We built a Hugelkultur!

I love vegetable gardening. I’ve loved it since forever. I wouldn’t call myself an expert but I’d dearly like to produce enough to keep us in vegetables without having to buy from shop or supermarket. In previous houses I’ve not really had the space or soil quality to go all out in the production stakes, although that hasn’t stopped me trying.

Here at our new place not only do we have room to plant, we’ve also been lucky in that our land runs over an old river bed and has beautiful soil. The first thing we did on moving in (OK not the first thing, but near enough) was pull out a big flower bed at the front of the house and replant it with veges. When this was full I continued planting, throughout the summer, in any space I could find.

We needed a big garden somewhere! After some to-and-fro discussions we decided to utilise a little-used area of the section. The space is sheltered and gets enough light but it is low ground so can get boggy. A raised-bed seemed the ideal solution.T

The Build

Our good friend PR (builder by trade, talker by reputation) supplied an ‘easy to follow’ plan, as well as the framing-wood and fixings, old corrugated iron sheets and some lovely Macrocarpa timber for all the parts that weren’t in contact with the ground. Some of the things he sourced from his parent’s farm, other things he got at trade-price.

Then he left us to it. And, we did it! Together! There was much poring over the simple plan (it was simple, but I think my brain likes to complicate things, so some explanations were necessary), some individual breaks to let the other get on in their own time, and times we had to leave it to do other things, but what a great process, and result.

The hardest part of this process was levelling the ground to start, and getting some big-ass screws into timber with our simple tools. Some of the bigger screws took me over half an hour each to screw in, using a small drill to get a hole part started, then an allen key/wrench combo to twist it, tiny bit by tiny bit, the rest of the way.

The build was completed over about three weekends, using a few hours here and there where we could fit it in around kids, weather and other life.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Filling it Up

I had researched how best to fill these gardens. A couple of popular hardware sites recommended filling with bags of top-soil/potting mix. With our garden-bed being around 4m by 1.8m by 500cm deep the idea shouted a whole lot of dollars to me. It’s also contrary to the point of using the lovely soil we were already sitting on. Some further searching brought up the magic word Hugelkultur.

Pronounced Hoo-gul-culture, it means hill culture, and the main idea is to utilise wood and branches to form a base for the bed. It’s a great home for worms, has abundant nutrients for a long time as the wood and other waste breaks down, and apparently makes for significantly less watering. All big plusses!

With the frame looking splendid, we needed to find the makings for this Hugelkultur bed. As luck would have it we’ve been helping a friend move, and split into firewood, about 73 old pine trees as he clears his land for a build. So, in a few car trips we transported about 18 rounds plus one load of large branches (or long skinny logs, I’m not sure where the cut-over is), all paid for in sweat equity.

 

 

We decided to dig out the top (now bottom) layer of the garden to bed the rounds in (and it seemed a shame to lose that good soil). Into that depression went the rounds, then a few barrows of leaf mulch and grass cuttings we’d stored in another part of the garden.

 

 

 

 

Next went in the long logs/fat branches, laid as close to each other as possible. It was a bit like doing a very odd 3-D jigsaw.

Once these were packed as well as we could, in went more mulch and clippings. I ‘posted’ the material into any and all holes I could find, saying hello and welcome to all the lovely worms that came with it.

Normally you’d water in between each layer but the rounds were wet (it’s winter and these rounds and wood have been out in the rain for a couple of months now), the mulch was very wet and, perfectly, it rained on and off as we completed the fill.

After the big branches we layered in sticks and clippings from hydrangea bushes and our driveway trees and hedges. A bit more mulch over that and it was time to re-add the lovely topsoil we’d dug out previously.

 

We also had some sacks of composted alpaca poo from a friend with a small herd, bags of coffee grounds we’d collected from cafes giving it away and pumice we gathered from Lake Taupo foreshore. These extras were added and raked in. We had the help of a few at this stage; a friend of the family (who did a lot of the spade work and raking), Adrian’s daughter Annie (smashing pumice) and Adrian’s son Ted (raking, bringing branches and keeping everyone’s morale high).

 

 

 

 

 

It’s a beautiful, beautiful thing.

Just as we were putting the final touches to the raking the heavens opened. Things could not have been better, aside from getting a bit wet while packing up.

We’re leaving it for a week or so to bed in and may add a little more soil yet from the lovely patch by the three compost bins.

Then it’s planting time. I’m excited to see how it compares to a traditional Kiwi garden. I’ll keep you posted.