What is Hugelkultur?
Hugelkultur — sounds like hoo-gull, loosely translated as “hill culture” from German — is an integrated model for a garden because it works at any scale to create solutions. You can design a hugelkultur raised garden bed equally well into a small backyard space or something more expansive.
Benefits
The advantage of a hugelkultur bed is many-fold. It provides a more three dimensional canvas for growing food, so you’re able to take advantage of both horizontal and vertical space. And, because it’s built on a foundation of logs, twigs, and organic matter (detailed below), it helps retain water and build organic matter back into the soil as the foundation decomposes.
Step 1: Plan and Design Your Hugelkultur Raised Garden Bed Project
First things, first. You’ll want to define the amount of growing space you want to take on and space map where the hugelkultur will go. Is it 100 square feet or something more ambitious? You’ll want to prep the space. For our homestead, we literally moved more than 800 sq feet of landscaping rock. 🙂
It’s a good practice to sketch your space plan and get to know the landscape of your hugelkultur project. What is the path that the sun follows in the sky relative to your space? Where are the slopes and contours where water might travel and collect? How can you create a hugelkultur shape that slows, sinks, and spreads water during the wet months?
You’ll also want to game plan your plantings, factoring in size of the mature plants, companion plantings, sun and water requirements, etc.
Step 2: Gather Woody Bits
Step 3: Prep Your Space
Step 4: Build the Foundation
Step 5: Add Cardboard
Step 6: Weave in Branches and Twigs
Step 7: Bring on the Soil!
Step 8: Add Plants to Your Hugelkultur Raised Garden Bed
A Note About Water
During the wet months, your hugelkultur bed will trap and retain water. If you’ve shaped it to the slope and contours, it’ll capture, slow, and sink rainwater runoff. During the dry months, we recommend a drip irrigation system on a timer. Less work is more fun.
That’s it! A hugel installation is a fun project for the whole family that will yield a bounty of food for you for years to come.