First post/hugelkultur questions

I have a bunch of birch and popple about 1 ft diameter with all branches off said trees that I cut down last summer to begin preparing for an area to plant a 1 acre corn or sunflower field. I am planning on 2 test hugelkultur mounds, my first mounds ever. So this is a learning/test experience, to see if I might add more or add to these two mounds. We have goats and plenty of year old compost to add in the layering.

Plan is for 10ftx20ftish mounds. Is this a good starter size?

I also want one to be straight perrenial and the other to be annual/root vegetables. The perrenial mound I plan for haskaps, lingonberry, sunchokes and comrey to chop and drop for fertilizer supplementation. The annual/root mound I plan for potato onions, patterson onion, Garlic, cabbage, horseradish, possibly som German butterball potatoes and comfrey for chop and drop as well.

Any suggestions on what would be good to add or if any of my current planned choices are not good choices let me know. I really want a service berry tree or two, so that's another question if that would be ok to add at the base of the perrenial mound?

The annual/root mound I plan on cover cropping for the summer, mowing then putting all fall bulbs in before winter for overwintering.

Welcome to permies Josh.

It is generally recommended to include a lot of nitrogen fixers the first year or two because decomposing wood consumes nitrogen.

The only nitrogen fixer i know of is comfrey off hand, besides cover crops. I plan on cover cropping the root veggie mound with crimson clover and mow it with a mulching mower. I will have to look more into nitrogen fixing crops, preferably multi use ones. Ones that can be used for nitrogen as well as food/herbal.

Peas & peanuts would be good choices that fit those requirements.

Mike Barkley wrote:Peas & peanuts would be good choices that fit those requirements.

I'm pretty sure we can't grow peanuts in northern MN, but peas for sure. My wife loves peas anyway, so the more the merrier lol

Welcome permies!  Is there a reason you wan to do 10 x 20?

To me, that is too wide as most hugelkultue bed are 4 or 5 feet wide and 3 feet high.

At 10 fret the veggie will be too far to plant and reach to harvest.

If you feel 10 x 20 is best for you then go for it.

I had a garden for one year on an old dairy farm near Hinckley, MN. It had a well composted manure pile larger than most houses. I used huge amounts of that to build the garden. It grew broccoli the size of basketballs. Another thing that did extremely well there was rhubard. Someone planted a few of those many years earlier & they were monster sized.

Peanuts probably have no chance there but actual peas should be fine. It's almost perfect weather during the growing season for them. Austrian peas will extend both ends of the growing season because they tolerate cold even better. They are often used as cover crops. They survive winter here in the deep south but not sure how long they would last in MN winter.

Good luck with your new hugels!!!

Anne Miller wrote:Welcome permies!  Is there a reason you wan to do 10 x 20?

To me, that is too wide as most hugelkultue bed are 4 or 5 feet wide and 3 feet high.

At 10 fret the veggie will be too far to plant and reach to harvest.

If you feel 10 x 20 is best for you then go for it.

10x20 is just my uneducated guess as I've never actually made a hugel before. I have no problem at all narrowing it up, I am ordering Paul's book today and going to read up more on the concept.

10 x 20 seems rather large to me.

Think about planting and harvesting from a bed that size.

If you are happy with 20 ft beds then make them 8ft wide and 4 feet high, that would be my suggestion.

I think if you make it 10x20 and 7' tall, you just have a center path and climb around on it. It's more than just a garden bed.

And Josh, welcome to Permies from a 'neighbor'!

I think Anne and Christopher both have good points. If you go that big (10x20ft), plan for pathways and double-reach width planting areas. I have built some of these size or larger where we needed elevation above the winter water table at a food forest site I was hired to develop. I kind of enjoyed climbing around it, but it did limit accessibility for wheel barrows and less agile people. Sepp Holzer suggests building such bed as steeply as possible for less compaction and more surface area, but this does limit access.

In most cases I now do more double reach width hugel beds that would pass for normal raised beds.

The main keys to a successful hugel bed in my experience are:
- No protruding wood from inside to out, as this wicks water away
- Thin layers of alternating soil and wood to minimize vacant pockets that dry out and collapse. Bounce on it with each layer to get soil in contact with wood.
- Do not build a floating dam that could go visit the neighbors! Give at least 1% grade for drainage on uphill side.
- The first year, plant growth will be only as good as the topsoil layer, but it will get better progressively from there for the next few years. Give it at least 6” of good topsoil and or compost above the last layer of wood, making sure it’s settled in as well as possible, and it will likely grow well right away. If using poor soil, it could take 1-3yrs for the decomposing wood to really help.
- Improved drainage from buried wood is as much a benefit here as water retention.
- If at all possible, wait a full year to plant perennials that could not handle exposed root crowns (ie blueberries) from the soil settling around them. Be ready to observe for this and top-dress them right away if pushing it on this one year settling period. On the other hand, many trees actually like having their crown just above the soil, with exposed root flares being common in healthy wild trees. Too much settling though could destabilize them early on. So still observe and be ready to top dress trees, but avoid burying their root crown flare as this invites disease.

I would bury wood in any bed I build unless it was explicitly for non-fungal associates plants like brassicas, but I have also found my favorite brassica —tree collards— grow great on hugels.

Thank you all for your advice. I really have no experience with hugels, I heard Paul talking about them on Orchard People's podcast and thought it sounded like a neat idea and he was very enthusiastic about them. My 10x20 was just a stab in the dark at a size, after reading comments and thinking about it a 5x20 would absolutely make more sense for accessibility. Not to mention my soil availability to top it, my free soil availability, is going to be harder to find as I'm on a heavily wooded lot and dirt tends to have lots of roots in it. I have plenty of compost, actually I plan on starting the hugel this weekend as I clean out goat and sheep barns. I will use last years clean out for the hugel and put this years cleanout where the old one was for next year. I imagine this may be a bit of a process, but I'll get there. Then I came to the decisioni will just cover crop it this year with crimson clover and maybe buckwheat mowing it down with a mulching mower until we get frost again. Build it for next year so to speak. Anyway, the input has been helpful and I will post progress pics as I make progress on it.

Progress on my above ground hugelkultur mound. It is currently about 10 ft long, almost 3 ft high and about 4 ft wide. I went for all paper birch, 3 inch to 8 inch round for woody material. I started clearing a small 2 acre cow pasture last year and plans changed, so all the wood is 1 year dead/seasoned to avoid any volunteer birch trees. I laid in some compost from last years spring barn cleanout (goat, sheep and chicken poop mixed with hay and straw). Layered some smaller branches and brush. Threw more compost on top of that, now I just need dirt. My tractor is down, so im.doing everything by hand until that gets fixed or I have enough need around the farm to rent a skid steer. So the mound will sit as it is for right now, I'll get at it again next weekend.

Had an hour to spare before work yesterday, so i put a little more time into the hugels. It's pretty green popple, so I'll let it sit for awhile before I bury it.

Hi, I visited your site. Very nice & helpful information about trees & some agricultural. I like. Iam interested. Thanks for sharing the details.
Raj!