The Art and Science of Making a Hugelkultur Bed – Transforming Woody Debris into a Garden Resource
Compost, Conservation, Fungi, Rehabilitation, Soil Biology, Soil Composition, Soil Conservation, Structure, Water Harvesting — by Melissa Miles August 3, 2010
 Wooden debris will decompose faster, (and be transformed into a resource) when hugelkultur techniques are employed. |
Used for centuries in Eastern Europe and Germany, hugelkultur (in German hugelkultur translates roughly as “mound culture”) is a gardening and farming technique whereby woody debris (fallen branches and/or logs) are used as a resource.
Often employed in permaculture systems, hugelkultur allows gardeners and farmers to mimic the nutrient cycling found in a natural woodland to realize several benefits. Woody debris (and other detritus) that falls to the forest floor can readily become sponge like, soaking up rainfall and releasing it slowly into the surrounding soil, thus making this moisture available to nearby plants.
Hugelkultur garden beds (and hugelkultur ditches and swales) using the same principle to:
- Help retain moisture on site
- Build soil fertility
- Improve drainage
- Use woody debris that is unsuitable for other use
Applicable on a variety of sites, hugelkultur is particularly well suited for areas that present a challenge to gardeners. Urban lots with compacted soils, areas with poor drainage, limited moisture, etc., can be significantly improved using a hugelkultur technique, as hugelkultur beds are, essentially, large, layered compost piles covered with a growing medium into which a garden is planted.
Creating a hugelkultur garden bed is a relatively simple process:
1. Select an area with approximately these dimensions: 6 feet by 3 feet
2. Gather materials for the project:
- Fallen logs, branches, twigs, fallen leaves (the “under utilized” biomass from the site). Avoid using cedar, walnut or other tree species deemed allelopathic.
- Nitrogen rich material (manure or kitchen waste work well and will help to maintain a proper carbon to nitrogen ratio in the decomposing mass within the hugelkulter bed).
- Top soil (enough to cover the other layers of the bed with a depth of 1 – 2”) and some mulching material (straw works well).
3. Lay the logs (the largest of the biomass debris) down as the first layer of the hugelkulter bed. Next, add a layer of branches, then a layer of small sticks and twigs. Hugelkultur beds work best when they are roughly 3 feet high (though this method is forgiving, and there is no fixed rule as to the size of the bed. That is where the “art” comes in!)
4. Water these layers well
5. Begin filling in spaces between the logs, twigs and branches with leaf litter and manure of kitchen scraps.
6. Finally, top off the bed with 1 – 2” of top soil and a layer of mulch.
The hugelkulter bed will benefit from “curing” a bit, so it is best to prepare the bed several months prior to planting time (prepare the bed in the fall for a spring planting, for example, in temperate northern climates), but hugelkultur beds can be planted immediately. Plant seeds or transplants into the hugelkulter bed as you would any other garden bed. Happy hugelkulturing!
Comments (35)
Thanks for the great piece Melissa. One thing to note is that all that carbon will cause significant nitrogen drawdown, particularly in the first year. I haven’t made such a bed, but am guessing you’d want to have a good dose of green material in the top layers, to compensate, if you’re planning to plant out in the first year.
And some bacterial/fungi innoculation wouldn’t go amiss to get the whole thing cranking (assuming the soil being layered on top is not already biologically rich).
Comment by Craig Mackintosh — August 3, 2010 @ 10:54 pm
I love this! This solves several issues. My husband hates it when I randomly pile woody cuttings- this gives me an organized purpose. And it’s a great way to support integrated cultivated into a new area.
Comment by Ro P Gardener — August 4, 2010 @ 2:43 am
regarding nitrogen drawdown from decomposing mulch – I assume that when mulch breaks down then perhaps it will more likely draw the nitrogen from the air rather than from the soil and so not impact the nitrogen level in the soil below the mulch. I think nitrogen drawdown only becomes an issue when the carboniferous material is dug under into the soil. Fukuoka burried logs in order to get more carbon into his soil. Until he planted accacia melanoxylon (i think) as support trees which turned out to be quicker in improving his soil.
Comment by Matt Luthi — August 4, 2010 @ 4:56 am
Craig, the article clearly says to use lots of:
“Nitrogen rich material (manure or kitchen waste work well and will help to maintain a proper carbon to nitrogen ratio in the decomposing mass within the hugelkulter bed)”
It tells you to use this stuff to fill in between the logs and sticks. So the “nitrogen drawdown issue” is already addressed.
The fungi aspect is valid. I’d throw some aged wood chip mulch (especially looking for some with the white mycelium strings under it) into the mix to make sure some good fungi gets in there.
A great introduction to the topic, Melissa! I’m going to go off and research it some more, since I have a lot of garden beds to build up.
One question: you say to make the garden beds 3 feet wide and 3 feet tall. Are you using edging to create these raised beds? I’m not sure how stable such tall skinny beds would be without some kind of retaining structure. Just trying to picture what they would look like.
Comment by Darren (Green Change) — August 4, 2010 @ 8:16 am
Matt – it’s not just the mulch (at top) that will consume the nitrogen in the decomposition process, but, particularly, the logs and branches (at bottom of pile). Logs of wood and branches translates to serious humus-creation going on, and they will use a lot of nitrogen in the process.
Darren – perhaps you misunderstand me, or I wasn’t clear. I wasn’t knocking the article whatsoever. Not in the slightest. I was just ensuring readers are aware of this potential issue, as it wasn’t mentioned in the article. Yes, the article does say to mix nitrogen in with the carbonaceous material, but by mentioning/specifying the nitrogen drawdown factor by name I was seeking to ensure they realise the reasons for this. If people’s plants are stunted/yellowing atop such a mound, they may thus understand why, and not just write the whole concept off.
Comment by Craig Mackintosh — August 5, 2010 @ 12:43 am
I wonder how hugelkultur would work out in a tropical climate. I imagine the decomposition would proceed faster, especially in the wet season. Perhaps forming a mound right before the start of the wet season would be the proper procedure. (Correct me if I’m wrong.)
Comment by Arian I. — August 11, 2010 @ 11:36 am
I was wondering whether one could establish citrus trees on such raised beds. Got an old organic orchard to renew in Spain on terraces. Some useful inspiration is more than welcome.
Comment by Kristian Hernandez — August 13, 2010 @ 3:12 am
Sepp Holzer has citrus trees in the austrian mountains and he uses hugelkultur, but I’m not certain that he plants these trees IN hugel beds. I do know that he uses a lot of stone. He does plant many other fruit tree varieties in his hugel, usually on the side of the bed
Comment by Travis — August 15, 2010 @ 12:03 pm
@Travis : If I’m not mistaken the stones located near the citrus trees act as heat sinks to store and release the heat needed to generate a microclimate suitable for citrus trees. In permaculture this is a common way to create warm microclimates in cool climate regions.
I guess I should’ve known this through experience. More than once I’ve burned my feet walking barefoot on an asphalt road on a hot, sunny day ^^;
Comment by Arian I. — August 17, 2010 @ 12:47 pm
Great inspiration. I’ve been puzzling over how to sustain my herd of redworms in their compost bins through the winters when I am away in Costa Rica. They seem to set cocoons in the Fall that hatch in the Spring, but this year I will put deadwood on the bottoms before turning the piles over. The generated thermophilic heat may provide support for a longer time and help more adults survive.
Gracias
Comment by Tomas Wilkinson — February 22, 2011 @ 5:40 am
Should gum tree wood be placed into a hugelkultur bed? Also will this work in dry climate like dry parts of country victoria? In that climate will additional watering be necessary? If so any idea how often?
Comment by Paul — February 27, 2011 @ 8:55 pm
We are a small berry farm having just cleared 10 acres of 2nd growth trees. Rather than stump to plant berries, we want to know how this method would work for a commercial planting of elders, aronia, etc. IF the stumps are left in the ground. Concerned about not being able to cultivate between rows of hugelkulturs and concerned about regenerating stumps/goldenrod etc. within and around proposed beds. Anyone having planted in a clear cut woods using this method to make beds? It would be great not to stump and destroy texture, microrganisms, etc. but it has to be able to be maintained and be able to pick berries….thanks for any suggestions. We are organic growers, so no herbicides.
Kate
Comment by kate kerivan — March 19, 2011 @ 3:16 am
I’m imagining a sloped area of ratty regrowth (eucalypts are somewhat alleopathic but not enough to kill the process, I think) cleared and material knocked into swales and mounded with a bit of the topsoil between rows of woody waste then planted with legumous fodder crops (lab lab, pidgeon pea, lupins, lucerne) on top and carboniferous fodder crops (mangonels, jerusalem artichokes, daikon, burdock, comfrey) between. Then alternate pigs and goats in folds over it. Legumes solve the nitrogen drawdown, beets and other roots chisel-plough the soil between swales, goats and pigs get biodiverse permaforaging. Erosion mitigation, runoff capture, reduced need for mechanical mulching land sculpting and ploughing. Pigs and goats fertilize, plough, cut each other’s parasite load and reduce the need for imported feed. Later grown a canopy of tagasaste ect to further increase fodder diversity and land stability. Straight off the dome but what do you think?
Comment by Pricklefarmer — March 24, 2011 @ 9:03 am
We have published an introductory article about hugelkultur raised beds to our website. It has lots of pictures and a nice step by step directions on how to do it. The article can be seen at: http://allthingsplants.com/articles/view/dave/96/
We will have many more articles coming that touch on practices of permaculture and we hope to introduce permaculture to a much wider and more “mainstream” gardening audience.
Comment by Dave Whitinger — July 20, 2011 @ 3:01 am
Is a good way of using sticks and branches that would otherwise go to waste.
Comment by Merewether — July 30, 2011 @ 8:19 pm
Pricklefarmer, sounds really exciting what just sprung out of your head. Hope you manage to try it out and please let us know how it goes. I have been wondering for a long time how easiest to create water speed humps in the landscape on contour ,on steep hills where swales would be a major earthwork undertaking. I am thinking bundles of sticks piled up against stakes and covered with topsoil dug from just below and thrown up over the sticks or logs which would barricade it from falling back down. Then mulch and plant to hold it all in place. You’d end up with nifty access paths of subsoil on contour and a raised bed. I have been doing this for the last few days using tagasaste we planted last year in rows on contour. Cant wait to plant and see what happens. I will report with photos soon.
Comment by Bee Winfield — November 15, 2011 @ 11:05 pm
Regarding the size of the beds, I am planning to make 4′ x 16′ garden boxes on top of and around the Hk mounds. I also plan to make 4′w x 16′l x4′h raised bed Hk mounds for squash, potatoes etc. Will this length adversely affect the performance of the Hk mounds?
Comment by thom foote — January 7, 2012 @ 1:37 pm
to Bee Winfield & others-I’m planning to do a pilot with used carpet waste to create contours, water-slowing & absorbing humps, and possibly even as bottom layer of hugelkulture mounds sited on old existing asphalt parking lot. Yeah I know, pure organic growers will worry about residual chems in the carpet. I’m not much of a purist-more interested in getting rid of carpet that in our province clogs the landfills and finding cheap available local things that work for quickly regenerating life on abandoned municipal & industrial properties.
Comment by david cameron — January 16, 2012 @ 1:40 am
We have been experimenting with a hybrid of sheet mulching and hugelkultur. It appears that the bigger the woody material the less of the carbon is “biologically available” so nitrogen draw down does not seem to be a problem. We finish all our beds with manure on top of the carbon and then make path ways with wood chips. Pictures here:
http://www.organiclandscapedesign.org/content/sheet-mulchinghugelkultur-0
Comment by David Braden — April 26, 2012 @ 11:22 am
err this is fine in big fields far from homes no? If not you risk having termites and carpenter ants who will be happy for a time then march out in search of new wooden pastures. They went from a tree I knocked down, to my garage and ate half of one corner, then were going for more and my house when I sprayed dug them out and sprayed more then called in for repairmen and when the structure was unsheathed I sprayed the outside then let them side it.
I love the idea though if you have sufficient space.
I loved the site
Comment by chris — June 17, 2012 @ 3:32 am
My 1/3 acre garden site is sloped, anywhere from 8-15 degrees facing west bordering my long driveway. I decided to use hugel beds to raise the grade on the bottom edge along the driveway to level the ground. It worked great. I have several recommendations concerning hugel beds: 1. have ALL materials at hand from the beginning, 2. They are a LOT of work to create by oneself, 3. If constructing multiples parallel to each other going down a slope and using a tractor (recommended) make sure you start with the upper one and complete it before starting the next ones downslope. This gives you enough room for the tractor to maneuver and dump loads whick makes it infinitely easier to construct, 4. THOROUGHLY water each mound at each step of the process especially in dry areas like ours north of Spokane.
Comment by Thom Foote — August 17, 2012 @ 2:49 am
I am planning to try this in a raised bed in our courtyard. One question – is it bad to use eucalyptus wood? I noticed someone asked above, but didn’t see a reply.
I know eucalypts put out a alleopathogen (not sure if that’s quite the word) that inhibits growth of plants under them – is this going to be an issue in a hugelkultur bed?
Comment by Kirsten McCulloch — August 30, 2012 @ 1:10 pm
I have read that eucalyptus wood is not a good wood to use even if it is very old. Same with cedar.
Comment by Thom Foote — October 4, 2012 @ 1:38 pm
Hi Thom,
Reading is no substitute for experience and experimentation. All timber rots even aged oak. Eucalypts hybridise readily and there are literally hundreds of different sub species all with differing fibres and densities. Check out my experiment with eucalyptus timber (eucalyptus obliqua) in the article:
http://permaculturenews.org/2012/08/22/adventures-in-hugelkultur-in-australia/
Chris
Comment by Chris McLeod — October 5, 2012 @ 9:13 am
Chris,
You are absolutely right. It is easy to forget that we usually have the freedom and time to experiment on our own. Pine has also been panned as an ingredient in hugel beds. However, the old pine logs I have on the ground are acting fine in my beds since they too have had time to leach out the bad ju-ju that pines contain.
Comment by Thom — November 4, 2012 @ 1:09 am
My farm, Old Fart-a-muit, has a facebook page of the same name. It contains lots of pics showing our construction of our hugel beds and our central hugel mound. They may be of some use to hugel users. Next spring will be the start of our first full growing season using hugelkultur. The mound, even with a late start, produced very well this last summer from mid-June through Sept.
Comment by Thom — November 4, 2012 @ 1:12 am
I am thinking about using a variation of hugelkultur beds for my growing areas. I constructed 5 16ft beds last summer in preparation for this years season. I think I will edge them with hugel logs in order to create hybrid raised beds. They should absorb water like the buried logs but will give a little deeper growing depth at the edges.
Comment by Thom — January 25, 2013 @ 3:47 am
Chris,
How did your experiment with eucalyptus wood turn out? If nothing else, your farm should be aromatic. If you are ever in the states, around Spokane, Washington, contact me for a good meal and good beer.
Comment by Thom — January 25, 2013 @ 3:55 am
Has anybody used hugelkultur beds to retain water? I want to impound a couple small creeks to provide water to other areas of my farm without extensive digging or causing drainage issues.
Comment by Emily — January 28, 2013 @ 4:11 am
Would prunings from rose bushes work in as a base layer for this technique? I have inherited about 60 roses that really need work & so I have pickup-truck loads of pruned canes available.
I got stuck on the initial instruction that said, “Avoid using cedar, walnut or other tree species deemed allelopathic…” How do you determine if a species is “alleopathic”?
Comment by Wendy — February 3, 2013 @ 1:51 am
I found out that in terms of termites, unlike a tree felled and just laying there on the surface, the trees in the hugelkutlur pile are in theory surrounded by appropriate fungi which would actually prevent the termites and ants from being a problem.
Comment by krin — February 17, 2013 @ 8:33 pm
I have tried on the traditional hugel bed approach. On the “shoulders” of the beds, I put hugel logs that still have a lot of structure. I did this so I could drill holes and put hoops over each bed. These logs, although exposed to the air on their top half will continue to absorb water into the buried bottom half. Finally, this makes the shoulders deeper allowing for deep rooted crops to be planted there while planting progressively shallower rooted crops up the sides.
Comment by Thom — March 27, 2013 @ 1:49 am
To Emily who asked about using hugel beds to retain water, having constructed several small ponds on a slope, I would be very leery of doing this even on level ground. Any structure that retains water needs to have a solid core for strength. Water is very heavy and exerts a tremendous amount of pressure on the face of even a small dam. You would run the risk of a blowout.
Comment by Thom — March 27, 2013 @ 1:51 am
How long will this bed last? Years? Decades? Has anyone had to dig one up and recompost?
Comment by Renee — May 16, 2013 @ 6:30 am
As I start planting, for the first time, my second year hugel beds I can’t help but wonder about shallow rooted plants like lettuce, etc being able to access the stored water in the hugel material. Hugels advertise themselves as being self-irrigating. If, however, the soil cover is 4-6 inches on top of the beds and the bottom-most hugel material is a couple of feet down, how are these types of plants going to access the moisture? I am think I am going to have to water these plants, at least initially, if not all season. Any thoughts?
Comment by Thom — May 17, 2013 @ 3:30 am
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