Hugelkulture

[Meerkat]

https://www.homesteadingforum.org/threads/mushroom-spawn-home-grown.3900/#post-87024

Here how to do it safe.
My Brother in Law grown them to sale.
We have eaten them & they are safe, the seeds/plugs are the best way.

Thanks Joel I may check it out later.

 

[Meerkat]

A few minutes ago. Hope rain doesn't ruin it.

Guess what! See all those vines and trees leaning over, well we cut them back last year and all that did was make them healthier! Now they are back with a vengence. Never did get that front end loader.
Too bad we didn't put the pile further away from the fence. But we do have a few melons doing ok on the pile.
They are still growing and we planted them late.

These melons were ok not the best but tasted good. Planted too late so lucky to have them,plus 6 more we got off the pile since these two.

 

[Meerkat]

About to get hugle pile ready for fall planting. Need to put more dirt and hay over it. At least the hay. Will just add more hay not take off whats already there of course.

 

[Meerkat]

Just finished it , it is done!

The pile ate almost all this hay. Plus it filled up with weeds since we didn't care for it or add more hay.

So this morining I went out and weeded it till I almost passed out. It is like a steam room with humidity.
I keep forgetting [another song,haha] to stop before I feel tired. But I survived myself another day.Got it all done in slow motion after the scare.

 

[Meerkat]

This was a test to see if I could load my photos, heck no! Not without the ugly stamp across it.

The crooks stole over 200 of our pictures and I hear they have a lawsuit againt them I hope they sue their butt off!

 

[Meerkat]

PHOTOUCKET! Holding pics for ramsom.And nobody cares.

 

[BadgerLandHunter]

These melons were ok not the best but tasted good. Planted too late so lucky to have them,plus 6 more we got off the pile since these two.

I'm jealous fresh home grown watermelon sounds amazing. Growing up my parents tried to grow a special variety made for the midwest but our soil was never right so its always off to the store to get my fix.

 

[Meerkat]

@Duncan

 

[Meerkat]

This spring coming up it will be 3 years since we built this pile. Time flys,huh? Lots of stuff happend too.
This year ir should be more fertile and ready for plants. So while its still cool need to weed it again then cover it with something. Guess hay .

 

[goshengirl]

Hey Meer, has the pile settled any? With the logs decomposing?

 

[Meerkat]

The pile ate almost all this hay. Plus it filled up with weeds since we didn't care for it or add more hay.

So this morining I went out and weeded it till I almost passed out. It is like a steam room with humidity.
I keep forgetting [another song,haha] to stop before I feel tired. But I survived myself another day.Got it all done in slow motion after the scare.

After all this work one month almost to the day I took this picture above July 29,2019 I had just took " prescribed" BP med and was weeding the mound and had the stroke soon as I walked into the house got dizzy hubby caught me. Sept.26,2019 that partially blinded me, see fate doesn't give a crap about your plans.
I guess this time I best do alot of praying when I hit it again.

 

[Meerkat]

Hey Meer, has the pile settled any? With the logs decomposing?

Yes it settled alot but this means it should be more fertile. I hope to get back to it in next week or so. I do want to cover it too.

 

[Meerkat]

@goshengirl are you thinking of starting a hugelkultire mound?

 

[goshengirl]

@goshengirl are you thinking of starting a hugelkultire mound?

Yeah, on and off for about 10 years now, lol. We started one on the downhill side of a rain garden, planned on planting raspberries or blackberries there. At the time we were losing all our ash trees to the emerald ash borer, and we had way more wood than we could use in the woodstove - hugelkuture seemed like a good option for the excess wood. But... life sort of got in the way and we never finished that project.

Now we have a piece of property that we're fixing up (and will be moving to). There's a great deal of no-longer-good-for-burning type wood there that needs to be moved. We leave a lot for the wildlife by making piles. But some times that's not practical - we don't want to have piles of wood that might make attractive dens anywhere near where we'll be raising chickens.

So seeing this thread has sparked my interest again. I appreciate seeing the different stages with your project.

 

[Meerkat]

Yeah, on and off for about 10 years now, lol. We started one on the downhill side of a rain garden, planned on planting raspberries or blackberries there. At the time we were losing all our ash trees to the emerald ash borer, and we had way more wood than we could use in the woodstove - hugelkuture seemed like a good option for the excess wood. But... life sort of got in the way and we never finished that project.

Now we have a piece of property that we're fixing up (and will be moving to). There's a great deal of no-longer-good-for-burning type wood there that needs to be moved. We leave a lot for the wildlife by making piles. But some times that's not practical - we don't want to have piles of wood that might make attractive dens anywhere near where we'll be raising chickens.

So seeing this thread has sparked my interest again. I appreciate seeing the different stages with your project.

Maybe just start small? We also put some plder small logs or tree branches in one raised bed.Storms break them off or tree falls and so we have plenty in the woods here.

 

[goshengirl]

Maybe just start small? We also put some plder small logs or tree branches in one raised bed.Storms break them off or tree falls and so we have plenty in the woods here.

Yeah, I'm thinking about adding it to raised beds. I like your big mound, but I have a lot of raised beds planned for the new place already, and I'm thinking of working with the wood at the bottom of a raised bed.

But I still like seeing your mound.

 

[Meerkat]

Yeah, I'm thinking about adding it to raised beds. I like your big mound, but I have a lot of raised beds planned for the new place already, and I'm thinking of working with the wood at the bottom of a raised bed.

But I still like seeing your mound.

Good idea, somebody else here did that just added to raised bed.And as I said so did we.

 

[Bacpacker]

I'm saving up most of the brush, limbs, and logs I'm cutting up. They be the lower layer in my raised beds. I did that with the 2 beds I built last year. The compost on top has settled a little, but i doubt much of that is from the wood rotting, maybe by next year.

 

[Meerkat]

I'm saving up most of the brush, limbs, and logs I'm cutting up. They be the lower layer in my raised beds. I did that with the 2 beds I built last year. The compost on top has settled a little, but i doubt much of that is from the wood rotting, maybe by next year.

You are probably the one I was talking about who did this.

 

[Bacpacker]

Well thats my plan. Just not a normal build. I think the principal should work the same. Hope so anyway

 

[goshengirl]

Well thats my plan. Just not a normal build. I think the principal should work the same. Hope so anyway

Yeah, I want to say that I've seen that, where people have done it as a bottom layer in a raised bed. Just don't remember where I saw that...

 

[Neb]

Yeah, I want to say that I've seen that, where people have done it as a bottom layer in a raised bed. Just don't remember where I saw that...

I put in a bunch of huegelcultures terraced into a hillside about 6 or 7 years ago. Logs limbs leaves then back filled the top soil.

There was settling when the leaves decomposed and the soil settled in. I have topped it off with about 2 inches of leaf compost and mushroom manure.

In all it has settled about 8 inches.

Ben

 

[Meerkat]

I put in a bunch of huegelcultures terraced into a hillside about 6 or 7 years ago. Logs limbs leaves then back filled the top soil.

There was settling when the leaves decomposed and the soil settled in. I have topped it off with about 2 inches of leaf compost and mushroom manure.

In all it has settled about 8 inches.

Ben

I'd say there is some very fertile soil.

 

[Meerkat]

Yeah, I'm thinking about adding it to raised beds. I like your big mound, but I have a lot of raised beds planned for the new place already, and I'm thinking of working with the wood at the bottom of a raised bed.

But I still like seeing your mound.

Just took this pic today. Looks like it is ready for plants again. It is sunk alot since we built it. Actually started mound about 6 years ago if we count when we put logs into a trench.
We cut down mor trees that were shading it last week. Mr Meer aka hubbyhas lots of metal in his back and takes nothing but a drink now and then since he got off opiates a few years ago. has 2 19 inch rods,6 nuts,bolts screws and 3 cages they made from bone on his vertibres. This last few trees he cut down and we moved caused too much pain,so now I ned to finish mound, But its too much for us.
I can't beleive I put that mound near so many shade trees but 6 yr ago they were not shading it.

 

[Meerkat]

Rabbits ate most of squash so we put this dog kennel on top of plants. I'm tired! Reason not planting in last couple years. I could put some welded wire 2" around whole mound but not in the mood.Tis is my favorite squash,Lemon Squash,only saved a few.

We use to do so good with all we rued but getting worn out with too many projects. Think I'll just go to one raised bed with fence around it till we can make garden area varmit proof again.

Took this pic today this one has tree limbs and brush we put in it about 3 yr or so ago,

 

[Neb]

@ThePrincess and I visited The Ridge were I have 11 huegelcultures that I put in about 7 years so I took some pictures to share.

On the left edge of that image is the first one I built. I have only grown garlic in that mound. It still grows garlic wild. If I find time in early spring I will thin out the garlic. Thinning it out yields larger garlic heads. That mound was bordered by logs but they are long gone now.

The other boxes were bordered with pressure treated lumber and were topped off with mushroom manure and leaf compost mix to the top of the boxes. You can see they have settled over the years.

The image above shows more of the boxes terraced down the hillside.

When I finish my remodeling I will have time to make use of these boxes. For now I just grow the garlic and last year I planted Egyptian walking onions to see if they can tend to themselves.


Ben

 

[Meerkat]

@ThePrincess and I visited The Ridge were I have 11 huegelcultures that I put in about 7 years so I took some pictures to share.

View attachment 60495

On the left edge of that image is the first one I built. I have only grown garlic in that mound. It still grows garlic wild. If I find time in early spring I will thin out the garlic. Thinning it out yields larger garlic heads. That mound was bordered by logs but they are long gone now.

The other boxes were bordered with pressure treated lumber and were topped off with mushroom manure and leaf compost mix to the top of the boxes. You can see they have settled over the years.

View attachment 60496

The image above shows more of the boxes terraced down the hillside.

When I finish my remodeling I will have time to make use of these boxes. For now I just grow the garlic and last year I planted Egyptian walking onions to see if they can tend to themselves.


Ben

Ben looks like you two did a good job.I bet they will produce great.

I think I'll burn off our one raised bed we put wood in. Probaly wouldn't hurt it to have some potash. Plus beats weeding for now.

 

[SheepDog]

Ben,
The walking onions do a good job of taking care of themselves but they tend to spread beyond any container. We started picking the small onions that sprout at the top of the stalks to keep them under control and then we still have to thin them occasionally.

 

[Neb]

Ben looks like you two did a good job.I bet they will produce great.

I think I'll burn off our one raised bed we put wood in. Probaly wouldn't hurt it to have some potash. Plus beats weeding for now.

I put those all in myself.

I may have posted it previously but The Princess said at that time.

"You are getting good at digging things that look like graves. I hope you don't need that skill "

Ben

 

[Neb]

Ben,
The walking onions do a good job of taking care of themselves but they tend to spread beyond any container. We started picking the small onions that sprout at the top of the stalks to keep them under control and then we still have to thin them occasionally.

Thanks for that info.

The one thing that threatens them is the wild turkeys that make nests in the boxes. I can only guess they like the cover of the onions and good visibility.

If they take over I am fine with that.

Ben