My first Hugelkultur bed / EYE OPENER!

Thank you Mike Johnson for walking what I like to call THE PERMA PATH. Learning, Living, TEACHING, a permaculture lifestyle. Thank you for exposing me to new horizons with permaculture/polyculture/hugelkultur.

This is my first of many hugelkultur beds. This is in St. Petersburg, FL. Everything that was used in this bed came from same property, other than the straw/hay..

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I imagine with that sandy soil that the huglekultur will really help hold moisture.

Wow!!!

Nice! Going to be watching this! I know how bad it rains in St. Pete during the summer.

I'm across the state from you in Vero and installed two flat beds at the end of the last rainy season. They did great this winter and i didn't water them once. They yielded pole beans, mustard and potatoes pretty well for being fresh beds.

Kind of worried about the coming rains though.

This bed was seeded as soon as it was completed. Around march of 2013. It produced okra, pumpkin, cantaloupe, cucumbers, mexican gherkins, asparagus beans, comfrey, sunflowers. I have been looking for the pictures of growth and they seem to be on a hard drive at another location. I will have them posted soon though. Never once watered it. HUGELKULTUR WORKS.

Looks awesome. I'm not that far away from you; great seeing this work here.

Neat! Thanks for sharing. I look forward to seeing more photos and results.

Great photo time-lapse. I almost felt like I was there digging it with you.

Looks tall with lots of varied material.

Keep posting pics. It looks awesome!
A.J.

It could appear that this process uses a lot of water. The photos show a running hose.

Many of the ingredients were bone dry. To jump start the process, it had to be watered or nothing would happen until the rainy season. One of the main reasons for using hugelkultur is to save water. Not only will it soak up much more rain, water retained deep within the bed will go to the plant roots, but be safely hidden away from the hot sun.

The idea of water being wasted is a highly regional thing. Florida gets plenty of rain. During some seasons, torrential rain is a problem for gardeners. The thick mulches will protect the soil from this onslaught and the bed will soak up water to be used in drier times. In the long run, water will be saved.

I made a comment without thinking earlier on this thread, and I'm sincerely sorry to everyone.

I wanted to convey my concern for water conservation whilst one builds a hugelkultur bed.

The images are great education to me and should be to others.

I'd like to suggest building your hugelkultur beds during your region's wet season to take advantage of the weather.

Hopefully this will help minimize the impact on the your water bill and natural resources.

I like threads with lots of photos. I've found that garden photos look best when taken during the low light of morning and evening. There's less glare then.

Really bright conditions can wash out the color. A high shutter speed compensates a lot. When I use my good camera, reasonable results are always possible. Most of my photos are taken with a phone that doesn't let me make adjustments. Time of day is then very important.