Jan Thomas

I started hugelbeds two years ago and the hardwood is still pretty much in tact.  I would like to see pictures of soil before hugelkulture beds were installed and after hugelkulture beds.  Does is really improve and build soil?  About how long did it take?

Hello,  I am in zone 8b, NorthTexas.  Soil is silty clay.
Area was a hay field just 1 yr ago.  Growing my garden slowly because hugel beds are labor intensive to start.

I dig shallow trenches with a shovel, approximately 12” deep and 12” wide.  We treat them like traditional planting rows and keep them covered with straw.  We keep mulching material down in between the rows.  I have grown in raised beds and my results from hugel beds is better.  Plants usually produce larger harvests either in size, quantity or both.  I’m not having to use pesticides at this time either.  I have noticed that the new fruit trees that are in between the hugel rows do better than the trees that are on the outskirts of the garden.  This garden does NOT get watered on a regular basis and is left to its own devices for weeks at a time because I don’t live there.  The tomatoes plants produce all summer long up until the first freeze.