Another Hugelkultur Project Update
I just got parts two and three of the Hugelkultur project uploaded to YouTube. These two videos are chock full of information that can help you build a more self sufficiency into your homesteading projects.
Part Two of the Hugelkultur Project has a lot going on. Some of the stuff I cover includes…
- Dealing with the “nitrogen trap” effect
- Turning in an existing warm weather cover crop
- Planting a cold season cover crop
- Success and failure thus far with the project
- Using and inoculant for legumes
- Damage by the neighbor’s dog
- Why I used boxed in beds for this part of the project
- Using many varieties of seeds for cover cropping
- How legumes fix and share nitrogen
- How one cover crop can nurse the next one
- How winter kill can work for
Part Three goes into a lot of cool technical aspects and move on to some really cool simple technology such as…
- Building an A-Frame level
- How to calibrate you’re A-Frame level
- Combining swales and Hugelkultur beds
- The use of both rotted and newly cut wood for Hugelkultur
- An update on the cover crops planted in part two
- Part Two of The Hugelkultur Project
Project Three of The Hugelkultur Project
If you want to simply stay in touch with all my Hugelkultur Videos, I have put together a Hugelkultur Video Playlist.
Can you add a link to part 1?
@The Prepper, here you go
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AIFB2mXTMfY
But if you subscribe to my channel and get email updates to it then you will never miss an update.
http://www.youtube.com/user/survivalpodcasting
Great videos on the “dams” on the level contour. I like the idea and may try to use it soon. I just had the town deliver 5 dump trucks of bagged leaves which I chop up with my trusty sears mower. This is the third year which I have done this in the fall and I now have a great garden full of worms. You did not talk about worms in your beds.. Do you have a lot of them? I can’t weed without worms flying all over the place. Keep up the good work. Are green leaves a good nitrogen source??
Had to watch those more than once because my attention kept straying to Max – gawd, he’s a beautiful dog! I love me some German Shedhairs. Great info, great inspiration. Can’t wait to see more progress, thanks! (And more Max.)
I built my hugleculture on contour using bales of hay and straw with aspen logs, I then buried it using goat manure and what ever I could find. I have been dumping worms ,compost teas and mushroom compost on top. I live at 6300 feet in Montana. Well see what happens.
@freeganDave,
Should work great in your climate considering Sepp Holtzer is doing it in the Austrian Alps.
Hello Jack,
Thanks for the great video. I have been thinking if mulch bags would work the same as using tree trunks for the hugle bed? I figure wood is wood and in my suburbia situation access to $3 mulch bags is a lot more pragmatics.
Just a thought.
Thank you.
@Jose Garcia, well wood chips will work, they just don’t last as long. Thing is I bet there are tons of woodlots, etc around with dead trees lying on the ground even in suburbia.
Looking good.
How fast do you think this setup will “convert over” into something that you can grow on?
@Oleg, instantly.
Hugelswales… I’ve been toying with that idea in my mind for the last few weeks. I’ll be trying this on my homestead west of Austin. Thanks for all you do. Keep up the great work. Happy Thanksgiving.
Jack, if you don’t mind sharing: where did you get your cover crop seeds? And where did you find the bacterium (sp?).
Thank from Southwest Missouri
@Berlan Crouch – Of course I don’t mind, I mostly buy my cover crops seed from Peaceful Valley Farms. I also get inoculant from who ever I by seed from on any given day. You can find Peaceful Valley at http://www.groworganic.com/
Just created a micro Hugelkultur project last month… it will double as a micro retaining wall to level out the skating rink over the winter. Very excited to plant something there come spring.
I am moving to a 3 acre property outside of Spokane, WA on what is called the Peone Prarie. The property is on the edge of the farm land that has been growing alfalfa for decades. My area is 2,000′ elev and has 16″ of rain a year so it is a dry area. I want to try Hugelculture but wonder if it will work since I have not slope to catch and hold water. Is Hugelculture appropriate for this type of situation?
Thanks,
Mike
@Mike,
There is no such thing as no slope, you have a slope anywhere. If you took an Aframe level to your land it would shock you. That said it really has no effect on hugulkultur. What you are looking at here is swales combined with hugulkultur. So if you build large hugul beds they are going to soak up rain no matter how flat or sloped your land may be.