I've searched for related advice on this site but can't easily find it. Forgive me if this 'new' topics repeats another I've not yet found.
We are celebrating the 1-yr anniversary of having created two very large hugels in our Sierra Nevada foothill location (2100 ft), in northern California (between Sacramento & Lake Tahoe) My husband and I are having a 'tug of war' regarding how much water the hugels need at this stage and so I'm seeking a 'tie'breaker' from someone who is more experienced than we are.
We put plants in in early Aug. 2013 and I watered a lot for the first few weeks and then a fair amount this fall. The drought-tolerant flowers we planted last Aug. are now looking very good. This winter we did not have nearly as much rain as we normally do (you may have heard the governor of CA declared a drought emergency). My understanding is that hugels will need some irrigation -- including this summer -- where it will continue to be totally rainless and hot. I'm growing veggies and fruits, not only drought-tolerant flowers and herbs...To what extent should we irrigate?
Because of the drought and govt. request to reduce water use/sprinklers, etc. I'm thinking to put either a soaker hose across the top of hugels or maybe a 'loop' of soaker house at top. 6/5/14 - UPDATE: We've laid in a soaker across across top of one hugel as experiment, but I'm not sure this will help irrigate the plants, incl young veggie starts, that are more than a foot away from the soaker, i.e., that are 'down the slope'. Anyone with more experience on this ecosystem--please advise? Remember that they're only a year old.
Hugels were built with approx. 1.5-2ft. deep trenches, loaded with local rotting wood (many conifers but no redwood), then soil & compost, and are now about avg. of 3 ft. high, 4.5-5.5 feet wide at base. and a bit flat on very top They are approx. 75 ft. long and get a ton of sun. They are heavily mulched. See recently photo (and now picture a lone soaker hose across top of one....) - thanks for your advice!
