We had to have three filbert trees taken down that had become diseased the summer of 2013. What had been a woodland garden opened up for growing veggies. We were left with great fire wood and three large stumps that were buried under the logs. When I stumbled across Hugelkultur on the Internet it was a mess with a promise of acute change for our back yard..
My first attempt at creating a hugel was sloppy with too many unfilled areas around and under stumps and unsplittable pieces of filbert trees. I hauled dirt from other parts of the yard and it wasn't enough to fully cover the stumps. To top it off our part of town being close to the Puget Sound has a long history of troublesome rats. The dogs were on daily hunts and digs. Despite the troubles the hugel was covered in greens of chard, cabbage, kale and collards; lemon cucumbers, bush beans and gallons of tomatoes.
Last year's hugel
Over the winter we decided to clear the hugel of vegetation for a rest and some restructuring. Used bricks are used to contain the sloping sides of the hugel on our gently sloping lot. Also move top soil from bed where I buried the last big old forked branches creating the second hugel. This time every branch was neatly buried in the old double dig fashion. No air spaces or rodent habitat, and very neat. (It really helped that this area had sat for over a year with multiple layers of cardboard weighed down with a good layer of bark...it was my winter squash bed last year.)
This year's start and yes that biggest old stump is right in the middle of the first hugel, but it is starting to rot
What is great is the early warmth of the ground. There are volunteer tomato starts up and the pathway at the base of second hugel acts as a water catchment for the bed with blueberries, broccoli and perennials.
Blueberry, broccoli and perennial bed
This weekend starter plants and some seeds went into the soil. Looks like the second year will be even more productive and better looking. Not having to pay to have stumps ground out or carted off a bonus. It's been a perfect solution.