Have 2 large trees down and want to make hugelkutur beds

Can I use whole trees for the garden? And also can seed balls be used with a cover of clover on the beds. Seems like a win win situation. Previously when trees fell we hauled them to the burn pile. But I always felt that I was stealing nutrition from the other Trees...I have started implementing Fukuoka ideas in to my 8.5 acre property and this sounds like another great idea. i

Once you cut a tree up into small enough pieces to be able to move and arrange it, that should be small enough for a hugelkultur bed.

I don't see much benefit in seed balls for small localized gardens. why not just plant the seed directly.

Denise Candies wrote:Can I use whole trees for the garden? And also can seed balls be used with a cover of clover on the beds. Seems like a win win situation. Previously when trees fell we hauled them to the burn pile. But I always felt that I was stealing nutrition from the other Trees...I have started implementing Fukuoka ideas in to my 8.5 acre property and this sounds like another great idea. i

Yes, and yes. I've done both of those things. You'll probably want to clean up some of the branches on the trees if it looks like they'll protrude from the hugul mound. I had a storm drop a 60' spruce right on to a half finished hugul. After I pulled the millable log out, I left the rest pretty much as it lay. Buried it. Now it's growing potatoes.

Do you mean the clover is preexisting and you are seeding vegetables by seed ball, or are you seeding clover via speedball? Or are both going in at the same time? Either way, it will probably work, I made a vegetable seed blend (beets, radish, onion, cabbage, kale, peas) and mixed it with damp worm castings to make a sort of seedball/pellet mixture, then broadcast that out on to garden beds. I'll go back and scatter clover seed after things are up and I can tell what most of them are.

Second Topher on seeding directly. That's what hugelkultur is designed for. The seed balls were used by Fukuoka to delay sprouting.

Thanks guys,
I'm thinking of not cutting the trees except what sticks out and just dragging the whole tree to the spot where I want them. The tree trimmers are bringing me loads of free mulch from a variety of different trees and dumping it on the property. I'm thinking I might cover the trees with this because I don't know where I would get the amount of dirt needed to cover these lager trees. What do ya'll think ? I don't think cover seed would take in that tho...?

I like the idea of seeding directly but we have lots of birds that love to eat my broadcast seeds.

And if I collected my own clover seed from the existing property do I have to inoculate it before broadcasting?

Denise Candies wrote:Thanks guys,
I'm thinking of not cutting the trees except what sticks out and just dragging the whole tree to the spot where I want them. The tree trimmers are bringing me loads of free mulch from a variety of different trees and dumping it on the property. I'm thinking I might cover the trees with this because I don't know where I would get the amount of dirt needed to cover these lager trees. What do ya'll think ? I don't think cover seed would take in that tho...?

I like the idea of seeding directly but we have lots of birds that love to eat my broadcast seeds.

And if I collected my own clover seed from the existing property do I have to inoculate it before broadcasting?

That sounds great, Denise . You might consider innoculating all those wood chips with an edible saphrophitic mushroom, like an oyster variety or king stropharia, then burying with a lighter layer of soil, say 6-12 inches? The wood chips should really help to fill in gaps that otherwise swallow a lot of soil.

If you are in need of soil I would dig a trench in the spot you are planning on building the hugul, then use that soil to cover the wood chips. You can keep going too, and dig a swale on one side of the hugul, and use that on top too.