Shane McClellan

Bokashi seems to work better than all the remedies people on here have recommended. Soaked in water and applied to, well everything, it eliminates smell and fly larva. Living with birds and bats is all well and great at zones 3 and greater and for sure we use plenty of home made bat and bird houses but for outbreaks of flys and Mosquitos look no further than anerobic kombucha for your plants. Easy to make, easy to use. Good for you and your land. You would be hard pressed to find a better solution!

We are learning so much from this post here at our nano pharm. any who, you should check out a product called em1. It's worked as a spray to reduce fly larva and the fly hate it so I imagine it would work excellent at keeping them off goats and since it's harmless and food grade it's safe in any situation not to mention easy and cheap to make yourself once you have a starter. Did I mention it's great in compost piles, barns and stalls as well as any other smelly situation you get into? This stuff is akin to apple cider vinigar which would work great too I imagine but more expensive and harder to produce.

Sepp Holzer recommends planting right away but speaking from experience I would dump as much water for as long as you can to saturate your mounds so as to promote deep root sets and minimalize the need for irrigation. Also it is good to see the mounds with a poly culture that will have a variety of root depths especially something with some serious root length to it so as to help pull up the moisture hidden down within. It looks like you did an excellent job layering so I imagine the rest of your plans will turn out stellar as long as you continue on that path. Happy hugelkulture and please keep us updated!

Soil test show that those creosote railroad ties can be broken down by fungi, for sure. I would have a tendency to parent crop with with the red garden giant mushroom and plant some non edible companion plants like lupine, straw flowers and maybe some flower bulbs ( good as a secondary income or area beautification) as well as a good nitrogen fixing cover crop for when you detoxify the hugel beds. At our place we use vetch and clover as well as a mix of alfalfa and barley to mix up the root depths. Don't forget to get a decent inoculant for your seed when you plant it so you can enjoy all the nutrient fixing benefits. Our hugel mounds are in their third year and a rocking out number crops of potatoes, garlic, corn/beans/squash, tomatoes, all kinds of medicinal herbs and spices as well as some fruit trees planted down hill to block the wind an retain the back fill. Happy hugelkulture and have fun.

I don't know how it works where your at but here in California you call your local county planning department and county health agency to see what they allow.

We plant in between the hugel mounds as well as on top. This is only our third year with the mounds in place but we have learned a lot. The mounds seam to do best with plants that require little to no watering so fall and early spring planting do best. I would widen those logs out and put an ATV path in between giving you more like 12-16ft between mounds. Also if you dig the top soil up first then put the logs in you get the topsoil up top and it doesn't get buried, if that makes sense. Also we would recommend sticking some kind of char, burnt organic matter in the very bottom before the logs and such. I don't know what your drainage is like but the more water our mounds can collect on the up hill side. We are so excited to see so many people diving into hugelkulture!!

My wife and I live in a tiny house in Northern California. It is amazing to see the popularity grow around these self sustaining and rule bending buildings. So many options when you live life despite all the rules and regulations. It's so heart warming to read this thread, on so many levels.