Posted on by Mike Firesmith · 1 Comment

Time for a Little Hugelkultur.

Basically, Hugelkultur is a system of layering logs, limbs, compost, leaves, and that sort of stuff to create a compost system a gardener would plant on top of or create a large pile of compost.

Back last year or so, I expanded my compost pile and this year, I reaped the harvest of some really great compost. But the garden is getting bigger, and more compost is needed, and even more in the coming years.

One of the failed experiments was the Branch Office of the Compost Complex, where I piled up branches, threw leaves on them, and waited for the branches to turn into compost. It not only did not happen, but a large pile of branches was the only product.

The next plan of action was to get a wood chipper, which seems to come in two types; very large and very expensive chippers, that work well, but are loud and smelly, and very small ones, that are like oversized plastic pencil sharpeners, which work very poorly and get bad reviews.

My Facebooks friends, when they weren’t referencing Woodchippers in movies like Fargo, and listing items needed to dispose of a body, one of them came up with Hugelkultur.

 Hugelkultur is composting vegetative matter while using it to grow plants. A multi-layered approach, Hugeltur promised to render the Branch Office into soil, and if I wanted, I could grow something on top of it. At this point, I need more compost.

Just as I was about to begin, the thought arrived that this might be the time to take my neighbor up on his offer of free manure from the cow pasture. Away I went, got a load in my truck, and then back to the Compost Complex and the Death of the Branch Office.

Load of manure!
This is the Branch Office when the sun came up this morning.
After clearing all the branches and logs away, this is the area I was going to work with.
This was all the stuff stripped out of the Branch Office
The first layer of logs, if you can call them that, was pushed down in the compost that had formed under the Branch Office. Yes, it had worked better than I thought, but I had no access to the compost.
The second layer was branches, some of them old, some of them new, but the directions said to walk them in, then add grass and leaves, then walk that in, too. Notice the water hose. Moisture is a big part of compost. It’s not a nice neat pile but it’s what it needs to be.
The logs in this layer are more rotted than the first. I added some stuff on the side, larger stumps, and I hope that will start to decompose as well.
This was the end result. I hit it with a lot of leaves and grass, a little manure, then flooded it with water.
The Dung Heap, all the leftover manure. I’ve always heard about these but I have never had one until now.

I don’t have much left over from the Branch Office. What I do have will be made into another Hugelkultur tomorrow, or the next day considering how tired I am right now. But this seems like it will work, and it has everything it needs to do so.

Stay tuned, next April or so, when I start really gearing up for the garden!

Take Care,

Mike

Posted on by Mike Firesmith

Blocks and Bushes

Back when I started a tiny six by eight garden over ten years ago, the timbers that were shoring up the ditch in the back yard seemed a good idea. Then when I expanded the garden this year, so about twenty by fifteen, I used all the timber I could find, and still needed some cinder blocks to fill in the gaps. The real problem was the timbers were in terrible shape, and honestly, they needed to go.

Doug, my good friend and master electrician, said he might know someone with cinder blocks for free, but bring an axe.

And away we went. It took us a while to locate the blocks because they were deep in the brush, but I brought a bush hook, and some insect repellent, and went in.

I’m five foot ten. And it’s amazing we had problems finding a stack of blocks that were higher than I am tall, but I cut a path, and the removal of the blocks began.

Once we got the forty-five blocks loaded, I trudged them back to the garden, started digging up and removing the timbers, and realized I had no idea what to do with the timbers once I removed them. Part of the garden, the original section, the timbers were deep in the ground, and infested with fire ants. But once again, friends save the day! My friend Mark came over and offered to haul them off for me.

The garden is now enclosed in cinder blocks, as the plot expands each year, this is going to be easier than moving timbers, and the ants will be easier to control.

But here’s the cool part. After we loaded all the blocks, I put two more in, just in case. This is what we had left.

Good planning and good friends save the day! Now I have to work towards a great harvest so I can shall the fruits of my labor with those who helped make it possible.

Take Care,

Mike