missoula garden no longer needs irrigation

A full fledged garden complete with tomatoes, melons ... the works!  And no irrigation!  In fact, in time,  it won't need fertilizer, pest control or even seeds!  Just harvesting. 

Does it get any easier than that? 

We started off by creating a hugelkultur bed.  Here is the blorp from mud:

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Hugelkulture: Permaculture Raised Bed workshop
Saturday, June 26
1:00 PM @ 1645 N 12th St W (call MUD if you need directions)
Instructor: Paul Wheaton, master gardener & permaculture instructor
*Pre-registration recommended

Hugelkultur is a German word pronounced "hoogle culture". It is a permaculture technique which takes the concepts of raised beds to the max! Hugelkultur makes all the benefits of a compost pile directly accessible to your garden plants, while simultaneously drastically reducing the amount of water required for successful gardening.

This hands-on workshop provides participants with start-to-finish experience making a raised bed filled with rotten wood and soil. This results in a garden bed loaded with organic material, nutrients, and air pockets for plant roots. The wood decomposes over time, shifting the soil and allowing for a low-till or no-till approach, and sustains an increased soil temperature as it breaks down. All that rotten wood retains a high volume of water, too, enabling you to reduce garden water requirements to almost nothing.

Join MUD & Paul Wheaton to learn the nuances of building a hugelkultur bed that will save you time, effort, and water, and result in nutrient rich vegetables or extraordinarily happy ornamentals into the foreseeable future!

Wear clothes that can get dirty, bring work gloves, and plan to do some digging if you want the full experience. Participants are encouraged to engage in the hands-on work, but welcome to observe if physically unable to participate.

Click here to register online. Or call 721-7513 or email info@mudproject.org.

$10 MUD members/$20 non-members
Scholarships are available. Contact MUD office minimum of 1 week prior to workshop for scholarship information.

Blorp? this looks so promising I can't wait !!

Do you have any pictures to post of this type of garden?
(then you can just change the title to "Pics of Hugelkultur Gardens"

Well, there is the hugelkultur article at http://www.richsoil.com/hugelkultur

And then there is massive thread talking about it at https://permies.com/permaculture-forums/17_0/organic-practices/hugelkultur

And I saw that you posted a pic of this particular event somewhere. 

And I took some video which I need to mash up to youtube.

Thanks for the links!

Yup, I posted the pics in the "Get out & Do something thread.
We look forward to your video.

Here is the video:

[size=10pt]WE ABSOLUTELY LOVED DOING THIS [font=Verdana]HUGELKULTUR [/font]BED![/size]

We got our hands dirty, and played in the mud and just had fun learning a new method that would significantly assist the Missoula growing season.  We can't wait to see how her crop does this year and next.

Thank you for all the information and opportunity to learn a pesticide free, unique and wonderful method of making best use of the hot summer and short growing season here in "Missoula Montana"!

-Dianne, Bob & Sparrow

The video has been up for two days and has already had more than 2500 views.

That's great!!

I have some pictures of 4 differents hugelbeds projects in Canada.
It's on a facebook group called Hugelkultur.

http://www.facebook.com/home.php?#!/group.php?gid=130360093665054&ref=mf

Thanks nitya,

Interesting concept!
I wonder if it would work with tropical type vegetation, such as palm trees and bird of paradise, both of which are dripping wet when first cut.
I also wonder if there are any follow up pictures and reports on this project?
It's been about 18 months since it was first built.
It seems like the technique could have merit in South Florida, where the sandy soil and heavy rains tend to leach the nutrients out of the soil. I see the farmers here plant in raised beds.

There is a lot more information on the technique in general: http://www.richsoil.com/hugelkultur/

I spent a lot of that summer videoing hugelkultur beds being built. The first year, the results are typically so-so. It is the latter years that this technique really pays off. I hope to gather a lot of summer footage of these working really well.

That is cool.

Very nice. I just came here to ask if hugelkultur beds work well in Montana since it's so dry here. I may build some in Whitefish soon.

That bed is now 3 years old. Is there a plan to return to it now that it has settled in ? Thousands have watched the video and they're curious too.

Well, did it work without irrigation and fertilizer?