Healthy soil and sustainable growing

[Steve Diver <steved@ipa.net>]

That was a nice description of your garden site and
a good example of a situation where hugelkutr is 
appropriate and helpful, Laura.  

Very impressive.

Thanks for sharing and enlightening the rest of us.

Please share a few tips on the size of the branches,
sticks, or "logs" that were placed in the bottom
of the soil mound.   

It will surely come in handy for others.

All the best,

Steve Diver
NW Arkansas 



-----Original Message-----
>From: Laura McKenzie <laurabrownmckenzie@worldnet.att.net>
>Sent: Oct 22, 2006 10:36 PM
>To: Healthy soil and sustainable growing <livingontheland@lists.ibiblio.org>
>Subject: Re: [Livingontheland] raised beds
>
>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.
>
>
>><>``    ><>``     ><>``     ><>``      ><>``    ><>``    ><>``
>Laura's Homeschooling, Garden, and Genealogy Site
>is found here: http://home.att.net/~ekyorigins
>``<><    ``<><     ``<><     ``<><     ``<><     ``<><      ``<><