michael murray

Jason, I like the idea of getting soil from a ditch around the bed and then tapering off the depth to make it less noticeable. I'm on rented property so I am hesitant to change too much about the yard even though these changes are without question, for the better. I might just do that and see how much dirt I can get that way.

more power to you. I don't think my family of seven could survive such close quarters after having the kind of "moving around" space we now have.

Daniel, I'd love to see some pics of your cottage. Would you happen to be in Georgia?

Jason, You're right on a couple of things. The spiral section probably could have used some more wood, but I'm considering it to be sort of a cross between a huglebed and a traditional herb spiral. Also I think I added a few more limbs than the pic shows. As for the evergreen wood, after I started putting this all together I found a dead pine tree out in the front yard so cut it down and put it on top of what I had. Some of it has already started to rot but the heart wood will take a long time to break down. As for the soil, I'm afraid I'll have to go buy some compost to cover it up with. I could get all the horse or cow manure I want but I'm afraid there'll be too many weed seeds in it as it not thoroughly composted. Any thoughts?

happy gardening.

well there's one. I'll try again.

Hi Jason, Awesome job on the huglebed/keyhole. I'm building my first huglebed with a keyhole type herb spiral off to one end. I still need to get some compost and/or topsoil for all of it. If I can figure out how to upload them I'll include some pics.

Well, I'm in southeast Georgia, and was hoping to find someone else from my neck of the woods on this thread but so far, everybody checking in is up in the north end. I've just recently started exploring the idea of building with cob. I really like the part about it being cheap and SO customizable. I don't have land to build on yet, but some day I will. I have some of the same concerns as most of you, namely getting an inspector to pass an unconventional house, and having to pay through the nose for an engineer or architect. Anyway, if anybody comes along from south Georgia or north Florida, (we're in Charlton County), who has built or is building with cob, I'd like to connect with you and learn about your experience, and maybe offer a helping hand.

Thanks for the input guys. I watched the video of mike reynolds and was impressed with his use of thermal mass. if you can build a house that doesn't need heat with snow on the ground and wind blowing you've done something right.

Hi Leon, a horseshoe better describes what I was trying to express. I was just thinking hi in the middle and low on both ends. I like the idea of a small pond in the middle as well.

I've been looking to see if anyone was talking about this subject already and haven't seen it. Has anybody tried stacking old tires in sort of a pyramid to warm in the sun, and give off heat at night, sort of a micro climate. I'm thinking this might be useful for helping tropical plants like bananas and pineapples survive in a temperate climate. In order to add more mass I think you could make up some cob to partially fill the tires and stack them with the full side facing south, then fill the rest of them with soil/compost and grow strawberries or something in the open areas between the tires. Then of course fill in behind the tire stack with soil or better yet a hugelbed. Anybody tried this yet?