Healthy soil and sustainable growing

[Zachary Domike <zdomike@yahoo.com>]

Brush and cuttings are the mass of agricutltural 'waste' and I had lots after 
feeding goats with cuttings.

I guess Laura's hugelkultur works after years, but I tried a similar, above 
ground method that did not work - I had mostly Gorse cuttings after the goats 
eat the green tips in their barn feeding bins.  I mounded the gorse and goat 
bedding in stacks, in sleeves of polyethylene, tubes two meters wide, that 
opened up to vertical stacks 1.33M diameter, and usually about a meter tall, 
or more, with a loose cap of plastic to keep the summer moisture in and the 
winter rains out.

Air would circulate freely up the edges of this enclosed stack, as shown by 
grass sprouting there, etc.  Snails and such would make their homes there, 
and the manure and greens composted well, but the gorse sticks did NOT!  I 
guess direct burial would work, but the quantities were enormous.

My untested solution was to pile the flammable cuttings high, and trample (I 
had imagined hiring a loader or tractor for that part)  and covering the 
entire stace in cardboard boxes to later cover with clay from my pond (also 
using the hired tractor.)  My plan was to let that clay dry, and cut air 
holes at the base, and a chimney up the top, and set a controlled fire to 
produce charcoal to spread in the gardens for terra preta.

I did have great success using charcoal in the clay soil.

Best,
Zack
you wrote>>>>>>>>>>>>>>
Hugel bed, different application

We hugelkultur.  My land is mostly forest. Where I have garden space, the 
builder of our home bulldozed away ALL topsoil.  We had only subsoil and rock 
to garden with.  After trying sheet composting and adding purchased topsoil 
and failing, we found hugelkultur to be THE answer for us.  

I've adapted the technique though. Our garden space is on steep hills so each 
bed is terraced. We dig to a depth of about 24 to 36 inches, fill the hole 
with our rotted wood, twigs, leaves, kitchen scraps and other compostables. 
Then we mix the subsoil (nothing grows in it.. not even bermuda) with compost 
and put that soil back over the piled wood mix.  Any leftover subsoil is used 
to make rims around beds and trees to help hold in water or to help build in 
paths and low spots. 

Once a bed is made in this way, it is left un-dug and un-tilled forevermore. 
I use cover crops and mulching to continue to help the soil along.

Its been effective. Each year the garden only gets better. This year I have 
(so far) 110 green chile and sweet pepper plants. This year they are the 
healthiest I've seen with loads of flowers and fruit. 

We didn't make all of this at one time. Each year we've added a bed.  
Including the blueberries but not the orchard we have 8000 square feet of 
garden beds. We intensively plant where its appropriate. 

Composting in-situ is not as effective but is another technique we use to 
augment the hugelkultur.

Laura