Buried Wood Beds

I am six feet tall and one evening I dug a shallow grave for myself- and then filled it with wood.
Took about two hours.

My soil is clay with lots of rocks, so it took me several hours to pick-axe a hole, remove the rocks, fill the hole with wood (which I had to collect), and sift the soil back over the wood. It took me about a year to fill my smallish garden with wood. So I think how long it will take depends a lot on your soil, your physical capability, and how large an area you want to treat this way.

Honor,

How bout you tell us what kind of soil you have and the size of the pieces of wood you intend to bury? There are just so MANY variables here, including the vigor and experience of the person doing the hand digging. I had a very fit young person here earlier in the season. I asked her to widen and deepen an irrigation ditch, which she willingly did. I was away for the day. At the end of the day, she told me she had not realized what hard work ditch digging is. (there is definitely a reason why that is the most often used example for hard and unskilled work. I only disagree on the unskilled part. Using your body to work is an art form). On a similar note, I had a 16 year old track runner and athlete digging (and other physical tasks) for me last summer. His mother told me that after a day's work at my house he was beat, he said "Now I know why I am sure I want to go to college, so I don't have to do this all my adult life".

To get an idea how fast you can get your hole dug, go out and dig a hole that is a 4 foot- or 1 meter diameter circle and dig it a similar depth. While doing that, you'll learn a lot about digging in YOUR soil (if you don't already have a ton of experience). Then you can compare volumes: the pit you dug vs the hole you need to make your buried hugel bed.

I dug most of my hugel beds using a small tractor, just doing the finish work by hand. Also used the tractor to drag the tree trunks into the pits, but I've done a lot of digging with a shovel. Enough that I can do more than the young kids I have to help me from time to time. If I have a big project to dig by hand, I divide the job, and only do part of it each day. That way I don't get so discouraged that I give up, and don't hurt myself or over exert myself, thereby providing excuses for why I am not continuing on the project. ( I already make plenty of excuses for not doing stuff that is hard or I don't enjoy).

Good luck on your project!

Honor Marie wrote:I'm wondering how long it would take to dig a buried hugel bed by hand. Does anyone have an estimate? Include some info about your soil and the size of the bed, please!

Dependant upon many factors. I recently dug up (grass covered clay soil) to a depth of 2feet, 3" x 5" and it took me about four hours. Another, smaller (2ft deep x 2ft wide x 4ft long) hugel bed took me an hour. However that soil was the previous location of my compost and was much easier to dig.

So, some variables: your labour rate, the compaction of the soil, how wet/heavy the soil is, how many rocks/roots etc you encounter....Good luck

Perhaps I'm just lucky. I live in the high desert of South Central Oregon. I have over 100 acres. Mostly a second growth pine forest. But I also hve downed trees all over the property. Some will fall apart when you lift them but a lot of them are very light and would be a great sponge material. I have collected 50-60 cu yds of horse stall material and am presently getting a large amount of yard maintenance debris from a local landscaper. I also have a seasonal river and lake. Most of the year it's completely dry. That soil is going to be very helpful in improving the soil.

I look forward to making a huge impact on my place by gaining a lot more green and wildlife.

I also do almost all my garden beds on top of buried wood. We are fortunate to have a backhoe though because if I had to do it all by hand it wouldn't happen. I have blackberries like this and I almost never water them. At the base of a mountain that seeps water when we get a lot of rain I layered wood logs on top of the ground about 50 ft long and about 3 ft into the air, I covered that with dirt and straw. About 4 ft in front of that we dug a trench about a foot deep and filled that with wood. I topped that with dirt and straw and leaves. Basically created a garden bed from the edge of the raised hugelcuture mound to the outer edge of the sunken hugelkulture trench. In between raised and sunken wood I planted some peach trees from seed. Its 3 years later and the trees that the deer haven't trimmed off are about 7 ft high and I haven't watered in 3 years. Veggie garden that is done on top of sunken wood I do water but easily go a week or more in hundred degree heat with minimal wilting.  Love the concept and i am sure it is working for water retention but for me i am still struggling to learn to garden in my area amongst the forest. I have to much shade I believe that is affecting my ability to get things to grow in a lush healthy way. But I am getting there.  Healthiest looking garden so far this year. I also learned that I needed to fill the gaps between the wood with dirt or leaves. First beds I made this way I didn't do that and they settled almost a foot in a year and settled very unevenly. Tyler, I spent 30 years of my life in south, south texas. I did lots of gardening there and getting good water was a challenge. I wish I had known about all this down there. I could of had spectacular gardens. here is picture of asparagus bed done with underground wood. I haven't watered this bed or done really any maintenance on it in 4 years. Maybe 10 mins weeding in all that time. Nice little crop this year from it. Next picture is the raised hugelculture mound against the mountain and I am building the underground trench in front of it. This is where the peach trees got planted. No evidence of seeping water from that section of the mountain. It all gets captured in either raised or sunken hugelculture.

Nice to see both types of hugelkultur being used together, Tracy. Very cool.

I have also gone with the buried wood beds, as the summers here are usually hot and dry (although, not this year, of course!). We had an excavator guy on the property, doing various tasks, and he dug the first trench. He made it much deeper and wider than I wanted, but we managed to fill it up. It is 85' long, varying from 4 to 5 feet wide, and varying from 4 to 6 feet deep. It's divided by a path in the middle to make 2 40' beds. I'm thinking since this trench is at the top of the slope, and the next 3 trenches will be lower down, its being so deep will work well to slow water, and let it trickle down to the next beds. Time will tell.

The bed was finished about the first of June, and planted in the week following. It has worked beautifully so far this summer. We don't have soil, just sand. So the beds are filled between the logs with year-old wood chips and a grass/leaves/weeds mix. It is also topped with this mix, plus some sand, as well as some amendments such as clay, rock dust and seaweed.

Here are some pics of building the bed, as well as some garden pics. You can see more pics in my project thread shown in my signature.

I think that using buried wood beds (or hugelkultur proper in wet climates) is one of the coolest techniques I've come across in my search for ways to grow on pure sand, in a hot dry summer climate. I'm looking forward to a few years in the future when the beds have soaked up lots of water, and don't need as much irrigation. All very cool.

Cheers
Tracy

Honor Marie wrote:I'm wondering how long it would take to dig a buried hugel bed by hand.  Does anyone have an estimate?  Include some info about your soil and the size of the bed, please!

Hey all!! Just found this thread.  I'm in Central Louisiana, Zone 8.  Our soil is a mix of sand and clay.  I've dug in 16 (!) 4 x 8 beds using buried wood, most of it still green. I covered that with a layer of chips, then a layer of manure, and then covered it all with the original soil.  In my high tunnels, I am putting in 8 4 x 25 beds, using the same technique.  These beds really work!  Totally worth the effort.  The smaller beds took me, by myself, maybe 6 hours to do one.  I don't remember, since it's been a few months.  I haven't had ANY trouble with rodents, and my farm is out in the woods.  

Tyler, your determination to bring fertility to your property is just amazing.

Great posts all...

Any thoughts about when to bury and when to just build up your hugel beds?

I have built about a dozen fair sized hugel beds (4'x4'x 15'-35ft each). I dug down about 18" on my first one and built it back up to about 3' above grade, then decided that seemed like excessive work and in way counterproductive here in redwood country with 60"+ rain annually (160" last year!). I definitely endorse building upwards and using soil from paths and other excavations around here, but just 20mi inland from me you get less than 30" in some rainshadows. Doing this gives me dry enough beds a month before ground level gardeners in spring, and I water no more than once a month and by year 3 almost never.

So where would you all draw a line for above vs below ground regarding rainfall, temperatures, and seasonal variations?

I was doing this today!
...and the dailish waiting for me.

...I just had a question in mind this afternoon: Is there a maximum depth for buriying the wood? Is there a "too deep" stage where it is for example too anaerobic?
Is 1m too deep to start putting wood?

Glad to see this thread here, I too have been burying wood over the course of about a year in hopes of improving soil quality. :) I am going to be planting on some of the buried beds starting tomorrow with a fresh batch of cow peas. :) Will report in with findings on the difference between areas with no buried wood vs. with the wood beds.

Pics from today, and not intended to be posted!
So, I can show how deep we dug (to remove a very big stone, and even 2!). Thus my question about how deep is too much for burying wood? Hope somebody can help soon, as we have started today to put the wood, mainly almond, but also pine, orange, mango and avocado.

Basically, I want to remove stones and replace by wood... Wouldn't you find some logic in this? On the 1st pic you can also see the second stone, that is nearly out on the last pic. My place is terraces with some soil over huge amounts of loose stones ...and air between those stones. I do not have a natural soil there.

This place will be underground and upper ground, but between 3 walls. The front will be wood that can be removed, to harvest the ginger and turmeric rhizomes. (hope the idea will work!) My idea is to use a place that has too much shade. Also, it will be a 5 crops in 1 place, like pumpkins from the upper terrace. And guinea pigs inside, as they do not like those leaves.

Edit: interrestingly enough, the 1st pics shows quite a lot of my place, as you can see 3 different levels! It is quite narrow, though less than it seems. At the highest place you can see some of my VETIVER. Then below are mango and pigeon pea (who decided to hang!) Down are more mango and bananas.

1st photo. I started a buried wood bed aside the hugel I want to ELIMINATE (it is where the water pipes).
60cm deep. The moved part on the left is already done. Very long work if you go that deep by hand, and you need to remove some soil, or else you cannot work. If you leave some empty place, then you can work from down the hole. This explains why not all the dug part is filled with wood.

2nd photo, the  hugel whose wood will be buried deeper. You can see the "mice building", all the galeries and air inside were my major concern, plus the soil going down on the sides, and i had places with no more soil over the wood.

I also replace stones by soil and wood! And I need the stones for drainage and walls, according to their size, so all good.
You can also see that organization is not easy when you make big holes and have little spare room around. Moved soil has much more volume. Plan well your material movements and also keep in my where is your aerobic soil and the anaerobic soil! They will love to stay at the same depth as they were...

1st pic:
You can see that trees are guama and pigeon peas. Also some bushes of lima beans behind, and the guava further away.
You can also see the logs upon the old hugel.

Then the reserve of stones that went out and they will go for drainage under a tool shelter that i want to make in the corner of 2 walls. Also some go to a path where they will also help keep humidity.

The extra soil on the left is the reason why we started the other buried bed: I have extra soil here, and needed more for the turmeric bed, as I up the level above ground between walls.

2nd pic shows some big stones, not too big, could be removed by hand. There was also some air between the stones, and I do not think it is that good to have empty spaces in the ground!

Or is it?

Ben Zumeta wrote:Great posts all...

Any thoughts about when to bury and when to just build up your hugel beds?

I have built about a dozen fair sized hugel beds (4'x4'x 15'-35ft each). I dug down about 18" on my first one and built it back up to about 3' above grade, then decided that seemed like excessive work and in way counterproductive here in redwood country with 60"+ rain annually (160" last year!). I definitely endorse building upwards and using soil from paths and other excavations around here, but just 20mi inland from me you get less than 30" in some rainshadows. Doing this gives me dry enough beds a month before ground level gardeners in spring, and I water no more than once a month and by year 3 almost never.

So where would you all draw a line for above vs below ground regarding rainfall, temperatures, and seasonal variations?

For my property I tend to lean towards burying the wood at least 2ft down. I still mound it up above the ground level but I like to have part of the bed bellow ground level.

Part of this is to save money and damage to other parts of my property since I don't need to buy as much soil or dig it out of another part of my property. Now if I was digging a pond or a foundation then the soil from that could be used for a hugel bed.

Another part is that a lot of my soils have a compacted layer at the surface that I like to break through. Digging down helps to get through that layer.

I also think the beds stay more moist in the summer this way. Also, it lets the plant roots easily spread into the surrounding soils. At least compared to a 5ft or more high hugel. Seems like people in dry climates are having more luck with buried hugel beds. I live in a climate with wet falls, winters and springs but very dry summers.

But you do lose out on the degree of micro climates that a very tall hugel bed can make. The top of the bed will be relatively dry, winds will be changed, part of the beds will get more sun or more shade depending on orientation, and frost patterns will be changed.

Also, if blocking a road or bad view is important then a tall hugel bed will work much better than a short or buried hugel bed. Large hugel bed will block both the view and any loud sounds coming from that direction.

The single biggest motivator for me to use buried hugel beds is the reduction of the amount of soil I need to bring in from outside my property or from other areas of my property. Second has been the better connectivity to the surrounding land for plant roots, water flow (groundwater) and soil life. These are the main reasons why I prefer buried hugel beds. But I still mound the beds up 2 to 3 ft above ground in addition to the 2 to 3 ft below ground.

That being said I'm building a new hugel bed that will be mostly all above ground. A few very large conifer rounds will be halfway buried but otherwise all the wood will be above ground. For this specific part of my property it makes sense to do this. But I will need to bring in 20 cubic yards of soil to complete this project.

Eventually I may have a large enough compost system to generate my own soil so I would not need to bring in as much soil if any. But at this time it is not practical so I will likely continue to focus on buried hugel beds. Plus I still think there are some real benefits to having the beds at least partly buried.

Xisca Nicolas wrote:I was doing this today!
...and the dailish waiting for me.

...I just had a question in mind this afternoon: Is there a maximum depth for buriying the wood? Is there a "too deep" stage where it is for example too anaerobic?
Is 1m too deep to start putting wood?

First thing first: med. climate, roughly 700 mm /27inch of rain, terrible clay soil over here.
I made couple of beds with varying depths (roughly 50m2 in total). I had the same question in my mind when I started, but not because of "aerobic or not", it is just pain to dig all that without an excavator.
My motivations were;
-replacing rocks with wood
-water!
-better drainage
-creating an underground reservoir (which failed - related post )
-didn't have soil (5-10 cm of top soil).

What I learned:
1 ft just doesn't make any sense.
2 ft kinda works, but 4-5 months of no rain is a major challenge. It might not be enough to save it.
3 ft or less than 1m, I find this optimum. It is deep enough to sustain itself. It might take some time to mature though. I don't know it goes anaerobic at that depth, but I suspect not. When filling back I don't put soil in the first layer - many gaps, which I want it to act like a reservoir. Other layers are soil+ wood, and as I get to the top layer it is mostly soil.
4-5 ft or 1-1.5 m; this is the best performance. But instead of going this deep; for the same amount of soil excavated I can create 30% more of 1m deep bed. Also it gets harder to dig as you go deeper
Anything deeper than that (6-7 ft , 2m) Doesn't show any increase in performance. I don't have a clue what is happening to wood at that depth. Trees in close responded very well though. They didn't show any water stress. How a sunken bed helps a tree 3-4 m away, I don't know.
There is one more idea though. Since it is pain to dig and I want to maximize my garden area, instead of digging beds like a pond  (removing the all volume) why don't we create beds with varying depth. Something like; remove all the first 2-3 ft of soil and then create a deeper grid system. So for 4-5 depths there will be channels linked to each other. Might work as good as 5-ft deep bed, but less excavating. Obviously it is not an issue if you have an excavator but yeah, it is for us poor souls digging with pickaxe

Over the soil layer, don't go higher than 1 ft. Half a ft is what you are aiming for.
Hope it helps!
Great work btw. I did the same tripod-pulley thing when I was digging

I posted something on the thread below that I am going to quote, as it definitely applies.

https://permies.com/t/51934/climate-favor

If you can find clean wood chips, I have another idea for you that has the advantage of increasing your soil depth, increasing access, and creating a more receptive environment for RedHawk's compost teas (which I agree with. He has a very comprehensive thread he's working on regarding a how-to of soil building and management, along with the whys. Thanks again for that, RedHawk!).

You mentioned that you have dedicated access paths to your beds, I believe. Assuming that the compost tea applications manage the added potassium you mentioned you didn't want, and assuming you were able to find untreated wood chips, what would you think about digging the paths out as deep as you can (I think standard for French drains is 6') and replacing the material with woodchips? Again, you'd want to inoculate them with mushroom spore for their beneficial effect on the soil, but if that was in place for the rains, wouldn't they increase the moisture retention capacity of the soil around it? You could run a perimeter path, as deep as you could go with the help and tools available. I would keep it all in the ground, of course, as you get severe dry spells like you said. All that moisture would make your acre a haven for worms into the dry season, increasing soil fertility and moisture retention capacity just by virtue of the worms alone. You could even top the paths with a mixture of top and mineral soil (I am assuming that's what you'd be digging) and seed them with a polycultural groundcover mix that likes to be trodden upon, probably including clovers.

This could have a number of advantages. The large quantities of dry wood chips in the soil the first year would soak up all the early water, enabling better early drainage into what would essentially be wood chip french drains, but surrounding your beds, or however you have them arranged (I am assuming some amount of settling, so the first year after implementation would also be a few inches above ground level, probably), allowing for proper establishment of crops or at least green manure. You'd still have to select a variety of hardy cover crops, probably local pioneer species, and ones that like the wet, no doubt, but that would get a root mat established.

By the way, have you thought of growing rice in your wet season? I don't even know what the required temperature profiles look like, but I was under the impression that they were unfazed by wet roots. Perhaps an early season variety might stand a chance. Rice and clover, then the wood chip paths fill and saturate, and the standing water kills off the clover, releasing nitrogen for use by the rice. Very Fukuoka.

I am assuming that the wood chip drains would only help so much, and then the standing water would probably drown any established green manures for you. I think that they wouldn't trap standing water, though, as the open structure of the wood chip drains would let it pass easily through them to the surrounding soil when it starts to recede. The chips would, as mentioned earlier, obviously act in the same way as buried wood beds; giant moisture-retentive sponges. So as soon as you could plant on it again, you'd have the perfect nursery bed, with drowned ground cover in place, and maybe even a rice crop, but it would have to be a very early and fast-growing one.

So granted, its work that ideally would take lots of free labour or, like, a trencher (digging machine for trenches to lay conduit and pipes and such, I think that's what it's called), but this happens exactly one time per project, so once until you expand. You might need to top up sinking paths until the soil levels settle unless you account for it the first time around, but that would be more likely for an expansion project, when you have an idea of how much it will all settle over time. The point is, you do this once, creating a soil-life reactor of sorts by smoothing out the peaks and valleys of your water cycle, allowing our friends in the soil to do their work. You don't need to import animals. This way, they'll come to you and breed (worms) and do their job on the soil for you.

So first, the initial blow of the wet season is mitigated enough (hopefully) to allow a start where none was previously possible. Your wet-tolerant local pioneer species go on to create biomass in place that will become your mulch and added subsoil structure. This makes it easier to get seeds to germinate, and earlier because of the added drainage capacity.

They don't dry out, though, because of your wood chip moisture bank, which extends your goldilocks period much longer than earlier. How long would depend on the volume of buried wood chips.

So when everything else is drying out, the grass surrounding your acre community garden is vibrant green, as is the much more impressive crop yield in your beds. This combination of buried woody matter and compost tea has worked so spectacularly that losses among the newly planted orchard crop are virtually nil, and breaking records for healthy fruit tree growth in the area.

When harvest rolls around, the whole community gathers and encircles your garden, chanting, "Gil-bert, Gil-bert, Gil-bert..."

Then they burn you as a witch.

Sorry, got distracted. I don't think you'll be burnt as a witch, and I doubt there'll be chanting of your name, but I think this idea might work for you.

And the other part that might appeal to you is that it won't appear unruly to the uninitiated. It will just be a bright green spot in a sea of greenish brown in the dry season.

-CK

I often think of swales and woodchips in the same space, but not buried wood beds, for some reason, except in conjunction with larger buried pieces. Here I explored this idea.

-CK

I will post the nearly finished result soon! I am exhausted, but if the reain comes tomorrow as broadcast says.... Then I will have time to rest!

So, here are the pics... You can see the mango and orange trees behind, and left wood for the next burried wood bed, as I will go on doing more of these. What a job for gaining 12m2... Well, with a bit more job, it will be 12m2 more with the "roof" supporting cucurb from the upper terrace. Thus the old water pipes transformed in fence posts.

This place was anyway too shady for planting most plants, and shade lovers are often water lover. I decided for ginger and turmeric.
They love water, I will be happy to provide.
They love shade. Cucurb will be happy to provide.
They love compost. Guinea pigs will be happy to provide.
So it will be even 12m2 more when it will be closed on the sides: guinea pig garden! And they do not eat turmeric nice big leaves. (I know this and explained the difference with banana trees, but found curcuma leaves next day at the guinea pigs'....)

We still have to get out the big stone a bit more, and then close the front. You can see what I burried in the "lasagne", and the 2 small posts that will hopefully help to hold this up!

I plan to close with wooden poles and a piece of rubber sheet behind. I hope this will work like this: I plan to remove them to help dig out the rhyzomes... If not, well that will be nice and easier to do that a stone wall! Speaking about stones, I have gained a few NICE stones for nearby wall repair.

About time, as this question rose: today we were 2 and worked 6 hours.
The 2 days before.... I was alone but motivated by the rain coming... I did 6 or 7 hours each day as I finished at night, but also made another bed (moving dry earth before rain). Only the furthest half was done, and I decided to dig the outter part. A few stones came out, and I made fun by queueing them out! Rolling of course, waiting for help today. Then I could level all the ground, and start putting more wood. I think I should have started to put wood deeper, but also I want to keep wood for other projects.

What you do not see on the previous post is my layer with burned pieces of pine, so with a lot of charcoal around them.
I might have chosen to put wood deeper if I had got this answer before I did the bottom part!
Similar climate, maybe less rain, but less heat less cold and no clay. I would not even think about a reservoir, as my underground is full of air gaps between the stones. I have a lot of drenage, but of course replace stone by wood, and make walls with the stones!
I also have 5 months with no rain, even more if I do not count spring little drops as rain!
Plants stand this because it is not hot.

s. ayalp wrote:First thing first: med. climate, roughly 700 mm /27inch of rain, terrible clay soil over here.
I made couple of beds with varying depths (roughly 50m2 in total). I had the same question in my mind when I started, but not because of "aerobic or not", it is just pain to dig all that without an excavator.
My motivations were;
-replacing rocks with wood

What I learned:

2 ft kinda works, but 4-5 months of no rain is a major challenge. It might not be enough to save it.
3 ft or less than 1m, I find this optimum. It is deep enough to sustain itself. It might take some time to mature though. I don't know it goes anaerobic at that depth, but I suspect not. When filling back I don't put soil in the first layer - many gaps, which I want it to act like a reservoir. Other layers are soil+ wood, and as I get to the top layer it is mostly soil.
4-5 ft or 1-1.5 m; this is the best performance. But instead of going this deep; for the same amount of soil excavated I can create 30% more of 1m deep bed. Also it gets harder to dig as you go deeper
Obviously it is not an issue if you have an excavator but yeah, it is for us poor souls digging with pickaxe

Over the soil layer, don't go higher than 1 ft. Half a ft is what you are aiming for.
Hope it helps!
Great work btw. I did the same tripod-pulley thing when I was digging

Thanks!
I go 40cms over soil level only because it will be all closed, so no air. I also had air gaps when trying more classical raised mounts.
Here below I put pics of the other bed I did yesterday. Well, below was done long ago, as i needed a slope to go down to this garden. I just put more earth and a lot of organic matter that I covered with the extra soil from another sunk bed.

With the stones coming out I make walls with the big ones, and a deep path that will serve as mulch as well. I could not afford to waste more earth to up the level!

The second photo is up left after the path of the 1st pic, so just after the orange tree.

Xisca, I just love the work you have done.  Very impressive.

Excellent documentation, Xisca, and great work!

-CK

It really depends on what aspects of the job, including materials, you calculate into your time, as well as whether you dig it down or build it up. If I have all my brush and logs cut and available nearby (within 50yds), and I don't dig it down (being in a temperate rainforest near redwoods with 60+" of rain), I can build a hugel bed 4x16ft sq and 4ft high in an 8hr day. That is if I am not digging it into the surface, which I think is counterproductive as well as a waste of effort if your soil ever gets boggy. If I am digging a swale-path to get some of the dirt, that adds a similar amount of time to digging it in, but allows me to divert my french-drain/duckpond overflow to wood filled trenches between beds that fill in large rains and wick into my hugel beds for months. I water 1/month the first year, 1/season the second and with perrennials can get away with no irrigation water the 3rd in a 4-6 month dry season.

I had a very cool experience with my buried wood today.  I am re-designing the kitchen garden, and getting some beds ready to plant.  I was able to broadfork down into the buried wood - it had a very satisfying rotten wood sound and feel as the broadfork broke into it.  Feels like it is all pretty uniformly rotten down there.

The apple trees mentioned in the first post of this thread, which were planted on rock, not rotten wood, have mostly died, by the way.

I barely got done before the rains,  but i got a 2 for 1.

I needed road base so i dug it out on the high side of my slope that had very little top soil. Probably 8ft wide x 100ft long.
I was making a creek channel into my pond. Widening and deepening the dry creek that feeds it.  The trees/brush that were removed were set in the above hole, then the good creek bottom dirt was put over it. Its fairly level to the ground. I seeded it with a food plot mix (oats, radishes, clover) and spread some hay over it. I just checked in and its sprouting (thank you light drizzly rain and no gulley washers!)

I still have more soil and brush. I started doing small semicircle swales on the low side of oak trees. Nothing huge, maybe 12" tall. One layer of brush under it. Rains came so im currently at a standstill.

This is what I was up to last weekend. I am going to plant ornamental wines to cover pergola (which is not in the photos) and wooden fence.
1. It was dug roughly 60 cm (2ft) deep,maybe a bit more. Native soil (mostly clay and small rocks and stone) was put aside.
2. I don't use cardboard for edible plants, but this not going to be for edibles. Cardbard layer at the bottom and plane logs.
3. Manure and some coffee grounds added. I used to bury mostly wood with native soil, but nowadays I add more N-rich stuff at the bottom layers.
4-5. Pampas leaves and Leaves-sticks and  (stuff that came up when we pruned and cleaned the surrounding area).
5. Covering it with native soil (cleaned from rocks and big stones). We dug out couch grass in adjacent area and put it as a layer. Otherwise it will happily cover the whole bed.
6. Filled it with water (to help soil to get through the voids, make it heavier to compress leaves and logs were a bone dry). First layer is complete.
7. Bottom parts of palm fonds added with their thorns facing in.
8. Remaining stuff from garden-cleaning were added. Covered with a layer of smaller logs or branches.
between 8 and 9.  Manure, coffee grounds and glass clippings are added and covered with a thicker layer of native soil. Almost all native soil were filled back. Watered thoroughly. Some soil from vegatable beds (with worms) were added to the coffee ground layer.
9. Covered with soil mix, 5-10 cm thick (sand, native soil, manure and compost mixture) and seeded with clover. I usually cover it with a thick layer of wood chips at this stage but I don't have any chips left.
It is left to settle this winter and next year I will plant some ornamental wines to the opposite side of the fence and flowers over the buried-wood-bed.

s. ayalp wrote:
6. Filled it with water (to help soil to get through the voids, make it heavier to compress leaves and logs were a bone dry).

This is a really important step when building these kinds of beds in a dry climate.

I was going to start a new thread, but it probably is better to put it in this one.

Just moved an rv that was parked over this spot in my yard.  It gets sun all day so it's in a good location for another bed.   This is the first time I've attempted the "hugel" type of bed.

Started with plain old clay with no rocks surrounded by concrete.  The level of the clay was about two or three inches below the level of the concrete.

I dug two parallel trenches about ten inches deep, and piled the dirt up down the middle (where I'll be walking, the bed is about 80" wide).

I then framed the outside with scrap 2x4's I had laying around.  (The whole project actually happened because I'm trying to clean up some things around the house.)

Then I packed the clay up to level with the 2x4's, and sloped it into the about 12" deep trench.

Then, I put some Dr. Earths lawn fertilizer down on the clay.  ???  I don't know, it was super cheap on clearance last year, and is high in nitrogen.  I figured it couldn't hurt.

Then I put in a bunch of scrap 2x4's that were leftovers from prior projects.  I'd been saving them for years.........but never found much use for them.  Figured it was better than burning them.  A little bit of unused small pieces of sheetrock also went in.

Then a bunch of tree trimmings that were too large to throw in the chicken coop.

Then I threw in a wheelbarrow of river rock, just because I wanted to get rid of the rock........I don't know, maybe it'll be good for minerals.......

Then another round of the Dr. Earth's lawn fertilizer.

Then I started putting the coarse wood chips from my chicken coop on top of all of that.  It's been in the coop for a year, but it's still large chunks of wood.

Currently, I'm watering it in.

I will, after I'm done taking my break writing this, then start sifting the material in the coop with a 1/4 screen of hardware cloth, and top the bed off with that.  

It currently sits just above the concrete level, but a couple of inches below the top of the 2x4's.

I'll try to overfill the bed because I'm assuming it'll sink a bit as the voids are filled in.

I'll post the finished pictures after I'm done.

I'm thinking of planting garlic in the entire bed.  I have chronic pill/sow bug issues so I don't think I can get away with planting anything from seed that they'll like.  Sluggo Plus isn't even working for me here.  I'm talking millions upon millions of the pill bugs......ugh.

Looking good!  The pillbugs might stop being a problem once you get enough soft moist mulch for them to eat.  I have bazillions of pillbugs also, but find they much prefer to eat rotting vegetation than healthy plants (even seedlings).  

Tyler Ludens wrote:Looking good!  The pillbugs might stop being a problem once you get enough soft moist mulch for them to eat.  I have bazillions of pillbugs also, but find they much prefer to eat rotting vegetation than healthy plants (even seedlings).  

Mr. Ludens, first of all, THANKS!

but man, I've got the pill bug blues.  lol  I hope you're right because they completely devastated me early this year in my wood chip topped gardens.  I had to resort to cups with the bottoms cut out placed over every seedling if I wanted it to make it.  They girdled my transplanted tomatoes that were a couple of feet tall, and had a 1/4" main stem.  Ugh, I'm sick of the pill bugs!

Okay, the project is mainly done.  Not too bad for an hour last night, and several hours today.  This new garden bed is basically 100% wood now.  Solid wood on the bottom, chipped wood in the middle, and wood compost on the top.

The compost was too moist for me to sift through the hardware cloth, so the end result is more woody than I was wanting, but I've seen other people grow in similar compost and they seem to have good results.
I had the compost analysed, and it came in with a ph of 8.4 so I sprinkled a bunch of sulfer on top of the first layer which was a couple of inches deep, and then put some more of the lawn fertilizer on top of that.

The final layer of compost came from the very bottom of the coop, so it was the most broken down.  It also got sulfer sprinkled on top, and I used about 1/3 of a bag of ecoscraps leafy greens fertilizer sprinkled on top of that.

Tomorrow I'll put a little dog fence around it, and maybe plant all of the garlic bulbs I have saved up.

The oddball picture of the shovel, and garbage can is what's left in the chicken coop.  I was thinking this was going to use up a lot more than it did.  There's still tons left!  Not a bad thing.....except for my back.  It sucks carrying all of that up stairs in a pale.

If it gets too dry and they run out of rotting green mulch to eat (woodchips won't cut it) they will start to attack the plants.  I've had that situation myself.

Update.

Pill bug pressure is way down (at least as far as seedlings are concerned), but there are still an army of them in the ground.
Results so far are very good.  Lot's of good growth.  Peas are 4-5' tall since planted, and survived several 15f degree nights unprotected against south facing wall of heated house.  Some of the peas were turning bright yellow, but now have come back are a nice green colour.
200 heads of garlic growing well except for a few duds.  

Honor Marie wrote:I'm wondering how long it would take to dig a buried hugel bed by hand.  Does anyone have an estimate?  Include some info about your soil and the size of the bed, please!

So far, I've dug an area about 43 square feet by 20 inches deep and it has taken about 45 hours. My soil is so rocky that some may call it "soily rock" instead of rocky soil. There were a few boulders I'd estimate around 500-1500 lbs each I had to remove. I'm using a 5 lb pick mattock to loosen up the soil and gather it into a pile and then a shovel to toss it out of the hole. I'll frequently use a dragging motion with either the pick end or the mattock end to loosen the soil instead of a swinging motion. It seems a waste of time and energy to swing hard when the pick is hitting a rock instead of between rocks. The soil between the rocks is very dry and powdery. When a larger rock needs to be loosened and the pick is securely wedged into a place to pry, I'll sometimes jiggle the handle rather than using a brute force prying action that would be more likely to break the handle than to loosen the rock. This allows the rock to move a little and dirt and small gravel to fall down holding it in a slightly moved position. I use an oak 4x4 to get leverage for the boulders which I roll/lift out of the hole little by little, blocking up as I go with rocks. This part is easiest done with assistance holding the 4x4 while I place rocks under the boulder. Sometimes I can weight down the 4x4 instead of having someone hold it. Some of the medium to large size rocks I'll toss out by hand instead of using the shovel. I plan to dig down 4-5 feet deep and I'm going to have to consider making a dirt elevator/conveyor to get the dirt out of the hole far enough away that it doesn't fall back in. It would also speed things up to build a vibrating rock separator so rocks would automatically go to a separate pile. Eventually I'll probably go backhoe shopping and maybe get a deal on one that needs an engine but I'd use an electric motor instead to use excess solar instead of hauling fuel from two hours away.

One more update.  Got tons of peas until the heat killed them off a couple of weeks ago.  Just harvested the garlic, and I'm impressed with the results.  Some marble sized heads of garlic, but most were average grocery store size, and a couple of dozen were really large.  I'll save the largest bulbs and replant those this fall.  

Honor Marie wrote:I'm wondering how long it would take to dig a buried hugel bed by hand.  Does anyone have an estimate?  Include some info about your soil and the size of the bed, please!

It took me and my kid 5 1/2 months to dig out and build our hugelgarden.

Used a small Gibson home rototiller to loosen the soil down to hardpan, about 6 inches deep-ish.

Shovel that out and put it on the side.
Then commenced putting in rotten logs and a LOT of used coffee grounds.
Layers of things mostly animal poo from barns with a very thick layer of wood chips on top then huge amounts of coffee grounds.
Then topsoil and some soil I had to bring in from the local yard waste.

Tools used:
Home rototiller
Shovels.
Rake.
Lots of elbow grease.

S Tenorman wrote:I was going to start a new thread, but it probably is better to put it in this one.

Just moved an rv that was parked over this spot in my yard.  It gets sun all day so it's in a good location for another bed.   This is the first time I've attempted the "hugel" type of bed.

Started with plain old clay with no rocks surrounded by concrete.  The level of the clay was about two or three inches below the level of the concrete.

I dug two parallel trenches about ten inches deep, and piled the dirt up down the middle (where I'll be walking, the bed is about 80" wide).

I then framed the outside with scrap 2x4's I had laying around.  (The whole project actually happened because I'm trying to clean up some things around the house.)

Then I packed the clay up to level with the 2x4's, and sloped it into the about 12" deep trench.

Then, I put some Dr. Earths lawn fertilizer down on the clay.  ???  I don't know, it was super cheap on clearance last year, and is high in nitrogen.  I figured it couldn't hurt.

Then I put in a bunch of scrap 2x4's that were leftovers from prior projects.  I'd been saving them for years.........but never found much use for them.  Figured it was better than burning them.  A little bit of unused small pieces of sheetrock also went in.

Then a bunch of tree trimmings that were too large to throw in the chicken coop.

Then I threw in a wheelbarrow of river rock, just because I wanted to get rid of the rock........I don't know, maybe it'll be good for minerals.......

Then another round of the Dr. Earth's lawn fertilizer.

Then I started putting the coarse wood chips from my chicken coop on top of all of that.  It's been in the coop for a year, but it's still large chunks of wood.

Currently, I'm watering it in.

I will, after I'm done taking my break writing this, then start sifting the material in the coop with a 1/4 screen of hardware cloth, and top the bed off with that.  

It currently sits just above the concrete level, but a couple of inches below the top of the 2x4's.

I'll try to overfill the bed because I'm assuming it'll sink a bit as the voids are filled in.

I'll post the finished pictures after I'm done.

I'm thinking of planting garlic in the entire bed.  I have chronic pill/sow bug issues so I don't think I can get away with planting anything from seed that they'll like.  Sluggo Plus isn't even working for me here.  I'm talking millions upon millions of the pill bugs......ugh.

We know who *REALLY* dug that for you!

Yours is a miniaturized version of the one we built. Except your center is a walkway above grade and mine is below.
I can use mine to fill with water to let it seep into the surrounding hugel when needed. Otherwise it is a walkway when dry. A lot is waist high for easy maintenance and such.

We did not fill clay to soil level. We didn't use any clay at all. Just left the clay hardpan there as is.

I think I would have put the fertilizer on top of each layer not on the bottom.
Water/rain will wash it down to your filling.

Potash is water soluable.
I believe the nitrogen is too.

Phosphorous I think stays put for a long time.

A very long time.

Maybe OT, not re: wood, but re: water holding capacity - here's David the Good on adding bentonite soil to compost (or a slurry to soil, etc)
https://thegrownetwork.com/add-clay-compost-pile.  BTW, in my previous entry, I mentioned cat litter source, calcium vs soldium bentonite, and Erica Strauss' excellent post on her research in their differing qualities (in her search for a pond sealant).

I was reading the articles about burying wood in sandy soil; would lining the pit with grass like they do in India help?  They take 8 inches of fresh cut grass and pack it around the hole they want to retain water.  As the grass goes to slim it becomes water proof.  Then lay the wood in and cover with compost and mulch.  Would planting a nitro fixer like clover help to start the decomposition prosses?