Hugel mounds and root balls from downed trees

I'm going to be clearing some of our property in order to build a house. The property is in mid-Eastern area of Minnesota. Most of the trees are poplar. I plan on using some of the trees I cut down for a small cabin but am considering putting in a few hugel mounds using left over logs, branches, and brush. Then I thought about the root balls that'll be left after taking the trees down. Can these be used in a hugel mound?  I would suspect I'd probably have to place them on top of any larger trunk sections if I do.

Anyone have any experience or recommendations concerning using them in mounds?

Thanks,

Hi Michael, and welcome to permies! I'd expect poplar to be excellent hugel material with one caveat: it may resprout vigorously. If the log sections or root balls still have live cambium, they're going to try and grow. So you may need to be on the lookout for shoots and cut or pull them as they appear.

I was going to suggest letting the root balls dry out a month or two to prevent unintentional sprouting like Phil mentioned.

Cut the trunk as close as possible, flip the root-ball facing up in place, cut the roots back and pile the roots around or on. Opening up the roots speeds the process and kills.

I have no experience with the poplars you have in your area, but the poplars I'm familiar with in N. Ohio are a very soft wood. I don't know if they would stand up very long being used to build a cabin. I believe I'd do some research on expected life span of a cabin built of poplar.

Jim Fry - We have a mix of trees on the property including birch and oak. As long as I can debark them quickly the birch is my preference for a cabin. However, poplar is the most common tree on our property. It is a soft wood but has been used in cabin builds for a long time. Dried and treated properly it should work fine for what I want to do. The cabin will be a small one room build and It'll done with the logs placed vertically vs. horizontally.

Phil, Mike, and Will - thanks for the input. I'll definitely have the time to allow the roots to dry out before I start the build of the hugel mounds. Normally, most people would have them hauled off the property after taking down the trees but I figured if they would work in hugel mounds that would be a far better use for them.

Hi Mike;
I suggest not trying to bury your green root balls. You would need quite the excavation to bury them with the logs/brush.
I would put them in a pile and burn them first. After you burn what you can then I would hugle the remainder.

We have about 70% poplar on our woodland property, too, and there are always trees coming down naturally. There's one in the back of our property which fell down and left a huge root ball sticking up about eight feet up. I had been thinking of planting in there for a while and this year, I planted a couple of celery plants in there and so far, they're doing great. There are a lot of wild raspberry plants growing out of there, too. I agree about the poplars coming again, too. We use poplars in our hugel mounds and if we don't give them time to die off first, the saplings do start coming up through the mounds.

Thomas - I fully intend to allow the root balls to dry out before I use them. I've had family members try burning these from trees they removed, but they've told me that because there's so much dirt embedded in them they wouldn't burn (or remain burning). I figured allowing them to decompose in a hugel mound would likely do more good.

So wild, I literally came to permies to make a post about doing poplar log hugelbeds in the wet part of my yard because we had some come down in a hurricane and part of my garden is a sop-fest after it rains.

Your post was the top post on the forums! It was such a crazy coincidence.

How long should I let these logs dry before using them? It’s balsam poplar logs that are cut to firewood lengths by the arborist who cleaned up our hurricane mess. I don’t foresee us burning them since it’s not great firewood but I do want some hugelbeds. Could I use them this year?? There are already root suckers through my entire garden and i have to pry them up with a pick axe. Truly a weed of a tree… I never thought I could dislike a tree 😂

VV - I suspect you could use the logs right away. The root balls are what I'll be allowing to dry and they'll likely sit for a few months. I'll probably do the same for any extra trees I drop that won't be used for a cabin build. That way I can do the hugel mound build all in one shot (logs, root balls, branches, brush, ...)