Good, then I'll just wait for your article.

Sharon said:Good, then I'll just wait for your article.

[moved this to another thread ... question about gray water]

One hugelswale, with logs covered by leaves, old grass clippings and bits of this and that:



Now generously covered with rich black compost:

They kind of look like graves.

Wondering....would they work up here with such a short growing/composting season?

dave said:They kind of look like graves.

Yes, they do. I had some interesting conversations with my parents, with whom we share this property, about the early visual effects. They now love the end result as much as I do.

threegardeners said:

Wondering....would they work up here with such a short growing/composting season?

Lee Anne,

I'd think that these would work just about anywhere there was enough easily attainable materials at hand; they'll decompose eventually, perhaps just a bit slower in cooler areas.

The nice thing for those of us in the north is: since they're raised beds, they should warm up quicker in the spring.

Interesting stuff - I am going to have to figure out *something* as I'm moving back to the desert (Phoenix) and will need to be able to do at least *some* vegetable gardening with minimal water.

I think they will work fine here in the north, too -- it seems to me it's just sort of capturing the natural process that takes place on the forest floor.

Very ambitious project there, Dave!

Re: the use of animal bones . . .. Actually there is good precedent for using animal bones as fertilizer in the early agricultural history of the SE United States. By the 1830s the Southern coastal states were already experiencing soil depletion as a result of agricultural practices.
There was a very famous book "Calcareous Manures" published in the 1830s where in the author Edmund Ruffin advocates the use of marl to fertilize agricultural crops.

http://nationalregister.sc.gov...: see page 4. Marl was the content of old fossil beds that were mined for their calcium content and spread on fields.

The discovery of the Southern blackbelt soils in Alabama and Mississippi was one of the main reasons for planters to move west from the coastal states of Virginia, S. and N. Carolina, and eastern Georgia.
The coastal plain blackbelt soils are formed from the skeletons of old ocean fauna -- forming a calcium alkaline soil that did not need to resort to mining of fossil beds to maintain its fertility.

http://nationalregister.sc.gov...

quote:


The mass production of fertilizers did not occur in the United States until the mid-nineteenth
century. It was in 1830 that the first bone mills were established in this country. Animals such as
large bison were killed in drives on the western plains and were processed in bone mills, creating
plant food for use on domestic crops. About the same time, the German explorer Humboldt
introduced phosphoratic Peruvian guano to Europe after a mapping expedition in South America.
Guano was introduced to America in 1832, and by the 1840s to1850s, guano became a highly
profitable import from Peru. Guano’s use as a plant fertilizer had been known for centuries. Inca
populations (ca. 2000 BC to 1300 AD) of South America had exploited the phosphate-rich guano
from the Chincha islands off the coast of Peru. Guano is a combination of fossilized bones of
ancient birds and fish, mixed with bird excrement and formed over millions of years. Guano offers
a very rich fertilizer that is high in elements that are essential for proper plant growth such as
nitrogen, phosphorous, potassium sulfur, sodium, chloride, magnesium, silicon, iron, and
manganese. While it is a powerful fertilizer, Guano unfortunately produces extremely strong odors,
limiting its utility for large-scale usage (O’Connor 2000).
Some nineteenth century planters, faced with the challenges of soil exhaustion, began
seeking new alternatives. As early as 1832, Edmund Ruffin, who was seeking a means to increase
production and fertilize his own plantations in Virginia, advocated marling for agricultural crops
including corn, cotton and potatoes. Ruffin contended that the rich carbonate of lime found in marls
could be a source of plant fertilizer; phosphates, however, he believed useless for the task. Other
planters began experimenting with phosphate fertilizers by the 1840s (Mathew 1992, Stephens 1988).

end quote

And Bokashi fermentation will break down bones for use in the garden as well.

All interesting stuff.

My most recent Hugelkultur bed before being buried...

That's a thing of beauty, Tom! What kind of wood are those larger rounds?

The larger rounds are River Birch, it was ready for huglecultur before I even cut the tree down.

This is the finished product... before we mulched it...

This is a great summation of what hugelkultur is and why it works:

http://www.richsoil.com/hugelk...

How tall is that bed in the above photo, Tom? Have you planted it?

Wow! that is a beautiful bed Tom, so neat and tidy, I bet you will raise some beautiful plants there.

I'd say it's about 3 feet tall, 4 feet wide and 25 feet long. We haven't planted anything yet, will be very soon.