permaculture

[Selwyn Polit <selwyn@austintx.com>]

Hey Keith,
that idea sounds very interesting.  Don't you have the problem of the wood 
sucking the nitrogen out of the soil as it decays?  I have a friend who 
ploughed wood chips into his garden bed and then said he couldn't grow 
anything in them for quite a while - thought they removed the nitrogen.

Selwyn


> Paul,
> Hugelkultur works great. I've been doing it for about 15 years.
> On your page you say:
>
> "Hugelkultur is nothing more than making raised beds filled with rotten wood."
>
> I might say 'rotting' rather than 'rotten' since even fresh green wood can 
> be used. Also it is not absolutely essential that the material be covered 
> with dirt. I have created wood "terraces" with any carbonaceous material I 
> could get my hands on...logs, brush, etc.....and raked the annual 
> deposition of leaves over the material. Here in NC, where we have high 
> precip and humidity, the material breaks down much quicker than it would 
> in, say, California. I grew fabulous pumpkins, for example,  in Ca in the 
> 8 month dry period (no rain at all) without irrigating. I used everything 
> organic I could accumulate, from logs to leaves, and laid it out about 2 
> feet deep and planted into soil pockets.
>
> Its amazing how the rotting wood becomes like a sponge. I can pull out 
> pieces that I buried two years ago and squeeze them to yield copious 
> amounts of water. Now when I look at wood, green or even dry, I think "Water".
>
> I tell my students that every unit of carbon incorporated into soils can 
> hold 4 units of water.
>
> Penny Livingston, of Pc Inst of N Ca, had a few brush piles littering her 
> site but she didn't feel like moving or burning them, so she piled on 
> straw and a light scattering of soil, planted potatoes into it, and 
> harvested a couple bushels of spuds in addition to dissolving the "problem".
>
> Here at Earthaven we have prohibited the burning of brush so the slower 
> biological 'burn' is our preferred way of managing it.
>
> You will be greatly rewarded by using this approach. Thanks for the pix.
> Keith
>
> Paul Wheaton wrote:
>
> > I learned about hugelkultur a few weeks ago and gave it a whirl.  Took 
> > pictures too!
> >
> > http://www.richsoil.com/hugelkultur/
> --
> Keith Johnson
> Permaculture Activist Magazine
> PO Box 1209
> Black Mountain, NC 28711
> (828)669-6336
>
> also Patterns for Abundance Design & Consulting
> Culture's Edge at Earthaven Ecovillage
> http://www.permacultureactivist.net
> http://www.earthaven.org
> http://www.bioregionalcongress.org
>
>
>
>
>
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__________
Selwyn Polit
(512)926-7876
<mailto:selwyn@austintx.com>selwyn@austintx.com