Yukon Hugelkultur

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

Hi Joel!
I am in Alaska, and am also new to growing things and have some ideas (but no plans yet) for some huglekulture beds on some property we recently bought. I’ll be keeping an eye on your thread, and hope that some folks with more experience can give some great advice.

The only thing I can contribute is that I planted garlic in the fall and it came up hardy and robust as ever this spring, even with a long winter. So if you get your bed done this fall you could throw some garlic in and it will get things started for you right away in the spring (of garlic is something you eat).

Again, hoping folks with more experience can contribute!

-E