Healthy soil and sustainable growing

["Laura McKenzie" <laurabrownmckenzie@worldnet.att.net>]

Charlie,

 I hope listers will forgive the cross post.  I posted the note below last 
night after being asking about raised beds and gardening in clay:


==begin quote===

 We use something called Hugelkultur to start new beds.  The method
creates a wonderful, very rich bed, in a very short time.  For a quick run
down you can view photos at this link:
http://www.richsoil.com/hugelkultur/

We grab a plastic trash can and climb up our mountain to collect rotting
wood out of the dry branches that criss cross the mountain.  We also use
leaves, small branches and twigs and weeds that we've pulled.  The dry
branch next to our house collects silt washed from the mountain and we haul
that up to the gardens too.  As the hugelkultur bed degrades, worms invade.
They bring soil up from below the bed to mix with the decaying material ...
tilling your soil for you.

The beds aren't very good for planting the first year.... but I found a way
around that. If you start the beds NOW (October) in April you can make quick
6 inch paper mache pots and fill them with soil.  Make holes in the
hugelkultur bed and set the pots down into the bed.   As squash and melons
grow in these pots, the surrounding bed degrades further. By the time the
pot falls completely apart, the hugelkultur bed is ready to support the
plants. BTW after I make the new beds in October I cover them with red clay
and plant red clover on top or put a blanket of leaves on them.

  This, in my experience, is the only sure fire way to conquer Alabama
clay. The beds are incredibly rich by the way.  They grow amazing vegetables
after the first year.

===end quote===

We are lucky in that we can build the sides of the beds with fallen timbers 
or with boulders found in the dry branches.  (Except it was a boulder that I 
fell over wiping out my arm for all of September and re-injuring my knee!) 
I wouldn't buy timbers. If I had to I'd buy a cord of wood and simple plant 
them lengthwise halfway into the soil.

Laura

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Laura's Homeschooling, Garden, and Genealogy Site
is found here: http://home.att.net/~ekyorigins
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