Hugelkultur

After we accumulated a pile of tree prunings from around our place, and from a section clean-out that Mac helped his brother with, we thought about having a bonfire but really, these days there's no family around most of the time, and anyway, there's a total fire ban on at the moment.

So what to do? I mentioned an idea I had gathered a while back from an issue of  Permaculture Magazine and to my surprise Mac grabbed the idea and ran with it. Of course - ever since we got the new old tractor, he's been looking for an excuse to use the digger bucket.

We are going to build a hugelkultur raised bed. Hugelkultur means hill culture or hill mound. It is built up from a base of rotting wood placed in a trench, followed by branches and twigs. The logs and branches are then covered with the dug out turf and earth, and then - whatever!  Grass clippings, seaweed, compost, aged manure, straw, green leaves, mulch, etc... There's more about it here.


So today we went for a wander to chose a spot for our first hugelkultur bed. I got a little distracted admiring and picking some agapanthus.

 Then I admired the elders and looked forward to making some elderflower cordial next year.

With our spot chosen, we dumped the piles of branches.

The next job will be for Mac to play with his tractor to dig the trench. I'm looking forward to seeing how well this system works.