Cool, thanks!

Last year I did a kind of hybrid hugel where i dug down maybe 3 feet, filled it with branches, leaves, old old old horse manure, and everything else organic i could find around. I then took all of the dirt i dug up and covered everything with it. The end product was about 2 feet tall and 50 feet long. I pushed some pumpkin seeds into it and let it go. It worked great, we had pumpkins sprouting all over the place and i never had to add anything and barely watered it. On a side not, a cottonwood has started growing out of it (i buried some cottonwood branches) so now I'll have an anchor tree in there too. I'll try to get some pictures when i get home today...

I'd love to see those photos.

I tried the best I could to get some decent pictures. It rained all last night so these were after. We have had a lot of rain lately so the weeds kind of took over, but I mainly follow permaculture practice so I'm not too sad about that. I tried to get pictures that show how much growth there was (everything has died pretty much now, we had a week of rain then a week of upper 80's weather and the plants didn't handle it too well...but it was after we got 30 pumpkins, a bunch of corn, and a bunch of wheat, so i wasn't too sad). I hope these pictures can show somewhat how even a small mound on top of buried branches, leaves, and manure, can produce so much. We have only had the land for a year and I live in the high desert and it was mainly dry sand. Really easy to dig into, but hard to hold water and had zero nutrients. This was mainly a test bed and I will definitely do a few more this year and take some pictures as I go.
Definitely a good winter project.




This kind of shows how much growth there was...



This is from the east where the wheat did really well at the bottom edge



stood up near the cottonwood and tried to get the little corn guy so you could see the height.

I think the best shot shows long views of flat brown sand with nothing growing ... then the tall jungle where you hugeled.

I bet at home my wife has some pictures of me digging that thing. I'll ask her tonight if she knows where they are...

Here are a couple to show where we started from



This was last year when i was building a small chicken tractor to get the land worked a little before we planted. We have 3 acres and it's all pretty much like this...flat, dry, and sandy.



My son and I (with his play plastic saw) getting the fallen branches chopped up and ready for the beds. We raked all the leaves and threw them in there too.

You're living the good life. Those are fine looking gardens and you've done well for only being there a year. Permaculture techniques are clearly servicing you well. The principles really do excel in dry environments. I feel the same as you do about weeds!

That sandy soil sure is challenging. We've got the exact same thing here and if it wasn't for raised beds with organic matter and wood, we'd be completely out of luck. We've tried just growing in the ground and there just aren't enough nutrients.

Weeds. I understand that weeds mostly invade soils that need them (!). They provide biomass (humus when dead), their roots bring up moisture, they break up the hard pan, and convert rock to minerals that plants can use. So in theory once they have done their job, they would move on and the soil where they were will be more amenable to raising something else in the soil that they have improved.

Hmmm. So how do you get them to move on instead of taking over your place?

I find that once their pioneering job is done they tend to get less of a problem and the issue resolves itself.

Now, that's referring to the "good weeds". Things like chickweed, goatweed, lamb's quarters, etc. Invasive thugs, on the other hand, like bermuda grass or nutsedge, aren't to be tolerated and I generally don't let them grow.

I guess that's the message for handling invasives: don't let them grow.

So I've been starting a second bed with some limbs that fell off a neighbor's dead tree, etc.

Today I was mowing leaves and mulching all the beds with the shredded leaves, and I poured some over the newer pile of wood.

Holity: Come spring, you will have a nice garden space, ready to plant.

W00t!

I just got done building my hugel bed for the spring. On the bottom is a few long maple logs that are a year old, with mushrooms growing on them. Then I piled on leaves from a neighbors yard mixed with grass clippings, then on top of that, I put four wheelbarrow loads of cut perennials. Next I emptied my compost bin from the summer. Upon those, I put branches from a Crabapple tree I cut down ranging from 1/4'' to 1 inch. I piled three pick up loads of leaves that I shredded from a neighbor. Finally, we had an egress window put in, and the dirt they excavated from that I put on top of my pile. The last two additions are some partially composted leaves. Finally to add extra nitrogen, I have added about 25 pounds of coffee grounds and mixed it into the leaves. I plan to keep adding about ten pounds per week until it snows. The bed is about 8 feet long, 3 feet high, and 4 feet across.

How does this recipe sound?

Wow!

It sounds totally delicious!!

It's going to work well!

It sounds wonderful!

I think this is a super plan for recycling organic stuff into beautiful garden soil. I hope you keep us informed on how that bed performs next spring!

Really cool! I bet the way you keep adding coffee grounds will attract a lot of worms.

And it makes sense to me, to gradually add sources of N on top of a bed, especially a hugel bed. Any N that leaches out of the top layer will be grabbed and held by the deeper, N-hungry layers.

And then gradually made available to deep plant roots.