posted 11 years ago
My entire first bed (not the one done this weekend) was made entirely out of Doug Fir and it seems to be doing quite well, but I'm only about 4 months in on that one so the jury's still out.
I don't own a small farm (it's just a residential lot), and I don't need to produce food on my land to get by, so it may be easier for me to take the leap on these things than others. I am of the opinion that the tannens will not destroy the soil forever and ever, even under the worst circumstances. If it takes a couple years then so be it, but eventually the stuff will break down or wash away and you'll have some prime growing spot left over. If I'm wrong, I'll have two dead beds in a couple years and I'll be able to tell everyone about it, but I don't expect that to be the case. I expect worst case scenario I'll have slower than ideal growth for a little while, then some really nice beds. That is something I can live with.
On this last bed I dug I made a little keyhole row with two keyholes. The spine of this has the spruce in it and the ribs are just mounded up dirt with some grass at the bottom. If the stuff in the ribs grows amazingly well and the stuff in the spine doesn't, that should let me know that in the short term with the plants I choose, spruce isn't a good hugel material.
If you have a patch of land that isn't getting used for anything else, the worst thing you'll have is a failed experiment, IMO.
Good luck.