Hugelkultur Experiment #1

"Hugelkultur is an ancient form of sheet composting developed in Eastern Europe. It uses woody wastes such as fallen logs and pruned branches in order to build soil fertility and improve drainage and moisture retention."

kerryg - http://kerryg.hubpages.com/hub/Hugelkultur-Using-Woody-Waste-in-Composting

So basicly, you dig a hole, pile some logs and branches into it and then cover it up with dirt to form a mound.

Then you can plant various ..plants on top of it. What makes this nice is wood is a nitrogen trap and as it decomposes over time under the earth, it releases that nitrogen to the roots of the plants...and makes them happy.

and that is what I have done in my back yard!

Hugelkultur Experiment #1

Why am I doing this? Cause I love to experiment! This area of the yard behind the garage isnt used for anything so I thought I would pu tit to some use.

My plan is to plant some early radishes and then once they mature, ill harvest 80% of them and let the leftover 20% go to flower. Why?

Im glad you asked. Appearently Honey Bees love these flowers! I plan to plant pumpkins inbetween these radish plants to see if the combo of the Hugelkultur with heavy pollinating activity will give me some good results.



My Old Wood Pile



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Future Hugelkultur Location



Even Brightheart wants to help out with the digging



Filling the hole with semi decomposed wood

The...Wood!



Completed Hugelcultur

Doesnt look like much right now, but I will take you on this journey of mine and report back from time to time and let you all see the progress, good or bad.

Until next time...

Cheers!