Hugelkultur and keyhole in one

Johnny Niamert wrote:Did your holy basil do much?

Unfortunately no. A few sprouted but, never made it beyond the 1 inch tall stage.
had I known about the cloche technique(micro 'greenhouse'), it likely would've made it.

I'm definitely not giving up on it though as Holy Basil is a favorite of mine.

Update Pics:

A rather wild mix, left pretty much to itself - letting nature teach me of itself. I occasionally do some light weeding.

So far nature has provided some nice companion plants that appear to support the crops well.
Lettuce, Carrots, Onions, Radishes, Potatoes, Pumpkin, Water Melon, Corn, Peas, Oats, Garlic, Peppers, Tomatoes, Lambs Quarters, Clover, etc.
growing elegantly close together in perfect harmony!

I've been eating the lettuce on an almost daily basis multiple times a day - picking off the larger outer leaves and letting the inner ones continue to grow.
Very rewarding!

The Potato beetles however are attacking the potato foliage quite a bit - I need to look more into that issue, any ideas anyone?

Here's an overall look at the wild poly-culture garden.
Looks untidy I know but, it provides very well.
I just can't bring myself to becoming a control freak and undoing this abundance!

More living Polyculture art.

Alright, Here's a recent update on the garden system.
I just harvested another successful batch of red potatoes as last year.
Now there's room for the huge out of control black cherry tomatoes to fill in.

Here's the corn(bloody butcher) growth in about a month's time.
Not sure if this is fast or what, but it sure is growing nice.

I thought this was a nice find considering last year I had no luck with carrots.

Unfortunately I recently moved from the property in which this garden system was constructed so, I may have nothing else to show/document in the future. I did however manage to get my harvest and save seeds before I left.
It was an amazing experience and I was totally won over by the hugelkultur reality! It's an impressive system if you take the time & are disciplined to properly construct it.

Also, when ever a weed or plant expired, it was always returned directly back to the garden, either under the mulch or in the central compost bin, ripped up by hand. The idea was to always be building & supporting the soil - giving back some of the nutrients in which the plants took. Return of surplus. I always took the time to sow/maintain/harvest with bare hands(never used tools) except in the initial composting stages & after the winter's ice.

What I failed to mention before and I think also added to the success was the intentions I directed towards the plants. I would often walk around the garden several times playing my acoustic guitar with the intent of stimulating the stomas of the plant foliage.
Maybe it was just me but, I swear, it seemed when I played, the birds always seemed to perk up & join in the music. When I was aware of them, I actually changed my playing in attempt to accommodate their timing. When the sun came out in full effect from behind a cloud, I changed the mood of the music to reflect the reality of that moment. It was really fun letting nature lead and actively participating with it dynamically. I can only imagine that this was an added benefit to the whole.

Time permitting, I'll likely reconstruct a similar system again.