Hugelkultur Beds

I have been spending quite a lot of time on youtube looking at various videos on Food Forests and Permaculture and the Hugelkultur Bed method kept popping up. I loved its concept and thought it would work well.  We get really dry here in Coromandel over the summer and was looking for gardening systems that would have good moisture retention and fertility. This ticked all the boxes.

Last summer, we had a small round swimming pool for the grandkids ( and me ) to swim in. I decided to take it down at the beginning of Lockdown and it left behind a lovely circle of dead lawn.  I kept looking at this area and thought that it would make a pretty cool horse shoe Hugelkultur garden following the circumference of the circle.

This shape will allow me easy access to all sides of the garden.

Sadly I didn't have any big logs, but managed to find enough decent sized branches that I cut up and laid as the bottom layer. I then put the small branches chopped up on top of that and layer by layer built it up with sacs of horse manure, grass clippings, leaf mold, compost, seaweed, and more green and brown matter layers finishing with a thick layer of arborist mulch.  

About 2 weeks after having finishing the first bed I decided to make another the opposite way round so that I would have a full coverage of sun between the 2 beds. I have blended this garden with the Keyhole garden idea, and have put a compost bin at the northern end of it ( being the highest point ) The idea is that the juice and goodness from the compost bin will seep down and feed the bed and add moisture. I can't wait to get this planted up to see if there is a difference between the 2. 

I  left the first bed for about 6 weeks before I couldn't wait any longer and finally planted some plants in it last week. 

To plant the seedlings, I dug a wee hole by hand through the mulch, filled it with compost and popped in the seedling.  I was really lucky with the weather in that it has rained a bit each day so the plants have been well watered in, and are now starting to show good signs of growth. 

I now have a 3rd bed made in an oblong shape using some small logs and branches I collected off the beach.  This is going to be interesting to see how they go. Time will tell. 

I love the look of the raised Hugelkultur's and it gives me so much more surface area to plant out in. 

These gardens are now incorporated in the first stage of my Food Forest  that is all mulched and beginning to get planted out.

I have to keep reminding myself that Rome wasn't built in a day!!