Marie Beausoleil

We've adjusted. There are going to be five 15x10' hills with paths between. We have the first one partially built now. There's so much rotting and half-rotten wood on the property, I don't know if I'll lack for materials - just time and energy to get it done.

I AM actually short - I'm 5' tall. Husband is 5'10". We're looking to make the bed about 6' tall with the assumption that it'll settle some.

Hoping this works! And there will still be some space on the south side of it where I can put some cold frames and tomato planters - should make a nicely sheltered area.

I'll jump in with a question for my first post.

My garden area - starting from the northwest side, I have ten 4x15' beds, and then another row the same and then ... a mess. We tossed sod there and then didn't get to it, and a bunch of brush and old rotting logs and then didn't get to them ... we were going to make some of the beds be hugels but I think I didn't really understand the concept. Oh, yea, in that mess is our first attempt at a hugelbet 4x15' two years ago - last year the weeds took over, but they grew beautifully (yarrow, poppies, lambsquarters - it was hard to think of them as weeds!) and everything in there is well rotted now. It started about 4' high and now it's just gently mounded. Ooops.

I had major health problems all last year, ending in surgery. So now I'm at the garden again.

My question is this - the space that is a big mess, it's about 60' long and 30' wide - would that be a size for a hugelbet? Too big? The mass of brush and sods runs the long way.

Do I just plant it in as normal? How do I access the top? Walking on it is bad, right? I try not to ever walk on my garden beds.

I guess I'm still a little baffled about how hugelbets work, exactly.