Gabion Mound Gardening

Just a little FYI for folks looking at mound gardening (what today has become know as hugelkultur) This link to "Edible Trends" is very similar (if not almost exactly the way ours looked back in the 70's...

Very inspirational students, with their use of gabions.

Hi Jay - is that the right link?

Is this where you were headed?

http://www.bbc.co.uk/blogs/legacy/flowershows/2009/07/gabions_galore.html

Jay C. White Cloud wrote:Just a little FYI for folks looking at mound gardening (what today has become know as hugelkultur)

I like working with gabions in the garden, but I think Hugelkultur and gabions offer different advantages. Of course, they are such flexible design elements that it's hard to generalize. Here's how I think of them:
Gabion: extremely free-draining, mitigates wet conditions, heat sink, good for creating warm micro-climate for heat-loving plants, habitat for wildlife that likes piles of stones, permanent
Hugelkultur: stores water, mitigates dry conditions, cool side and warm side, habitat for burrowing wildlife, transitory

Hi Folks,

I took everyone to a "googles image" page, as from there you can follow different germane links to related topics. The photo of the cross section of gabion displays the basics of a well structured mound garden matrix. This student, and the college he is attending does some groundbreaking work in the U.K.

I agree Patrick, they do indeed offer different advantages, and your list of them is perfect. What we had done in the past (and what the student is doing (it appears from the photo) is combining both matrix. This can be done very effectively, in several different ways, even on a very large, if not commercial scale for larger permie type farms trying to fit into the local food production market. Some of our larger ones formed a barrier between properties with multiflora rose at the top making a total height of almost 6 meters. This not only provided several different hibernaculum for reptiles and amphibians we had "working" in the garden area, a good natural fence, nesting habitat for multiply bird species, but also proved all the other benefits of a mound garden and gabion...