VegHeadz: Hugelkultur

Saturday, November 11, 2023

Hugelkultur

Hugelkultur bed at
VegHeadz garden

If you follow this Blog, you’ve heard us talk frequently about our hugelkultur bed. This is a German word meaning mound culture. It stems from early European gardening practices and was adopted and adapted by the permaculture community because of its many gardening and environmental advantages

The benefits of hugelkultur can be achieved by growing in mounds built over logs and other organic material, or in traditional looking garden beds by making them deeper and adding logs, branches, and other organic matter before filling the bed with garden soil.

In addition to the hugelkultur bed in the VegHeadz garden, when the raised beds were built, we filled the bottoms with oak logs, banana trees, leaves, and whatever other organic matter was at hand. We then filled the beds with garden soil mix and compost. As the organic matter at the bottom has decomposed, the level of the beds slowly lowers and we’ve added compost and garden mix at the top.

A variety of rough organic
materials were added to our
raised beds before garden soil.

What are the advantages of hugelkultur gardening?

Carbon sequestration. Carbon from the organic matter in the bottom of the bed is sequestered in the soil as the material decomposes. Whatever we can do to capture carbon is a benefit to the environment.
Less waste. Instead of tossing yard waste, like fallen branches and leaves, these materials are repurposed to provide benefits on site.
Less watering. As the organic materials at the base of the bed decompose, they hold water like a sponge, helping to keep garden soil consistently moist and reducing watering requirements.
Less fertilizer. As the natural materials in the bed break down, they release nutrients into the soil, creating compost in situ. Decomposed wood creates some of the best, most pH balanced compost. It’s been nourishing forests since the beginning of time.
Kind to backs. Hugelkultur beds are built above the ground as high as you’d like, so you won’t need to bend over as far to tend them.
Season extension. As the base organic material decomposes, it generates some heat. Thus soil warms up slightly sooner in spring and a few degrees are added to the garden microclimates as frosts approach.
Good for heavy feeding plants. Pumpkins and other squashes are voluminous plants and heavy feeders. In a hugelkultur bed they will have all the nutrients they need and more room to grow as they cascade down the sides of the mound.
Good growing option for poor soils. It’s hard to grow in sand or heavy clay soils, but hugelkultur beds are built on top of existing soil, allowing you to grow a garden even if you have very poor soil.
They’re also good for small spaces because you can grow on the top and the sides of the bed providing room for more plants in less space.
In raised beds, they reduce the amount of soil needed to fill the bed. Only the top six to eight inches need to be garden soil. Much less expensive if you are buying garden mix or compost to fill your beds.
No tilling needed and less weeding. The seed bank (latent weed seeds in the native soil) is not activated.

The main disadvantage to this type of garden bed is that it takes some organization and a good deal of effort to construct it. If you do not have suitable materials on site, locating materials is another hurdle.

See this earlier post for more information and resources on Hugelkultur and detailed instructions on how to build a bed. https://northfloridavegheadz.blogspot.com/2014/02/hugelkultur-another-way-to-garden.html