Healthy soil and sustainable growing

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

To clarify:  For years I did everything suggested except Hugelkultur.  I 
started with subsoil.... no topsoil at all, and ground that in places still 
won't grow even a single strand of bermuda. What the bulldozer used on the 
land didn't ruin, heavy rains washed away.  "Soil" pH tested by Auburn at 
4.3.  My husband and I pick axed our gardens out of mostly standstone with a 
little chirt.  I used various meals including soy, kelp, and fish, cover 
crops, rabbit manure, compost, rock phosphate, green sand, heavy mulch, 
compost tea, and even collected mycorrhizae rich leaf compost out of the dry 
branches (leaf mold full of hyphae). I worked on the gardens from 1993 until 
2003 this way.

   For us, Hugelkulture was the only answer that worked well AND quickly. 
Sheet composting didn't bring about the quick results hugelkultur did.  Now 
that the beds are established, cover cropping and mulching are what will 
maintain them.  (We use no-till practices).

Borders around the beds are not important.  They just help remind me not to 
walk on my beds.  Even in downpours I notice little in the way of erosion 
because of the heavy mulch we use.  Since we live against a steep slope, and 
the beds are against a steep slope, and since its not uncommon to get 
several inches of rain in a day, I would certaily use borders if I didn't 
mulch or if I didn't have cover crops on the beds.

Before we used Hugelkultur, my attempts at growing anything was fairly 
pathetic (in Alabama) though I kept trying year after year with better 
success each year.   The change was slow. With Hugelkultur, success was only 
6 months away.  I know it was pathetic given the amazing health of my plants 
this year and the wonderful harvest we finally realized.

  If I had no forest to collect what I needed, I'd be willing to buy a cord 
of wood and let it rot... the success was that great.

 Keep in mind my soil was extraordinarily horrible.  I know I was lucky 
enough to have three sons and a husband help gather all the materials.  I 
even put a request in my local free-cycle for leaves from yards that didn't 
use herbicides.  We filled my van full of leaves last year... several 
times... with the boys holding a couple of bags on their laps as well.

BTW, where we planted our blueberry bushes, the bulldozed had missed.  All I 
had to do in those places was lay out small branches stripped off baby pine 
trees that had been trying to encroach on our apple trees.  Once the needles 
fell off the branches, I used the branches as stakes elsewhere if they were 
big enough.  Otherwise I let them stay.

One last note....  I'm unsure whether Hugelkultur would work in a place 
where it only rains 10 inches a year. I can only speak for what worked here 
in Alabama.


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