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  • From: Neil Bertrando <neilbertrando@gmail.com>
  • To: permaculture <permaculture@lists.ibiblio.org>
  • Subject: Re: [permaculture] Hugelkultur questions
  • Date: Sat, 10 Sep 2011 22:15:04 -0700

We built a hugelkultur (~50' x 5' x 2.5' deep) in the high desert (5-10"
annual precip, winter) which has worked well so far. We irrigate it and it
receives little to no runoff. grew potatoes, squash and beans the first
year, potatoes the second and seeded with nut and fruit trees in the fall to
stratify and sprout overwinter, transplanted them out, planted a berry
polyculture on it this year which is doing ok and we hope to see take well
over the next two years. we dug into part of it after a year to put in a
path and saw slight decomposition of the 2-3" diameter slash but not much on
larger logs. no real slumping yet. has allowed improved drainage in poorly
drained cobbly clay.

overall, I'd say it's working. useful for dealing with a buildup of slash
we had and some soil from a building pad excavation.

we used prunus sp, pinus sp, populus sp, ailanthus (fully dried), and ulmus
sp. with some other scraps including a bit of juniper.

cheers,
neil

On Fri, Sep 9, 2011 at 8:16 AM, Jason Gerhardt <jasongerhardt@gmail.com>wrote:

> All this conversation about huge hugelkulturs leaves me reinvigorated about
> the concept. I began a hugelkultur about 7 years ago when I lived in the
> mtns of central Arizona with mostly juniper, pine, straw and soil. I tried
> over and over to plant it after one year and two years, but nothing I
> planted would take, so I became discouraged with the concept. So here are
> my questions:
>
> Has anyone on this list experimented with hugelkultur in arid lands and had
> success?
>
> Does it matter what type of wood one uses? How about notorious
> allelopathic
> woods like walnut and certain types of juniper?
>
> I have large design site currently with massive slash piles that I am
> seeing
> a higher use for now, but am concerned the hugelkultur concept may not be
> appropriate for drylands.
>
> Any thoughts?
>
> --
> Jason Gerhardt
> Designer and Educator
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