Hugelkulture

[mrsbusy]

Having read that article, one other point comes to mind: don't use logs which are too fresh or they might grow.
Willow is the obvious one, as the article mentions, but there are others which can root and start growing, too. My allotment neighbour made a hugelkulture bed one spring from wood from an apple tree and a prunus of some sort had he cut down, as well as a load of redcurrant stems, and all started sprouting that summer. He also used some ash branches the council had felled as posts, and some of those are growing, too.

Good point ameno. I have no idea what the wood was that I collected from my local woods. The trees are mainly beech but there are plenty of other species. My bag of small branches were not identifiable but fairly rotten. There is so much wood on the forest floor that the few bits I took won't be missed - so long as hugelkulture doesn't become popular!
I didn't know that about elder.

[rary]

Having read that article, one other point comes to mind: don't use logs which are too fresh or they might grow.
Willow is the obvious one, as the article mentions, but there are others which can root and start growing, too. My allotment neighbour made a hugelkulture bed one spring from wood from an apple tree and a prunus of some sort had he cut down, as well as a load of redcurrant stems, and all started sprouting that summer. He also used some ash branches the council had felled as posts, and some of those are growing, too.

Thanks for that ameno, I didn't have any problems with the Ash that I used, though it was late autumn when it got cut down, I also wonder if the depth of coverage would make a difference, a right hugelkulture bed is built upwards from ground level, covered with soil and planted in the sides, which by its very nature means its not a lot of soil covering the wood, whereas the wood I used was buried with a depth of about 1ft. Willow was a type of wood I was thinking of trying but after reading your post I will give it a miss

[ameno]

Willow was a type of wood I was thinking of trying but after reading your post I will give it a miss

Willow would be fine as long as you make sure it's good and dead before burying it. If it's too fresh, whole logs can and will take root and sprout leaves.
Stack the logs somewhere not in contact with soil (lest they take root), and leaves them for at least a year, ideally two.

[rary]

Willow would be fine as long as you make sure it's good and dead before burying it. Stack the logs somewhere not in contact with soil (lest they take root), and leaves them for at least a year, ideally two.

Good advice but don't have the space, nor thr time to wait one or two years, nowadays I am looking for instant

[peacegarden2024]

reminds me of keystone garden.