My First Hugelkultur Mound

IdahoTee · July 22, 2017

With the opportunity to use some aspen trees I dropped last year and sawed into logs, I gave this season a go with a Hugelkultur mound.

What I enjoy most about the idea of a Hugel is that after much searching, reading and planning, it became clear that these grow mounds have a ton of flexibility in design and creation. So armed with a medley of logs, branches, twigs, semi aged compost, manure, leaves, kitchen waste and random other ingredients, I went to work this April. 3 months later I have to say I am stunned how well it is growing plants.

Because the soil in my yard is river bed with a skin of top soil, I decided to go up with the mound instead of a pit style Hugelkultur. It was more work keeping it mounded and not sloughing off the sides, but so far the results have been beyond my expectations.

Here were the steps I took:

Dug a trench and removed the sod
Raked the bed and removed exposed rocks
Laid down logs - watered (props to my daughter for the artful log design)
covered in leaf litter - watered
spread gooey kitchen scraps saved all winter - watered
added top soil removed from bed
spread chicken manure (with bonus maggots!)
top soil - watered
laid aspen and willow branches
partly composted leaves and grass
added the removed sod (dirt side up) - watered
leaf litter
small branches/sticks - watered
topped with nearly finished compost
spread soil/manure mix over top
finished with some bagged potting soil I had laying around from previous year

I took the cue from PaddyMC and planted three winter squash after threat of frost had passed and added some meadow mix flower seeds, a few sunflower seeds and let it rip. Oddly, I have three tomato plants, several random sqaush (assuming pumpkin but not sure) and even two potato plants pop up. I can assume this was from the kitchen scraps that were added, but not really sure. I will let them be and see what happens.

Here is a progress photo from today...

July 22, 2017	#1
IdahoTee Tomatovillian™ Join Date: Mar 2016 Location: Zone 4 Idaho Posts: 17	My First Hugelkultur Mound With the opportunity to use some aspen trees I dropped last year and sawed into logs, I gave this season a go with a Hugelkultur mound. What I enjoy most about the idea of a Hugel is that after much searching, reading and planning, it became clear that these grow mounds have a ton of flexibility in design and creation. So armed with a medley of logs, branches, twigs, semi aged compost, manure, leaves, kitchen waste and random other ingredients, I went to work this April. 3 months later I have to say I am stunned how well it is growing plants. Because the soil in my yard is river bed with a skin of top soil, I decided to go up with the mound instead of a pit style Hugelkultur. It was more work keeping it mounded and not sloughing off the sides, but so far the results have been beyond my expectations. Here were the steps I took: Dug a trench and removed the sod Raked the bed and removed exposed rocks Laid down logs - watered (props to my daughter for the artful log design) covered in leaf litter - watered spread gooey kitchen scraps saved all winter - watered added top soil removed from bed spread chicken manure (with bonus maggots!) top soil - watered laid aspen and willow branches partly composted leaves and grass added the removed sod (dirt side up) - watered leaf litter small branches/sticks - watered topped with nearly finished compost spread soil/manure mix over top finished with some bagged potting soil I had laying around from previous year I took the cue from PaddyMC and planted three winter squash after threat of frost had passed and added some meadow mix flower seeds, a few sunflower seeds and let it rip. Oddly, I have three tomato plants, several random sqaush (assuming pumpkin but not sure) and even two potato plants pop up. I can assume this was from the kitchen scraps that were added, but not really sure. I will let them be and see what happens. Here is a progress photo from today...