permaculture

[andrew phillips <greenman124@yahoo.com>]

Kevin,

think you will find this helpful.


andrew


>
>"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

--- kevin s <k.skvorak@verizon.net> wrote:

> so,
> 
> what is the largest area of sheet mulch beds that
> folks have going?
> 
> we are going to put in several thousand feet, and
> try to grow some 
> vegetables for our new CSA in dutchess co NY.
> 
> i haven't heard of anyone else going that way, maybe
> there is? 
> please feel free to advise if so...
> 
> to start we have:
> 
> an adequate supply of somewhat composted (fresh
> 'ish') horse manure 
> that is pretty much equal parts manure and wood
> shavings.  lot's of 
> red worms in there. looks ok. i wish it was older
> 
>   plenty  of fresh bedding straw from another horse
> farm.  (very 
> little manure in it, they treat their horses well)
> 
> also quite a lot of fairly well rotted hay that laid
> out in a field all year
> 
> several thousand feet of brown paper in rolls from a
> wood fired 
> matzo place in the city
> 
> and, not nearly enough finished compost
> 
> the beds are going in following contour on a 5 to 10
> percent slope, 
> on land that hasn't been farmed for 30 yrs or so. 
> before that 
> probably corn and hay.  it is decent soil, but not
> great- clayey, and 
> hard packed in areas. fairly shallow root depth, and
> limited organic 
> material.   it is well covered with weeds and grass
> that is laying 
> down in a nice thick thatch in some areas.  in other
> areas the ground 
> is nearly bare because this soil was completely
> shaded by thick 
> canopy from a variety of woody stuff- pasture roses,
> and something 
> that someone told us is related to honeysuckle. 
> anyway, we have been 
> clearing brush...stuff that came in in the last 25
> yrs.  no trees tho
> 
> 
> we are thinking first to rake the weeds where we
> have them into the 
> bedrows, cover it with a good layer of manure, and
> add some lime 
> cause i am worried about the PH of the wood chips. 
> then maybe a 
> handfull of greensand or local 'blue granite' dust,
> and cover with a 
> generous layer of the rottted hay and fresh straw. 
> we are thinking 
> we may not use paper or cardboard in these areas at
> all as we will 
> have a good mulch layer and i don't think anything
> can get up thru.
> 
> we have a rototiller, but i am only planning on
> tilling the paths, 
> and then throwing some of that soil up on the beds
> and sowing clover 
> in the lowered paths.  they become the 'swales'
> 
> the limited  compost we have we are going to have to
> use selectively 
> mostly around the transplants themselves
> 
> (we are making compost as fast as we can and have
> four piles going, 
> don't have any greens tho and it is slow cooking)
> 
> the areas that had the brush cover is basically the
> same story, 
> except i will start with the paper because the mulch
> layer is not as 
> deep
> 
> we are planning on cutting the 'stumps' off flush to
> the ground, and 
> then covering them with cardboard and waste
> vegetable oil (i have a 
> lot because i run a car on it) hoping! that nothing
> can get thru
> 
> the roots are too big to remove by hand, and we
> don't have a tractor 
> or winch or anything.
> 
> anyway, that's the gist of it
> 
> looking fwd to some other opinions
> 
> regards,
> kevin and sarah
> rattlesnakemountainfarm@yahoo.com
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