maya704 McCoy

Jon your hügelkultur beds look fantastic!

Seth that looks fantastic!

Dog looks like he's thinking "damn humans are weird!"

In addition to the previous Costata Romanesco zucchini (which is ready to explode with flowers), Tromboncino zucchini and Nasturium (in bloom) already in my new hügelkultur bed, I've planted Romano climbing green beans and Melissa climbing purple beans towards the "back"of the bed (which is facing south-east), green purslane at the bottom (and I hope it will creep all over the place!) with Nantes Coreless carrots, White Globe turnip and Sparkler White Tip radishes randomly through the middle section. I'm done with this one for now and moving on to the next one.

This is so much fun.

Ha! I see what you mean. Yes that makes perfect sense. So far no erosion at all though we've had a few torrential downpour. I think once it's covered in vegetation it should be fairly safe from erosion.

Thanks Travis! I'll mulch with wood chips once I'm done planting, as I do all my beds. I'm not sure I understand what you're suggesting though. Do you mean to add twigs and and more soil over top what's already there? This would make the bed even steeper. How would this limit erosion?

I've just rebuilt and planted five 120 cm² raised beds and build a new one using the hügelkultur method. My first try at this.

For the 120 cm² framed raised beds, I piled about a foot of rotting wood on the bottom, covered it with 15-10 cm of dried leaves and top that off with 15-10 cm of garden soil and compost. No problem here.

For the new bed, I piled deadwood 60 cm high in a footprint of 365 x 75 cm then I covered the pile with 10 cm of up-side-down turf, 15 cm of dead leaves and topped it all with 20 cm of a mixture of garden soil and compost. It makes for very steep bed as prescribed by Holzer. Getting the soil to stay put on top was challenging and I hope that the first hard rain won’t wash it all away. I planted it with a Costata Romanesco zucchini, a Tromboncino zucchini and several Nasturtium. 6 more beds will follow in the coming weeks.

Has anyone experienced erosion or collapse of hügelkultur beds?

Hi Scott!

I've just moved from Brooklyn, NY to my country place in Lanaudière, QC.

I'm a Holzer devotee. I've read his latest english book from cover to cover a few times now and I'm starting to apply some of his knowledge to my property. I've rebuilt and planted five 120 cm² (4′x4′) raised beds and the first of two 365 x 75 cm (12′x30″) beds last week. 5 more 120 x 300 cm (4'x10') beds will follow in the next few weeks.

I also plan on starting a terraced orchard this fall and building a earth sheltered cellar in the late fall or maybe next year.

I've contacted Holzer in the early spring to know what his teaching and visiting schedule was in the next months but unfortunately his few scheduled events did not fit my schedule.

I want to network with local permies and would love to meet with you guys. Can we get together this summer? I'm having a killer punk pétanque tourney on 23rd july...    Come and bring a team if you'd like!