giant hugelkultur (12 feet tall) at basecamp

We cut the slots into the upper log by eyeballing it.  With a torpedo level we discovered that neither of them were vertical.  One was off by two inches and one was off by one inch.   Further, they were not quite pointing at each other.  So I added some cuts so they were pointing at each other a bit better and the one of that was off from vertical by two inches was corrected to be off by just one inch.  So now they point at each other and they are off the same amount.    This means that if we carve the tabs according to gravity vertical, this will still work.  

Notice how we are working with a LOT of compound angles.   We aren't even trying to calculate the angles.   We're doing 95% guessing of what seems about right.   To compensate, we are allowing for about 3/4 of an inch of "slop" where the tab will be a bit smaller than the slot.  In the end, it turned out we had too much slop.  

I think that the next time we do this, we start with smaller slots knowing that we will botch them.   But once the poor slots are there, we can do a lot more measuring and eyeballing to make it 20 times better on corrective cuts.  

The log is in place.

It looks like we took too much wood off the left side than we needed to.  Oh well.  

The right side looks like a really good fit!

That reminds me.   We did this in one attempt.   The log is heavy.  It took three of us to wrestle it up there.  So we wanted to just do it once.   Therefore, we put a lot of emphasis on having it fit the first attempt.  So when we were guessing stuff, we always erred on the side of making the tabs smaller and the slots bigger.

While the previous horizontal log needed some stomping to go into place, this one popped in without stomping.   And it needed a few shims to keep it from wiggling.

The steps carved into the log were a little small.    And when trying to come down without a handrail, it was a little spooky to make the leap off of the log and onto the highest step.   It was a little too far away and a little too small.   So on that highest step, we added a piece of 2x10 shaped into a bigger step.   It brought the step about 1.5 inches higher and made the landing zone FAR bigger!

Another issue is that I was carving the steps by eye, I made the middle step a little too low.   So the middle step has 2 2x8 chunks.   Now when you travel all three steps the spacing seems a bit more even.

Here is what the whole thing looks like now.  

You can see what it looks like as you mount the steps.   And you can see what the angle of mounting looks like too.

From this reply in the Rocket Oven Pizza Party thread, we talked about two plants in our hugel berms. While these aren't photos from our place, they still show what's growing there.

Jocelyn Campbell wrote:Thank you both, Matt and Pat - we sure enjoyed having you here and appreciate all your help setting up for the pizza!

Ah, yes, we do have what some call red valerian, though I've always called it Jupiter's beard or Centranthus ruber (Wikipedia link here) in the hugel berms.

(picture source)
It's not a true valerian, which is an herb that most know for it's medicinal properties; so this plant, which today I learned is edible, does not share true valerian properties.

The other (more prolific) red blossom in the hugel berms is from the "Ice Plant" Sedum spectabile - Boreau. (Plants For A Future link here).

(picture from pfaf.org link)
I knew this plant was a sedum and probably edible, but since the great folks in the tour identified it as such, I tried a leaf and was "meh" about the flavor and texture. The pollinators LOVE these blossoms and they can be covered in all kinds of insects in late summer. And this plant has survived several drought condition summers like a champ!

2019 PEP1 event
for the PEP Badge: Round Wood Woodworking
add one horizontal log to berm/hugelkultur scaffolding









Done!!!

See more pictures of the first ever PEP1 gathering here: . (Plus it explains a bit about and has more links to all the PEP stuff.)

June 2019

8/22/19

[from back a year ago, this thread]
> these days somebody is going to say something mean and *poof* I'll be gone.  


Paul

That has to be the funniest bit of absurdist malarky I have ever heard from you! !!!

You be gone, yeah some day with the rest of us. <g>
Gone "poof", well maybe. Personally I bet on "KaBOOM".
But...  When  "somebody... say something mean"...      NOT A FRIGGING CHANCE!  (pity the poor dolt)


Cheers,
Rufus

8/23/19
on top if the hugelkultur

A bit of an update on this.

We never watered this.   The rule for hugelkultur is to water it like a regular garden the first year - to build the soil and get the rot of the logs started.   So - watering it once a week or so.  

We thought that this was the year.  But stuff happened, so it didn't happen.  But right now, today, we are trying to water it all.  Or water the two closest to the house and in a paddock.  So we build a little soil.  

I am hopeful that next year we will water it all quite properly.  And then the year after that we will water it half as much.   And the year after that will be zero water.  

8/30/19

harvesting a few potatoes

The hugelkultur infested with boots for this year's permaculture bootcamp.  This is mid-april.   You can see life getting started.

From clayton's bootcamp thread

One of my favorite parts of Bootcamp is gardening these monstrous mounds. I arrived a little late this year so I haven't grown much from seed, though I have been harvesting a bunch of good stuff. I've been especially keen on improving the walkways, such as making steps and keeping the soil from falling down the hills. The scaffolding is a great way to make it easier to garden, and with some extra sticks and lumber, they also are useful for keeping soil high up on the berm.

I'm really curious about the giant hugelkultur. It's been many years now since it was established, so I'd love to know how it has performed over time. How much microclimate effect do you get out of the slopes? Is the orientation such that you get an increased heating/sunlight on the southern exposure for any extended growing compared to other growing areas with less slope/southern exposure?

What is the growing season like there to begin with?

Here is a wonderfully lush video update of the hugelkultur bed from this summer - check it out:

Its incredible how this was created around ten years ago and still is continuing to develop its growing space. I can't wait to see how they look this upcoming growing season.