Healthy soil and sustainable growing

[laurabrownmckenzie@att.net]

We use hugelkultur... in situ (in the ground). We live on a steep slope and 
we can get very heavy rains so hugelkulturing IN the ground prevents loss of 
nutrients via erosion.  We also have very very heavy and rocky soil that 
nothing but big oak trees grow in. So we have to pick axe the holes. We're 
done building our terraced beds but now we're hugelkulturing the paths so 
that the plants aren't growing in big holes with no drainage and so the 
plants can get nutrients from the paths and the beds. Since an old growth 
forest is part of our land and since we have plenty of trees on the ground, 
we have no end of wood and leaves for hugelkultur materials. We also use 
fallen trees for bed borders. As they decay they are feeding our soil. 

  I also hugelkultur in the compost bins. I layer the bottom of the bins (I 
have 9 right now) with cardboard and newspaper.... LOTS to try to prevent an 
invasion of tree roots. Then I toss in rotted wood for the next layer. Leaves 
and kitchen scraps are layered back and forth and the top layer is soil. I 
grow potatoes and pumpkins in that soil and allow the compost under the soil 
to work very slowly in the meantime.  I don't get a terrific crop of potatoes 
(pumpkins I do sometimes) but at least I get something from each bin in 
addition to the compost. I dug up several potatoes today for tomorrow's soup. 
  

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