The Prairie Gardener's Go-To for Small Spaces by Janet Melrose

Author:Janet Melrose
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Touchwood Editions
Published: 2021-10-15T00:00:00+00:00

What is a hügelkultur bed?

I am a big hügelkultur fan! I have incorporated these beds into many gardens I have worked on, including my own.

As with much in gardening, we reach back to the past for some of our best practices, and hügelkultur or mound/hill culture is one of them. It is raised-bed gardening at its simplest. In a world where waste materials should be upcycled rather than discarded, the idea is that you collect the old rotting deadfall, untreated lumber scraps, and miscellaneous branches and twigs that won’t readily compost and pile them to form a mound in the size and shape you want. I prefer not to use sod as it often contains quack grass. Climb on top of it and stomp around to compress it, if you like, then add more woody materials until you get to the height you want, plus a bit more. Most hügelkultur beds are around three feet (one metre) high, but I have seen them upwards of six feet (two metres). Talk about vertical gardening!

Then pile on dried leaves, manure, straw, and compost that hasn’t quite decomposed to settle in between the wood layers. Water the pile well, so that if you pick up a handful, it feels spongy and wet. Add more dry materials, alternating with watering, until you have a nice mound. Finally, add a layer of finished compost and garden soil to the mound, then water again. You can build your bed in the fall and allow it to settle further over the winter or go ahead and plant it right away, so long as you understand that the soil biology and physical properties are very “raw” at first. If you plant in the hügelkultur bed immediately, it is recommended that any sort of legumes be the first crop as they are nitrogen fixers and won’t suffer as the soil biology kicks in.

So, what are the benefits accruing from all this work?

To start with, the planting area in a hügelkultur bed is much more expansive than a traditional bed as all sides as well as the top are used for plants, so they are great for small garden spaces. What fascinates me though is what happens inside the bed. The core of the bed, being wood, will start to decay as the soil microbes multiply, releasing nutrients for plants to take up over the years. The soil biology is fantastic with microbes, insects, and other organisms involved. The mound is well aerated as the various materials break down, which means that there is no need to till. The magic though is how the whole mound becomes a moisture reservoir, which reduces the need for watering. Snowmelt and rainfall will keep the mound moist, and the plants will develop deep roots and be drought resistant. Plus, the decaying wood will give out gentle heat, which provides temperature modification during cooler nights and can extend the growing season. The mound heats up earlier too, so you can get started planting earlier in the season.

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