Last April we chipped down a fallen dead willow tree using an excavator mulcher. The resulting winding “berm” of chips/mulch was left standing for a full year now. It is about 3 feet high off the ground.
After raking and cleaning up the fringes and creating a more uniform looking berm, I would like to make this into a Hugel bed. However, being a relatively new permie, I am uncertain as to how to proceed forward as basically now all I have is a pile of wood chips branches and raked up sticks and oak leaves. The lower chips have started to break down wonderfully as it sits atop rather boggy ground, and has lovely white string fungi developing beautifully.
As we would need a lot of soil to put over the top of it, and don’t want to invest so much into it now given that this might only be temporary, I would like to simply put some plantings and seeds in pockets near the new young willow trees popping up along the mound to add some color and make this more attractive than just a heap of chips. I’d like to consider planting some squash, wildflower, and sunflower seeds along with transplanting some wild plants found on our property. Suggestions?
