Clara Teixeira

Hugelkultur are certainly complex. I haven't been recommending them for beginner gardeners for that reason. I do love that they create a lot of beautiful planting soil for use in raised beds! But it is a 7 year process. I am in year 7 and seeing great results from the many tons of wood and used animal bedding that has decomposed and mixed with soil. Will begin building raised beds soon and adding wood to the bottom layer but everything else will be traditional raised bed gardening.

After 4 years of terrible success. I finally had a good year. 2 sets of triplets and 4 sets of twins. 3 singles and I am waiting on 1 more doe to kid. She usually has twins. With 7 new doelings bouncing around and growing fast I am so happy to have a growing herd!

Hi folks. My hugels are doing well going into their 4th growing season. But a question has been plaguing me that I hope some of you can answer. How do you  plant asperagus in a bed that is constantly shifting/changing shape/needing mulch to fill in holes as the wood decays? Being this far along in the decaying process the beds have settled some. So I "think" I can safely plant something that will be a long-term established crop. But I would love to hear how you all do it.

Kai Walker wrote:LOL Looks like someone wrapped a basketball with banana tree leaves and called it a head of lettuce!

Dang wish mine would produce like that.
I have things starting to die already.

Might be because of the 12 inches of rain we got in the past 2 weeks though.
Dunno....

I see they had a mini excavator to use. We had a household small rototiller and 2 shovels to do ours.
And unbreakable hardpan 4-6 inches down too.

We were very fortunate my dad had a tractor that he hauled to our place and helped out with a lot of the soil hauling. This year we are building a second 100' completely by hand and after 1 month of working on it just in our spare time we are only halfway done. Our soil is sandy loam but big rocks in every shovel full. So it can be done, just takes much longer. They are worth the effort in our area!

Chris our ratter dog is a mix from another farm. I believe some kind of terrier and mini australian shepherd.

I am new to the forum but am entering 4th year of hugelkutur gardening. I have 8 beds, the biggest is 100' long, over 12' across. They only get better with each year. But I do have livestock that contribute used bedding and manure to the hugels every year. Last year I only watered 3 times at the end of the summer to get a 10th picking from my green beans. My pumpkins, squash and cabbages do not get irrigated at all.

Interesting thread. I have had 7 generations of mousing cats on my little farm. They have done a fantastic job in the barn. We've had zero mouse issues. But this year we are strongly considering phasing cats out. #1 issue is population control. We have to have future generations of them due to the coyote and birds of prey population that is fond of cats. But even 2 litters a year is too much! When we do spay or neuter, those are the ones that reliably get eaten or roadkilled. That's $200/cat when we can scrape together enough cash to get it done that is lost almost immediently and forever.

And then there is the issue of them pooping everywhere in the goat barn and the gardens. I detest it and they refuse to go elsewhere to do their business.

Last year we brought home a ratting puppy and she has killed more rodents around our house and in the hay field than the cats ever have. We are strongly considering another 1 or 2 of similar breed and being done with cats. This dog also loves to chase the deer away from the gardens and she keeps a very watchful eye over our livestock. Alerting us to any issues that may be going on. Loyal and a great alarm system. So at this time I give a thumbs down to the iconic barn cat.