hugel time! Also at PTJ near the backside of the abbey
To complete this BB, the minimum requirements are:
- 7 feet tall, 7 feet wide, 6 feet long
- mulch it with at least 4 different kinds of mulch
- seed/plant at least a dozen different species
- mostly nitrogen fixers (>75% by volume)
- at least three comfrey plants
- at least three sunchokes
- at least a dozen sepp holzer grains (currently available as a prize for anyone who reaches BB20)
To document your completion of the BB, provide the following:
- Two pics of the site before the work is started with the intended location marked out- my plot is the purple square, 6 ft by 6 ft and this is the view from the right
the view from the left
- Three pics of three different stages of construction - showing the contents of the hugelkultur-
1.me in the excavator about to dump load 1 on top of 1st layer of wood
2. 2nd layer of wood
3. 3rd layer of wood
- One pic when the hugelkultur is completely built but not planted or mulched showing it is 7 feet tall and 6 feet long
here is the width photos showing about 7 feet wide:
hugel on a slope: height from the right side: 9.5 feet
hugel from left side about 4.5 feet- averaged to 7 feet!!!
- Pics of all the stuff about to be planted: comfrey and sunchokes
the seedies!
- A paragraph or two of what wood was used and where it came from, what was planted, what mulches were applied and anything else interesting:
I did this project up on wheaton labratories so the wood used was some form of conifer laying around the lab. I did what I would call the great scrounge, and picked peices that seemed like a good length for hauling over to my hugel. Luckily there was a large pile of confiers all chopped up near the hugel site. As you can see, for planting I used the comfrey and sunchokes. I used over 14 varieties from the seedbank at the lab including: sepp holzer grains (atleast 20), white dutch clover, crimson clover, alsike clover, abbey buckwheat, mustard, ladak alfalfa, austrian winter pea mix, rose clover, red cowpea, winter rye, hairy vetch, and tomato mix. I learned from Thomas Elpel this week that clovers are in the pea family and the pea family are all nitrogen fixers.
For mulching I used hay, milk thistle/prickly lettuce, pine needles, and lambs quarters: see below!
- Two pics of the site after the work is complete from the same two locations as the beginning pictures.
view from the right of my 6 foot section in the gigantic hugel co-op
veiw from the left AKA mulchey mulchey
