That's a thing of real beauty, Chelle! Really, really nice. Thank you so much for sharing.

Thanks, Dave!!


Forgot the back side...

Here's part of it.

Thanks for sharing your hugelkulture beds.
Your plants are so healthy!

Yes, they are very healthy! The only losses in the bed itself were due to digging and chewing varmints. This is one of those skip-able beds; you know, when you have to choose which ones don't get any supplemental water because you can't get to them all.

Its really inspiring, Chelle. I cant get started until it cools down some here in Alabama--and stops raining. But there is a veritable jungle of weedy trees out there to be cut and turned into beds: turkey oak, mimosa, chinaberry and a "popcorn" tree that might be nice if it wasn't where it is.

Once the weather cooperates and allows you to get to it; you're going to love it. I'm always itching to fuss with it, but it requires very little in the way of care.

I had some mixed powdered minerals and bokashi on hand so I made up a rain water bucket of those, added a bit more blood meal and sprinkled it around the plants a few weeks ago. I just wanted to make sure that the plants have enough of whatever they need to finish the season.

hazelnut said:... a veritable jungle of weedy trees out there to be cut and turned into beds: turkey oak, mimosa...

About those mimosa, before you cut, depending on the species, and if you've got any growing in strategically useful spots relative to your sun angles & bed placement, any way to use them for the shade aspect they could provide for your hot climate?? Mimosa in general are also good nitrogen fixers, mulch producers, and have great coppice potential.

And they are highly invasive. If you are not watchful they will take over flower pots, and any other dirt that is not growing something else. A former vegetable garden is now a mimosa garden. Hopefully, N2 has been fixed and its time for these prolific beauties to be the base of new hugelkultur beds. The first one to go will be the one at my back door that keeps the door from opening fully. Im hoping to replace the weedy mimosas in my vegetable garden with a pear alle--blossoms in spring and pears in the fall as they shade the path to my greenhouses and the back of my property.

Chelle the pics of your yard are beautiful!

Re- the mimosas, they are beautiful, but can be invasive. Around here, not so much because the winters get cold. One year a mimosa in my yard died all the way back to the ground- resprouted. Like a large bush. I cut it out. It just doesn't like cold winters.
I bought a bunch of plants and didn't get them in the ground before winter so I piled them up pot and all in a big mound of mulch, hoping for a mild winter like we sometimes get. Our house still needs alot of work and we hope to do more insulating and window change outs ect come spring. Wouldn't you know it, our usual luck has struck an we are having the WORST winter. Temps have been 5 below at least and for days, and ice and snow and power outages in the area, although not us yet thank goodness. I HATE winter. I would LOVE to never see another day of it, and for June to be year round LOL

Thanks Frilly.

I think I'd grow lazy and do nothing if it were forever June. Either that, or I'd burn myself out; I'd be forever planting!

@Hazelnut,

I plan to start a compost pile of weeds from the lake that we raked up last fall. Right now they are piled up on the shore. Maybe they will be finished by June even, when I am ready to plant. I can just put it on top of the soil!

We have plenty of old dock wood to make a compost bin. We have a plethora of material in the forest around to make a huge cookin' pile. Thanks for the inspiration to get started!

Anderwood: Let us know how it turns out. dock wood --wood salvaged from a dock?

hazelnut said:Anderwood: Let us know how it turns out. dock wood --wood salvaged from a dock?

Yes, it was wood salvaged from a dock.

@Dave, isn't that a fine looking shirt Reid is wearing in his avatar?

I was admiring that.