First ever Hugelkultur...

Hello,

I apologize in advance if these sort of posts are frowned upon.

I am very new to this, and am going to be starting my first Hugel-mound in the coming months.

I have a supply of wood to use since I just took out a couple of pine trees that were close to the house and therefore increased fire risk.  I don't burn soft woods for heat, due to pitch/having a narrow, not optimal chimney, and I was going to use the thicker halves of the pine trunks for the base of my Hugel-mound, (the upper halves are going to become fence material.)

I was wondering:
What is the best time of year to start?  (i live in what will be in the path of heavy rainfall this El Nino, and was thinking of building it before the rains start in order to capture the rain water inside,)  

Is pine a good wood for hugelkultur?

How close to newly started trees (olives on the slope below, figs, walnuts, and Goji berries on the slope above, all are still fairly immature,) should a hugel-mound be?

I am thinking of making the mound 4-5 ft high and 20-40 ft long, paralel to the path of the sun, receiving a mixture of direct and filtered sunlight all throughout the day/year.  (the videos I've seen reccommend 7 feet in height, but I don't have enough wood at this point to do that, and I'm loathe to cut down more trees unless absolutely necessary.)

Again I apologize if my questions are to basic or are not contributing meaningfully to the community, everybody has to start somewhere.


Thank you all very much in advance, I value all of your advice.

I think the best wood to use is the wood you have. And the best time to start is now.

But my own first hugelmound is still under construction, so hopefully people more knowledgeable will come along.

I am in agreeance with Christopher. Hugels can utilize a vast majority of trunk material wood, with a few exceptions, and benefit from being created sooner than later. Hugels really hit their stride after a few growing seasons when the wood transforms more into a punky sponge to benefit your growies.

If I may ask, what is your climate type/growing zone like?

Pine gets mixed opinions for hugels specifically because of the resin. It does break down eventually but slower than most hardwoods. A lot of people either chip it for paths or let the logs age a season before burying them just to let the resin start going. Shouldn't cause problems long term once it's rotting properly.

While the wood ages, start collected other organic materials to mix with it.  

Leaves, twigs, well aged grass clippings, coffee grounds, etc.

Cardboard, fibrous plant stems like corn and sunflower stalks, and other garden waste, etc.

Joao Winckler wrote:Pine gets mixed opinions for hugels specifically because of the resin. It does break down eventually but slower than most hardwoods. A lot of people either chip it for paths or let the logs age a season before burying them just to let the resin start going. Shouldn't cause problems long term once it's rotting properly.

Sorry, I'm learning how this site works, please forgive me if this is not the correct way to reply --

I thank you for the reply!  I will gather as much deadfall as possible to augment the fresh pine trunks.

I'm in northern California, west slope sierra mountain foothills.  roughly equal distance between Sacramento and Tahoe.  I've been told its zone 9 something or other?  

I'll get started this afternoon gathering/stacking deadfall/fresh pine in a nice mixture.  

Do you think rosemary trimmings are a good addition?  I worry that they may be too oily also, but rosemary grows like crazy here and I've previously used it for erosion control so I have A LOT of it.

Don’t be afraid to ask questions—we absolutely don’t frown upon these sorts of posts, but welcome them!

My hugels are very short (2 or 3 ft usually), because I have limited physical energy resources (don’t we all?) and no heavy machinery. Although, there is consistent rain in this climate so making a gigantic one is less necessary. If I needed to make a big one I’d keep adding soil and wood whenever I had the energy to add a little.

M Ljin wrote:Don’t be afraid to ask questions—we absolutely don’t frown upon these sorts of posts, but welcome them!

My hugels are very short (2 or 3 ft usually), because I have limited physical energy resources (don’t we all?) and no heavy machinery. Although, there is consistent rain in this climate so making a gigantic one is less necessary. If I needed to make a big one I’d keep adding soil and wood whenever I had the energy to add a little.

Thank you for the reassurance!  
Sometimes I read posts here that are so far beyond my skillset I worry that I am worried that I might be wasting your time.

I learn best from human feedback.

Good to know that they don't have to be 7' tall!   I don't have any heavy equipment either.  I found a large amount of oak bark and very brittle dry pine branches that are from a tree that fell 5 - 6 years ago.

These branches are what I will be making up a lot of my bottom layers, in addition to the trunks.  

S.J. Vallier

Thank you for the reassurance!  
Sometimes I read posts here that are so far beyond my skillset I worry that I am worried that I might be wasting your time.

I learn best from human feedback.

Good to know that they don't have to be 7' tall!   I don't have any heavy equipment either.  I found a large amount of oak bark and very brittle dry pine branches that are from a tree that fell 5 - 6 years ago.

These branches are what I will be making up a lot of my bottom layers, in addition to the trunks.  

Welcome. S.J.!
     Your questions are great.  We are all in various stages of learning, and I love learning when people as questions I haven't even thought of yet (like yours about the pine wood).  You're in the right place.  We are a nice bunch of people from different backgrounds, all levels of experience, willing to teach and eager to learn!  
      I don't know of any reason not to put rosemary clippings into a hugel; maybe someone else does.
     

Susan Mené wrote:

S.J. Vallier

Thank you for the reassurance!  
Sometimes I read posts here that are so far beyond my skillset I worry that I am worried that I might be wasting your time.

I learn best from human feedback.

Good to know that they don't have to be 7' tall!   I don't have any heavy equipment either.  I found a large amount of oak bark and very brittle dry pine branches that are from a tree that fell 5 - 6 years ago.

These branches are what I will be making up a lot of my bottom layers, in addition to the trunks.  

Welcome. S.J.!
     Your questions are great.  We are all in various stages of learning, and I love learning when people as questions I haven't even thought of yet (like yours about the pine wood).  You're in the right place.  We are a nice bunch of people from different backgrounds, all levels of experience, willing to teach and eager to learn!  
      I don't know of any reason not to put rosemary clippings into a hugel; maybe someone else does.
     

Thank you.  I'll use them.  

IN another question, connected but not directly, I'm going to have to take down a large pine in advance of El Nino this winter.  I've already got the guy hired, (fortunately, he's also a permaculture person, so I will also pick his brain about this idea.)  

is it a good idea to use chipped pine to make earthworks (in conjunction with local soil and compost,)  around and along the contours of my orchard hill to preserve water and prevent runoff, just like a regular earthwork
OR
should I just add my chips to my hugel mounds.  

I am leaning towards using them in my orchard, since I can use the chips to grow Stropharia rugosoannulata , helping slowly turn my "orchard" int a real "food forest"  (it already has perennial peas, herbs, yarrow, mint, lemon balm, some struggling comfrey, daffodils, and some scarlet runner beans that I planted too late in the season to get any beans from.) I still have to work full time, I have less time to research and work on my FF.

If you think it would be better for me to make a separate thread about the wood chips, I will do that.

Re the wood chip question, it depends on whether your soil already has lots of organic matter or not. If it is barren clay or sand, the wood chips will benefit the huegle, mix them with the soil you cover the logs with. Otherwise, don't worry too much about it, use them wherever they seem useful.

Don't be surprised if it seems to take forever, years, for the wood to break down. I am digging up last year's garden beds and the logs and wood I put down last year green are still quite solid. Stuff that is several years old is getting soft. Pine might take years and years.

Thom Bri wrote:Re the wood chip question, it depends on whether your soil already has lots of organic matter or not. If it is barren clay or sand, the wood chips will benefit the huegle, mix them with the soil you cover the logs with. Otherwise, don't worry too much about it, use them wherever they seem useful.

Don't be surprised if it seems to take forever, years, for the wood to break down. I am digging up last year's garden beds and the logs and wood I put down last year green are still quite solid. Stuff that is several years old is getting soft. Pine might take years and years.

Good to know!  I read somewhere, (can't remember where,) that pine chips need to be very well aged before being used in a garden / food forest?  I think the person said they release too much ammonia while the pitch breaks down.  They might havbe been specifically referring to mushroom cultivation, so maybe in a FF it wouldnt matter so much.  Either way I will be using the chips more for Hugelkulture than otherwise, or maybe saving half and aging them for later use.

My soil is dry, Sierra Nevada red clay.  very rocky, interspersed with slate / shale etc.  Not very hospitable.  my oldest apple trees are 24 years old and only now producing reliable crops of fruit.  It was originally my father's orchard, I am trying to food forest-ify it.  According to one usda map there are ultisols in my area, but I'm not well enough informed to know what that really entails.

I'm totally prepared for the long, long wait.  I don't expect to actually grow anything on the mound for a min. of 5 years.  I have other things to work on in the mean time.  I wish I had started this much earlier, instead of chasing selfish pursuits.

I am new to Hugelkultur. I'm in Costa Rica. I just had to figure out the seasons here as there are only two, wet and dry. I've been building up swales, in the fruit Forrest along the hilly part where you can't stand up for long. Dug a walk way which made it a perfect swale/walkway with the outside built up into Hugelkultur. It works really well as water is being held by the 'hill' and everything gets automatically watered in the rain season. A simple irrigation system will be built from rain harvested water coming down the swale just by opening the tap. It's hard to explain lol

Pascale Dingenen wrote:I am new to Hugelkultur. I'm in Costa Rica. I just had to figure out the seasons here as there are only two, wet and dry. I've been building up swales, in the fruit Forrest along the hilly part where you can't stand up for long. Dug a walk way which made it a perfect swale/walkway with the outside built up into Hugelkultur. It works really well as water is being held by the 'hill' and everything gets automatically watered in the rain season. A simple irrigation system will be built from rain harvested water coming down the swale just by opening the tap. It's hard to explain lol

Good to hear from other people jumping in headfirst!  I'm just figuing this out myself.

Where I live there's a faitrly limited rainy season, (although this year is supposed to be much different, )  so I'm looking into methods to conserve water, trap rainwater, etc.