Hugelkultur raised garden beds are a time tested method of using organic waste to build a thriving garden that boasts of features such as convenience, low cost, increased growing season and space, less work (after the 1st year) and water conservation just to name the top five. As a tree care service and tree removal company that prides itself on being a good steward to mother Earth, Treelation is always looking for ways to help regenerate the planet as well as to rejuvenate people's lives. That is why we are working on six test sites in order to prove how essential Hugelkultur raised bed gardening is to growing a bountiful supply of the most nutritious local produce that anyone can get their hands on in the middle of the desert.
Check out this video that shows how far along we are now and then read the rest of the blog to see the step by step process we executed.
Here is the step by step process we used while building our first of six Hugelkultur tests sites in Phoenix, AZ.
Check out this video that shows how far along we are now and then read the rest of the blog to see the step by step process we executed.
Here is the step by step process we used while building our first of six Hugelkultur tests sites in Phoenix, AZ.
The first step was to find the best area to build a Hugelkultur bed. We chose the West side of the house near a Western blocking wall to help add shade in the harsh summer afternoon. The wall will also be a pillar for the shade screen that will be added later. This area also collects a lot of run-off water from the property and can have standing water for days after a good rain. We figure that the Hugel will act like a sponge and soak up all the excess water and give it off as plants create a demand during the drier season.
Next we do a bit of minor excavating. Because the earth here is so dense and clay like, we decided to dig up an area to place the logs. If standing water gets under the garden bed, the logs could lift and shift, so we made a 6" ditch that was 3'X13' so it could hold the logs in place.
Next we added the big logs. We removed a dangerous sumac tree from another property before it did any more damage to the structure it was encroaching on at the other location. This was a good sized tree (35' tall with a 30' spread) and we were able to fit the entire trunk and major limbs into the medium sized gardening area that we dug out by hand with shovels.
We also placed 3 small Palo Verde tree trunks and limbs from another removal where the trees were growing into some powerlines.
Here is one more shot of the wood we installed, looking at it from another angle.
After the wood, we shoveled the dirt we gathered from the excavation process and used it to fill in all of the holes that were exposed from packing the wood together. There are a lot of crevices and we made sure to fill and pack every inch in hopes to keep rats and other rodents from making a home. This part of the process is very important if you don't want these annoying pests ruining your hard work! You may want to use lots of water to get it to run down inside the spaces between the logs and branches.
Now we add some mulch and sawdust from the stump grinding we did on those other tree removals.
We know that the bacterial breakdown of wood can cause a lot of nitrogen uptake so as a precaution we are adding green leaves from the sumac tree in order to fix the soil as the logs break down and till the pile together over the years.
Almost done, we went around to all of the planters that had old soil in them and dumped them into the wheel barrow and piled it on our new mound.
We packed the soil down over the whole bed and now all we need is a few cubic feet of good topsoil and some seeds.
About 3 weeks later soil was delivered and spread about 3 inches deep across the entire miniature Hugelkultur mound. You can see that some of the concrete wall that was removed has been used as a divider and has some Marigold and Green Onions growing to help make a barrier against insects and other pests. There will be a shade screen installed and we are now ready for planting!
.. stay logged in for the finishing of the Hugelkultur bed in Tempe AZ!
Special thanks to Scotty Litle for all the help!
This looks amazing! Thanks for the inspiration...
ReplyDeleteI came home to Arizona in April 2018. Trust me when I say not a day goes by I don’t thank God I’m back. I ‘escaped’ from the swamps of Pennsylvania. Yep, with that much rain, they even have a mountain range called Swamp on a Hillside (Pocono Mtns.). Right now, farms are being flooded from the Northeast to the Mississippi River valley.
ReplyDeleteWhen living in the east, I read about hugelkulter and laughed. Yeah, it’s great. It works. It was common among Native Americans in the southwest for untold generations. Dam a canyon and fill it with brush. Every rain brought silt and soil from the mountains. It brought leaves, twigs, pine needles, and water. In a year or so, the dam would silt up, and crops were raised. Another dam would be started below that. Each monsoon brought water and silt into the fields and flushed salts. This, BTW, was how Native Americans in the Midwest raised good maize each year. Build up a beaver dam to raise wild rice. When the dam filled with silt, cut a water gate and drain it. Then plant maize and a host of other crops. Trees were often added, as well as brush, to build soil faster. Beavers were never harmed. After all, they had a vested interest in keeping the dam going.
But, coming home, I listened to the sage advice of folks who farmed the land for untold generations, Native Americans. Bros on the rez told me, get under the caliche. My first attempts were shallow, fast trenches so I could garden. And, they used more water than they should have, or would have when we lived up north of Phoenix.
Next trench went three feet deep (till I hit sandstone) and the caliche was thick. That was taken out, and the trench filled with pine logs, palm fronds, and anything else found. Soil was put back, and the ‘hill’ was only a foot high. Now there are 9 trenches, each 10-25 feet long, three feet wide and 3 deep. Not a lot of rock, though the valley here, along SR 76, north of Oracle, has high mountains all around. I even dug one around a young fig that barely grew last year, and found a 6 inch layer of caliche under it. A lot of brush and branches went into the trench. Now, it’s bearing figs and has leaves twice as large as last summer.
Tomatoes galore, after the monsoons started. Porter did very well. Heatmaster was good, lots of tomatoes, but they didn’t taste very good. Beefsteak bottomed out. Plenty of bloom and two tiny tomatoes. Chilis, Chimoyo and Sandia, two very old varieties (Native Seed Search). Both did very well right to heavy freezes, which killed the tomatoes and burned the chilis back to ground level. Even then they tried to resprout. They like cool weather and right now there are three busy making chilis, and have been in bloom for some time. A layer of coffee grounds (Starbuck’s generosity) kept the soil warm enough a lot of things survived.
The only disappointments were One) the turnip seeds given me (in Penna) were leaf variety, not bulbs. Two) most of the garbanzo beans planted in November died over winter. But, those were old seed, and some had bugs in them. Three) Clay in the soil crusted, even with the coffee grounds, and prevented a lot of seeds from coming up. Four) Doves lurking nearby help themselves to any sprouting seed :)
Experience: A little sulfur makes winter-grown plants greener by lessening the Ph. Deep beds filled with wood and so on use less water to make a crop than shallower beds. Lizards are all over this year and like the mulch to hunt in. Wild flowers are thick all over, and phacelia covered a wide area of the yard that’s not planted...yet. As the wood breaks down to humus, water retention improves. The older beds, the soil is now soft enough, it flows around the tines on a garden rake. The mulch and coffee grounds did that, converting adobe clay to topsoil. Niio. Walk in beauty.