Life’s Flavors ~ New To Gardening By Allison Libby-Thesing

It is never too late to start a garden. One of the fastest and easiest ways to get started is by using the Hügelkultur”(pronounced hyoo-gul-kulture). A German method of creating garden beds using mounds or in our case filling raised beds.Of course, you can always just sow your seeds or plants directly into the ground, but by using other organic material to“feed”your crops, from the start, the garden of your dreams is easier to grow with a little help from nature.

To get started, you need to decide if you are going to mound, or fill raised beds. Determine your area of growth and then bring in your organic material. If you are starting out in a new area and have to remove any plants in the way, the organic material you remove can be used to start the base of your mounds or fill in the bottom of your raised beds. We also like to add a layer of cardboard to the bottom of our beds for added weed protection until our plants take control.

Once you have your cardboard down, now is the time to layer in the larger branches or wood pieces to the bottom of your mound or raised bed. These larger pieces of organic material will slowly break down over time and allow a slow release of nutrients into your soil, and create a natural sponge. The older your wood pieces the faster they will break down and quicker they will “feed” your plants and absorb water.The decomposition of this material will also heat your bed, which could extend your growing season naturally.

Next you can put the next layer into place, which can be dirt or grass from the area you selected to place your new garden bed. If you use grass that still has roots, place the grass root side upon the logs at the bottom. This organic layer is going to be packed tightly. So, whatever you use to place here, stuff it in and add some more.

The next layer will have more wood. Add smaller piece of wood on top of the organic layer and pack it in tightly. You can make this layer as high as you want if you are choosing to mound your garden. If you are using a raised bed keep it below the top level, since it will take time to break down.

Water your layers well at this point and add in any organic material to fill in the cracks in the layers. The addition of water at this point, will help to start the decomposition of the layers below. We do not wait for this layer to sprout mushrooms before adding our topsoil, but that is a common practice. We add our topsoil right away after adding water.

After heavily watering the mound or raised bed, go ahead and add in your topsoil. This product is where you will be planting your garden. No matter if you are using food or flowers, the end product will be coming out of this top layer. The best option is to let the mound settle for the off season and plant in the new year. If you create your bed in the fall, let it settle over winter and then plant in the spring. I will admit there have been a few beds that we planted right away. No one way is right or wrong, just standard practice, of waiting after being built.

This is one of our favorite ways to start a new garden bed. In the end it uses less water because the wood at the bottom become like a sponge and waters your garden naturally. The material does break down over time so the mound or bed will “shrink” as time goes by. In the end the beak down is worth the cost savings from water retention and natural nutrients going back into your garden. Any shrinkage from decomposition can be replaced with homemade compost to keep your garden healthy and thriving.

By Allison Libby-Thesing