G'day g'day g'day
Just joined the forum, folks. I thought I'd start right away with my intentions for the coming spring (if for no other reason than to start a little brainstorm between knowledgeable folk), and would appreciate any tips, advice, praise or warnings you could offer. I've also posted an invitation to interested and able-bodied permies/wannabepermies in the Canada board, which is integral to the success of this thing.
So here's the plan:
4-6 terribly large hugelkulture beds with a core of long-dead and partially rotted
wood (some big
ash and poplar trunks, some unidentifiable old deadhead and widowmakers from the woods, plus lots of manitoba maple trunks and brush). How large? 5 feet wide by 3 feet high, with a slope of about 50 degrees and a length of around 180 feet.
These will be planted as follows:
2 beds of Sable strawberries in an ad adapted matted-row system, spaced around 2 feet apart and left to runner like the devil (this will equal about 450 plants per row, so an order of 100 will leave me a few extras to use as ground cover elsewhere. I will interplant a few marigolds and other beneficials here and there, and likely plant a saskatoon shrub at the North ends of the hills. The north and south face of the hills may be planted with comfrey and a few alpine strawberries, for the fun of it all.
2 beds of asparagus, with 15 to 18-inch spacing. Buying a batch of 1250 crowns, this will equal 600 crowns per bed, with 30 feet extra left for other fruits and perennials. I expect haskap, rhubarb, comfrey, raspberry and alpine strawberries will make up the bulk of this. Basil and marigolds with be broadcast everywhere, for good measure.
The other bed will be an experimental realm of mostly annual market goods, to educate the observer on its usefulness as a vegetable growing technique. Melons, tomatoes, squash, pumpkins, peas, basil and other delights.
Since I've neither the time nor the patience to clear beds and allow them a year to suppress weeds before planting, I'll be building this from mere sod (sprayed 2 or 3 years ago by the hand of another, so burdock and thistle HAVE been minimized-for now).
I want the logs to be slightly lower than flush with the ground, so I aim to: cut the sod with a sod ripper, roll it up, dig trenches, apply
cardboard, apply manure and
coffee, apply wood until heaped high, apply more poo/coffee, fill in some of the big gaps with soil, apply flipped-over sod, add more topsoil from elsewhere on the farm, then plant and mulch like the dickens.
Am I nuts? I plan to have lots and lots of help on hand for this, so the work
should at least be within the threshold of the realm of possibility.
Questions for the masses:
-Would it be a savings to just use a (freely available) tiller to rip the sod into oblivion, instead of renting a sod cutter? or am I begging the weed gods to smite me? Is it ludicrous to imagine we could tackle the sod with manpower and spades?
-Could I use the freshest wood at the bottom of the heap, capped with really rotten stuff to further dodge Nitrogen robbery? I think coffee grounds and composted manure will pretty well flatten this phenomenon, but who knows.
- Would installing a few watering reservoirs (upside-down jugs buried in the crest of the hills) be prudent for starters?
Irrigation is for chumps!
-Will 2-foot pathways/spaces between be sufficient for working on the beds once they are as lush as everyone promises them to be? Alternately, I might leave 5-foot alleys and line them with fruit shrubs in the future. This system would make it a cinch to net the whole shebang from birds if need be.
-Should I space the plants any less? I'm basing my thoughts on flatland spacing, with a littlle leeway given for vertical space, but could I take more...
-Should I maybe make 2 90-foot beds instead of one 180-foot one, with a teeny walkway between?
-Can you forgive me for so closely flirting with monoculture?
-Wanna help?
Thank you too much! Shoot any questions off to me as they happen upon you. Photos to follow in April.
Derick