This rock bed has grown into a mostly shaded area, so I decided to add more to the south (front) side. It will be filled with annuals and possibly a few perennials, including some hardy sempervivums. We have a surplus of wood at present, so I've used it as a base layer and added extra in the center to create planting pockets.

I added a base layer of weedy fill, tamped it down into the crevices and covered it with cardboard and paper.

Then I added nitrogen-rich homemade compost with blood meal and grass clippings to help combat any nitrogen depletion caused by the wood beginning to break down.


Next I added a blend formulated for annuals and watered it all in.


Finished except for weeding the old edges, adding plants and resetting the solar lights.

The shelf areas on the front and the two hollow top pieces are future homes for semps if all goes well.

Hugelkultur, or just another way to make use of some extra wood?

Let us know how it works! I bet it will be one of your most productive beds.

Will do!

Good job Chelle, I think it will look great when it's planted and everything gets growing in the bed.

I really like the look of the wood border, especially the way you alternated them horizontally and vertically. As the wood on the edge breaks down you can just kick it into the bed and put up a new border (if you chose to).

Thanks!

Dave, I like that plan.



I took a few pictures of it partially planted -in between raindrops.

Here's the main idea for the planting design...

In front of the ribbon grass, Tri-colored Amaranth. I'll also have containers of the same amaranth in the grass. Then burgundy verbena and sweet potato vine. Next layer forward, lime verbena and lime sweet potato vine.
Dark-leaved begonia along the front edge, and Zeolights calendula and Bon Bon Sedum on each end.




The hollow logs on top and the notched logs in front have sempervivum, and I have lots of white lobelia seedlings coming along to spill over the edges.









This morning I also started kicking around the idea that I might want to add another lower layer around the entire perimeter! If I did I'd have to lay in stepping chunks so I could get to the middle, but I think that might look nice for a season, too. If I keep adding outward I'll never have to trim along the edges!

Chelle, that is awesome, lovely selection of plants, you are so creative.

Thanks again.


If we decide that we're not having all of our huge stumps ground out I'll probably be burying them in more of these beds. I already have one rose now that grows monstrously huge over the dead roots and stump of another lost tree. It works wonderfully!

I just made a hugel bed at the cabin last weekend. I got logs that were falling apart and had some growth on them that Dave would be tempted to eat! The bed is on top of an old big elm tree stump with a few roots as thick as my calves. MIxed in are wood chips that were ground up from a stump. I added 5 bags of top soil, and five bags of compost. I topped all that with mulch from trees that were cleared on the property. The boards around it are from a shed that we took down. On one side there is an arced rock border from the lake shore. I love that the only thing not from the property is the compost and bags of topsoil! It is for my mom. We she will make a sign that says, "Nana's Potager" painted on weathered 50 year old barn wood from the shed we took down.

That sounds wonderful!



These beds are so much fun to make. I really like the concept of using whatever's available.

This morning I spent an hour or so cutting big weeds to add to several more beds that are an addition to my veggie garden. They already had a base layer of wood and limbs from the removal of our first dead tree. Pile it on, pile it on.

Funny thing is, and I have to laugh about it now, after the fact: I love the knowledge that I'm now using brush and limbs where they'll nourish my plants, not the poison ivy! We used to toss all of this stuff over the fence into the woods -you don't have to guess what grew out of the woods and into our space.

Inspiring. It will be fall before I will get mine in shape to plant. But its already 90 degrees and raining almost every day here in Alabama. So I look forward to the inspiring photos to keep my mind on this until I can get out there and work on mine!

The bed did really well in last night's flood waters. You can see where other bits of wood had washed uphill behind it, but the tighter construction of this one held together nicely.


Here's an older section that was built up and *framed* with wood chunks to hold the soil in place during early washouts. Much of the wood has disappeared in this area already. Hosta, iris and others grow exceptionally well here.

Chelle, wow, that was a lot of water, happy to see your new bed wasn't destroyed.

A peek at how some of the colors are coming along...



It's about what I expected, but of course the lime verbena, well...isn't.

Painting with plants, I like it and I think Gertrude Jekyll would approve.

Anderwood. Once you get that system going, you can even get compost and garden soil from your property-- you wont have to buy it. Nothing like being self-sufficient!

hazelnut said:

Anderwood. Once you get that system going, you can even get compost and garden soil from your property-- you wont have to buy it. Nothing like being self-sufficient!

I don't know how I ever managed before I had a compost pile at every corner of the yard! Just a few steps and you have what you need.

With a beautiful result!, Chelle

Thank you!

I'll post more pictures later. I've added to this bed again already.

This is what we had before we left on vacation. I liked it, but wished I'd set the tall amaranth closer together.



When we returned from a week away they were twice as tall, and the green sweet potato vine had swallowed up the smaller plants down front.

Pulled the amaranth yesterday morning and trimmed back the sweet potato vine. The calendula clumps had flopped forward, so they got a thinning and trimming as well. Added a few new items and this is what it looks like today.


Love, love, love how well everything is growing in it!

Now, if I can just keep that vine in line!