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Hi
I'm going to use this thread to post stuff that might be interesting from my allotment. Hopefully I can get some good advice/tips and maybe even dish out a few.
Project 1: hugelkultur bed
Basically, hugelkultur beds mimic the natural forest where no-one sweeps up and the trees eventually fall over and rot and get covered by leaves and branches. The woody stuff rots down and forms lovely nutrient rich humus (not hummus).
They often take the form of long mounds of earth but you could build them flat by burying logs in a pit. Most of them you see online are raised bed mound types.
Why bother doing this at home or on the allotment?
Pros
-Supposedly provides nutrients for many years to come.
-When the wood has rotted you are left with humus. Attractive with my heavy clay soil.
-Improved drainage. Attractive with my soil
-Raised beds are easier for people to pick from and give you a better path:bed ratio.
-Supposedly retains water longer as the wood soaks up liquid like a sponge; but this is offset against the height of the thing. I suspect my one will dry out at the top at least as it is quite high. I mulch to try mitigate this.
-Raised earth mound beds (i.e. not boxes with sides) increase the growing area. Mine is 1.2m wide at the base but I have about 2.2m of growing space now.
-Provides habitats for various beneficial animals
cons
-When wood/carbon rich matter breaks down it steals a lot of the local Nitrogen. This Nitrogen is needed by your plants. To counter this you can plant leguminous plants that together with bacteria near their roots fix Nitrogen and make it available. A ton of chipped wood would rot down quicker but would also use up more Nitrogen initially. A large log weighing a ton would rot down more slowly and use up Nitrogen less initially.
-After a while it will settle down and lose some shape and lose growing space.
-Can provide a habitat for animals you dont want (mice/rats).
Now you will see I put "supposedly" a few times. This is because you dont really see any proper comparisons that show the benefits of hugelkulturs against a normal raised bed. I like the logic so I am willing to give it a go; plus I can get rid of all that wood without burning it or leaving it around for a habitat. Hopefully I can show some sort of comparison between similar plants grown in a non hugel-bed.
Anyway enough waffle, here's my step-by-step guide. This is not neccessarily the correct way to do things!
1. I dug out the top layer of soil. I dug this area 7 months ago and covered it in a nice amount of well rotted manure. It was then mulched with layers of newspaper with hay on top, which kept out most weeds, only a few strands of couch grass remained.
2. Digging out continued and it flipping rained. Argh. I had to bale it out. Once that was done I turned over the bottom layer which is very clay-y sub soil. Pretty much pure clay I reckon.
3. I dont know why but I sprinkled on 2 barrows full of leaves and humus-y detritus that was under the logs. I wanted to fill in the gaps in the clay a bit.
4. My attempt at laying the logs with as few gaps as possible. This is before I chuck on all the willow which is really not conducive to straight lines.
5. Inexplicable side view of the logs.
6. chucked on 3 bin bags of shredding. My logic is they will help fill the gaps. If I had mown grass I would have added that here as it is good nitrogen to feed the rotting down of the wood.
7. All the lighter brush/twigs on top. Starting to worry how the hell I am going to make a mound that doesnt fall over. You can see at the bottom of the photo I have started piling on the first layer of rubbish soil+clay I had spare
8. a 1/3 of the sub soil is on. My back wants a new owner.
9. 2/3 of the sub soil is on. Now I have realised how utterly stupid it is to pile the dug out soil on the sides with no way to tip a wheelbarrow onto the middle. I dont really want to stand on the thing and compact it so I have to do some ridiculous things like lifting a wheelbarrow onto the bed and tipping it over. I also added a line of bricks to help raise it a little bit and give a neat (ish) edge for lawnmowing and delineating the bed.
10. Top soil is now being loaded on top. I have also used about 5 wheelbarrows of turf/turves that we had spare. I used this at the bottom at the sides (above the bricks) to help build stable sides. Grass side down.
11. Side view of this stupid mountain range I have just built. My back wants to die.
12. Started planting and moving all my herbs and wild strawberries over. Herbs that like dry or very well drained conditions go on top (marjoram/oregano/rosemary/sage/thyme/horehound). Strawberries and mint on bottom as they dont mind more moisture. Everything else in the middle.
13. All moved and sown and mulched. I covered the thing in a packet of escarole (endive) and chicory with the idea being their very long tap roots will grow down and nail themselves into the thing and hopefully keep it together. Watered the hell out of it.
Not counting cutting up all the wood it took me about 20 hours going at a gentle pace. Hopefully it stays in one place
I'm going to use this thread to post stuff that might be interesting from my allotment. Hopefully I can get some good advice/tips and maybe even dish out a few.
Project 1: hugelkultur bed
Basically, hugelkultur beds mimic the natural forest where no-one sweeps up and the trees eventually fall over and rot and get covered by leaves and branches. The woody stuff rots down and forms lovely nutrient rich humus (not hummus).
They often take the form of long mounds of earth but you could build them flat by burying logs in a pit. Most of them you see online are raised bed mound types.
Why bother doing this at home or on the allotment?
Pros
-Supposedly provides nutrients for many years to come.
-When the wood has rotted you are left with humus. Attractive with my heavy clay soil.
-Improved drainage. Attractive with my soil
-Raised beds are easier for people to pick from and give you a better path:bed ratio.
-Supposedly retains water longer as the wood soaks up liquid like a sponge; but this is offset against the height of the thing. I suspect my one will dry out at the top at least as it is quite high. I mulch to try mitigate this.
-Raised earth mound beds (i.e. not boxes with sides) increase the growing area. Mine is 1.2m wide at the base but I have about 2.2m of growing space now.
-Provides habitats for various beneficial animals
cons
-When wood/carbon rich matter breaks down it steals a lot of the local Nitrogen. This Nitrogen is needed by your plants. To counter this you can plant leguminous plants that together with bacteria near their roots fix Nitrogen and make it available. A ton of chipped wood would rot down quicker but would also use up more Nitrogen initially. A large log weighing a ton would rot down more slowly and use up Nitrogen less initially.
-After a while it will settle down and lose some shape and lose growing space.
-Can provide a habitat for animals you dont want (mice/rats).
Now you will see I put "supposedly" a few times. This is because you dont really see any proper comparisons that show the benefits of hugelkulturs against a normal raised bed. I like the logic so I am willing to give it a go; plus I can get rid of all that wood without burning it or leaving it around for a habitat. Hopefully I can show some sort of comparison between similar plants grown in a non hugel-bed.
Anyway enough waffle, here's my step-by-step guide. This is not neccessarily the correct way to do things!
1. I dug out the top layer of soil. I dug this area 7 months ago and covered it in a nice amount of well rotted manure. It was then mulched with layers of newspaper with hay on top, which kept out most weeds, only a few strands of couch grass remained.
2. Digging out continued and it flipping rained. Argh. I had to bale it out. Once that was done I turned over the bottom layer which is very clay-y sub soil. Pretty much pure clay I reckon.
3. I dont know why but I sprinkled on 2 barrows full of leaves and humus-y detritus that was under the logs. I wanted to fill in the gaps in the clay a bit.
4. My attempt at laying the logs with as few gaps as possible. This is before I chuck on all the willow which is really not conducive to straight lines.
5. Inexplicable side view of the logs.
6. chucked on 3 bin bags of shredding. My logic is they will help fill the gaps. If I had mown grass I would have added that here as it is good nitrogen to feed the rotting down of the wood.
7. All the lighter brush/twigs on top. Starting to worry how the hell I am going to make a mound that doesnt fall over. You can see at the bottom of the photo I have started piling on the first layer of rubbish soil+clay I had spare
8. a 1/3 of the sub soil is on. My back wants a new owner.
9. 2/3 of the sub soil is on. Now I have realised how utterly stupid it is to pile the dug out soil on the sides with no way to tip a wheelbarrow onto the middle. I dont really want to stand on the thing and compact it so I have to do some ridiculous things like lifting a wheelbarrow onto the bed and tipping it over. I also added a line of bricks to help raise it a little bit and give a neat (ish) edge for lawnmowing and delineating the bed.
10. Top soil is now being loaded on top. I have also used about 5 wheelbarrows of turf/turves that we had spare. I used this at the bottom at the sides (above the bricks) to help build stable sides. Grass side down.
11. Side view of this stupid mountain range I have just built. My back wants to die.
12. Started planting and moving all my herbs and wild strawberries over. Herbs that like dry or very well drained conditions go on top (marjoram/oregano/rosemary/sage/thyme/horehound). Strawberries and mint on bottom as they dont mind more moisture. Everything else in the middle.
13. All moved and sown and mulched. I covered the thing in a packet of escarole (endive) and chicory with the idea being their very long tap roots will grow down and nail themselves into the thing and hopefully keep it together. Watered the hell out of it.
Not counting cutting up all the wood it took me about 20 hours going at a gentle pace. Hopefully it stays in one place
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