A while back, I stumbled upon an article about Hügelkultur – mound gardening that has been done in Europe for centuries. Apparently Hügelkultur is the concept, one garden is a Hügelbeet. The mound makes its own compost/dirt and retains water, so once it’s established, it rarely needs watering. It can also double your planting area.

I think I have all of the ingredients…

I have a spot. This was a pile of branches and dirt that I started to clear out last summer. The rounds were holding up one edge of the pile, so they have become the outline of my Hügel (German for “mound”). It is down in the northeast corner of the yard.


It may be too shady, but that will just determine what I plant on that side of the Hügel. I am already planning an east-west extension that will have more sun on its south face.


Normally, it starts with one or a couple large logs. I’m fresh out of logs. But I do have a pile of wood sitting behind the garage from trees that were cut down 10 or 12 years ago and has been happily rotting away since then.




I also have a pile of brush, twigs, wood chips, and stuff. One of the arguments for Hügelkultur is that you can use all this stuff without putting it through a chipper/shredder.


I also have the dirt that was previously in the spot… mostly from rotting woodchips. It’s between 20 and 25 years old, so nicely converted by the bugs and worms. (Yes, that is a volunteer potato plant under the birdbath.)


Here is the start of the north end (away from the house).


Here is the south end (closer to the house).


Pulling the relatively intact branches out of the wood pile.


I set aside the bark to use for footpaths and like that.


Half of the wood has been moved down to the Hügel.


Then, most of the wood down there… you can see that the rotting woodpile basically made its own Hügelbeet. It’s nice rich stuff that I am separating out for the top layer with the dirt.




The foundation at the north end.


The foundation at the south end. Those bags are full of pine needles from my old campsite. The campground was always pushing people to rake them up and remove them since they are a fire hazard. They will get added to the Hügel.


Progress. It’s about six feet wide and twenty feet long. Most of the ones I’ve seen don’t have much of a border, but I am trying to keep it defined and raised up a bit more for easier tending. (I always figured the Babylonians must have had back problems, hence hanging their gardens!)


Once I have all the wood pile wood set down, I will start moving the brushpile into the Hügel. The dirt will follow.

As I mentioned, I had surgery on both hands this week, so work is on hold for a week or two. I expect it will be fully assembled this fall. I might throw some seeds at it right away, or just let it settle until spring.

Very cool!

Here is the light/shade situation at 2:00 pm.

Interesting.
Want to follow the progress.