When I read up on Hügelkultur I suddenly felt behind the eight ball. I had been planning to chop and burn a bunch of windfallen branches from alleyway trees, but Hügelkultur says, "STOP! Bury those old logs and branches under your garden. The rotting wood will break down, absorb water and feed your garden for years to come." So here are a few photos of my garden in mid-transformation.
Here's what it looked like last year:
In the photo above there is a foot-deep pile of tree branches laid down under the soil. The layer of sod from the new area on the right has been flipped upside down on the left. I added more clippings from last fall that were in my green bin. I will add a layer of newspaper to block weeds and hold the moisture in (and to feed worms), and then it will have about 4 inches of straw mulch on top (when I find some) - I may just get a bunch of leaves from the alleyway instead.
This is another garden that I'm upgrading to grow food. I didn't dig up the soil, but I forked it and lifted it without turning to aerate the earth. The peony in the middle was left alone. Before adding the newspaper layer I basically emptied my compost bin. The newspapers will prevent weeds and hold moisture in. They were soaked in water before laying down. Fingers crossed that those dyes. I still need to get some straw to finish the mulch.
On the east side of my yard the afternoon sun is strongest in front of the fence. The strawberries were planted as two plants about 5 years ago. Last year they just went crazy in multiplying so this spring I'm trying to get some new plants potted. Next year I hope to have a raised planter box just for strawberries. Need to deal with pests, esp. bunnies, rats, mice, and squirrels. The black pipe is overflow from our rain barrel. And yes, that is a toaster hanging from the tree.
My pond has 5 goldfish. They've over-wintered in there for several seasons now. Funny thing is they are descendents of cheap "feeder" fish; what you're seeing here are second and third generation offspring that were bred and raised in the pond. In the winter we keep the water circulating with the pump to keep the surface rippling and allow an air bubble under the ice. This is critical to fish survival (so we learned the hard way). The daffodil is about to pop, there is one flower today! The dianthus will be lovely, and we're looking forward to the stonecrop and hen and chicks covering the ground nicely (see below).
We also decided to take our water conservation up a notch, so we bought a rain barrel from the local conservation organization. The overflow pipe runs right out to the pond.
When the pond fills up it overflows into the Hügelkultur bed. I've got some seedlings started, some tomatoes and squash. Fingers crossed. We'll figure that part out as we go. Anyway, I'm pretty motivated to maximize our soil quality and to create a "no-dig" garden that is full of rich soil and gives us some tasty food this year. The strawberries are sending out runners so I'm trying to capture the plants for moving at the end of the season.
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| [April 25] These are now more than a month old. Three more weeks and they'll be ready for planting outside. |
