I am putting in a hugelkultur bed at our local library (southern midcoast Maine). I have not done this before, but I am currently taking a permaculture design course, and I have a business doing more ordinary landscaping the rest of the time. At the library site we have lots of very thin brush, some composted weeds and stuff like that, and we will have a little bit of sod (the amount that was under where the mound will go). My questions are 1) once the bed is assembled, how soon can we plant? 2) what are good things to plant the first year (I've heard potatoes?) 3) what are good things to plant with kids? To get this project to 'fly' we need to plant it this season… but I'm worried there won't be enough soil-type material to plant in until things have rotted down a bit. Thanks so much for any thoughts!!
