!

This spring, probably some time in April, I will be moving.  I plan to go raised bed in my new garden to make things easier on my aging back.  My plan is to have 3 or 4, 32" raised beds, ~ 4'x8' each.  I want to go Hugel on these beds and I have a reasonable understanding of the components needed for building them, but I also have some limitations in access to materials.  So, my questions are,

1.  I will likely be able to get logs and sticks I need, but the "plant waste" layer (e.g., lawn clippings, etc) is a problem, since I am moving.  Is it feasible to skip this layer and just increase amount of purchased compost thickness, or are there other things (e.g., straw?) that I can substitute for the composting pile I am sadly leaving behind?

2.  I'd like to use the beds within 3-4 weeks of constructing them.  Is this a reasonable expectation?  Should I consider any amendments to the Hugel pile to accelerate this (e.g., mycorrhizal supplements, worm castings) ?

3.  As far as the beds go, I really like the Vego products I've seen online, but boy howdy, they are pricey!  I'd be interested in knowing other forum member's experiences in this arena, and if they have alternatives to recommend.  I'm not in a position where I can do a DIY, due to my back issues.

Many thanks in advance!

Russ

Don't sweat the lack of lawn clippings. Use what you have.

Extra compost & worm castings would be a great addition. Good compost will already have some mycorrhizal fungi so adding more might be an unnecessary expense. Straw would make a nice mulch. I would make absolutely sure the straw didn't have toxic goop sprayed on it. There are some herbicides used to grow hay/straw that will kill your garden soil. Same thing for compost if it contains animal manures.

Thanks for responding, Mike.  I hear you on the hay and manure.  You can't be too careful these days.

Russell Whittemore wrote:
1.  I will likely be able to get logs and sticks I need, but the "plant waste" layer (e.g., lawn clippings, etc) is a problem, since I am moving.  Is it feasible to skip this layer and just increase amount of purchased compost thickness, or are there other things (e.g., straw?) that I can substitute for the composting pile I am sadly leaving behind?

-Anything goes in a hügelkultur. The compost will get you by just fine until the logs start to break down.

Russell Whittemore wrote:
2.  I'd like to use the beds within 3-4 weeks of constructing them.  Is this a reasonable expectation?  Should I consider any amendments to the Hugel pile to accelerate this (e.g., mycorrhizal supplements, worm castings) ?

-If you are using purchased compost, then you can plant immediately. The only reason you'd want to accelerate is if you only had woody material that would need time to break down.  If you did only have wood, you could cheat a bit and sweeten some spots with soil to plant in while you wait a year or so for the majority of the bed to get ready.

Russell Whittemore wrote:
3.  As far as the beds go, I really like the Vego products I've seen online, but boy howdy, they are pricey!  I'd be interested in knowing other forum member's experiences in this arena, and if they have alternatives to recommend.  I'm not in a position where I can do a DIY, due to my back issues.

-I've had a bed like you described for a few years now. This pic is from the high side, so it's actually dug into the earth a bit and looks shorter than it is. Mid September as I transitioned one end to fall greens. Bed construction is all scrap wood from deck and some leftover roof tin. It wasn't major construction, just framing the box on the ground and lining with the tin. There's a rough cut hackberry tree in the bottom, followed by lots of wood chips, grass clippings, leaves, and then soil on top.

Thanks for your reply, Matt!  Much appreciated.  There currently isn't any gardening community to speak of where I'm moving, so it's a blessing to be able to draw of folk's experience here.

Welcome, Russell.
If you have no problem with using cardboard, and you are moving, it seems like a golden opportunity to rip some up and throw it in there, even better when you wet it down.
(some people don't like it because of cockroaches, or are concerned about contaminants, and that's their call, but plenty of others to use it in the garden.)
I made hugel beds with all sorts of scrap wood, yard trimmings, kitchen waste, mothing high quality (even encouraged the dog to pee on it as much as possible before putting the dirt back on). I planted directly on top of it after 2 weeks, since I garden year round and don't have a winter barren season, and it worked great. You work with what you have!

I've built quite a few hugels of various shapes and sizes over the last few years. I find they work best when each log is surrounded by dirt. I often see people putting a solid layer of logs down, each piece of wood touching its neighbour, then a layer of whatever else. That's how I did my first few, and they're terrible. They get very dry in the summer and have lots of big voids in them where rodents like to hang out and wreck stuff.

My later ones are all built by putting the layer of logs down, with a few inches in between each piece of wood. Then I cover the whole thing with my dead, silty sand, making sure it gets down in between all the wood pieces. If I've got compost, grass clippings, leaves, dog poop, etc. I put that on next.  Then more dirt so I can nestle the next layer of wood into the dirt and avoid big air pockets. And repeat.

I think about where the plant roots are going to go. They want to grow in soil, so I have to make sure they've got continuous channels of soil to grow through all the way down to the bottom of the mound or the bed. If they meet a solid layer of logs partway down, it's like they're growing in a shallow pot, instead of deep ground. Once the wood starts breaking down it won't matter so much, but to begin with I think it's important.

These later hugels I built are great from the first year and hold lots of moisture. I've never watered them, apart from sometimes watering transplants when they first go in. Tomatoes, squash, potatoes, and kale all do well in the hottest, driest weather we get, which can be weeks of 35C+ and no rain. About the only things I can grow without watering on the crappy hugels I made are tough grassy chives, oregano, grain, and evening primrose. And one leek that's been coming back for years. 😁

If you want to be able to use your hugel quick I think it's also worth thinking about the kind of wood you are using. In my first hugel I used mainly willow. I started out with big logs and went smaller as the hugel grew. Willow breaks down really quickly, especially if you add plenty of manure. I used copious amounts of chicken poop. And I topped everything off with wood scraps soaked in chicken poop which I collected in the chicken run (I dump a new load every spring). I already have a thick usable top layer with plenty root space. The lower level is much drier due to the big logs being close to the surface.

For my new hugel I will be using really hard dense wood (hawthorn) and only fairly thick trunk logs. I expect I will need a lot more top soil to be able to grow anything on this hugel the first (two?) years(s).

Thanks everyone for sharing your experiences!  Lots of useful information here, which will be most helpful going forward!

Good advice above. I would just add that I’d bury your partially composted material from that not quite done pile. I’d also reiterate the suggestion to avoid homogenous layers of any one thing. Hugels are effectively low n slow compost piles you can grow on top of. Best of luck with the move!

If you're curious about what it looks like to install a path on their hugels, this video is pretty neat: https://youtu.be/HwktPhJ43kU