
Hugelkultur: Raised Garden Beds - jschwartzi
https://richsoil.com/hugelkultur/
======
contingencies
On the subject of horticulture, there are still a great many amazing plants
that aren't well understood and which resist cultivation. In addition it seems
some fundamentally accepted default processes in the horticultural industry
are ripe for review - for example, I read a paper recently which threw the
conventional root hormone application wisdom for cuttings out the window: in
that study it was found application _atop_ a cutting (in the species covered)
was superior to application _below_ a cutting as conventionally taught. If
things this fundamental are up for discussion, it would seem clear that we are
really only at the relative tip of the iceberg in our understanding of
biological systems and horticultural practice.

I suspect advancements in the next few years in areas like: new high yield
crop combinations, improved robotic
tilling/sewing/fertilizing/weeding/harvesting mechanisms, increased
understanding of a broader variety of species seed germination requirements,
combined horticulture/mycoculture/bryoculture strategies, autonomous tissue
culture, autonomous offshore aquaculture and harvesting, etc. Robotics really
should be a huge enabler here.

I already have a robotics factory in China and the personal and commercial
motivation to build solutions in this space and am actively studying
horticulture. Email me if you'd like to collaborate, have agricultural know-
how and/or land and the medium to long term interest to collaborate, fellow
startups welcome. Basically I am constrained by available land and time, don't
believe in the long term economics of indoor/heavily synthetic conditions, and
believe we are fundamentally at a crossroads for more sustainable, higher
density agricultural practices enabled by new, more precise technology and
more holistic conceptions of agricultural systems.

~~~
varikin
I would love to see this paper you mention. My wife loves all things green.
Our house is filling up with house plants, which I am OK with as long I am not
in charge of them. And the more she plant outside, the less I have to mow.

But anyways, she does a lot of cutting and if there is something else that can
work, I would love to share it with her.

~~~
adrianN
You could replace your lawn with a more natural meadow. You only have to mow
them once a year.

~~~
tomp
What plant would you plant? I heard good things about _Dichondra_ but
unfortunately it doesn’t survive winter freezing / snowing.

~~~
hedora
You could get a native wildflower mix, and seed bomb with that. After a few
years, it’ll settle into patches that of species appropriate for the sun/shade
level, and look more natural. It’ll make the native pollinators and birds
happy too.

~~~
tomp
Sure, but then I might as well plant salad, rosemary etc (i.e. actually useful
plants... along with some species that maintain / improve soil nutrition). In
my view, the main purpose of ground _cover_ is to be able to walk on it...

------
schmichael
Hugelkultur is neat and if it works for you that's great. However there's
little to no rigorous science behind it and traditional raised beds have some
advantages (although some disadvantages).

[http://pubs.cahnrs.wsu.edu/publications/pubs/fs283e/](http://pubs.cahnrs.wsu.edu/publications/pubs/fs283e/)

On a hike the other day I was excited to see "natural hugelkultur" at many
stages of development: fallen trees along the trail at Barlow Wayside near
Portland, OR create earthy berms. You can see every stage of decomposition:
newly fallen trees, fallen trees with ample ferns and seedlings sprouting, and
earthen berms covered in vegetation that are basically hugelkultur.

~~~
minerjoe
The nurse log [1] is well studied and the hugel gets much of it's benefit from
the same ecological processes.

[1][https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nurse_log](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nurse_log)

~~~
schmichael
Ah thanks for the link! I didn't know the term for "natural hugelkultur."

I don't mean to denigrate hugelkultur, rather just point out it's a folk
practice based on mimicking a well understood natural process. Since it's
largely used for hobby farms and gardens where enjoyment is far more important
than yield, it hardly matters whether it's a folk practice or the latest
agtech discovery. Just be careful not to cause drainage issues with all those
berms slowly eroding! Nature can take advantage of that process optimally
while in your yard it might just cause a damper basement.

~~~
asah
Another way to ask this: how does hugelkultur logs/material compare with a
similar volume/mass/cost of other material e.g. traditional soil.

My guess is it does pretty well: traditional soil struggles to retain water,
which can be scarce and even when it's plentiful water is difficult to
optimize for high density gardens, especially urban gardens.

If I understand the hugelkultur design, the sod/straw layer keeps the berm
from eroding.

------
foxhop
I have a 5 year old food forest at my house. I take videos and upload to
YouTube.

Checkout my channel:
[https://m.youtube.com/channel/UC1eySW_9TiI5wnvTnIIw2Nw](https://m.youtube.com/channel/UC1eySW_9TiI5wnvTnIIw2Nw)

I have 5 year old hugelkultur beds and 1 year old beds and everything in
between.

They really do work and are a blast to work with, each one a little bit
different.

If your into this stuff please subscribe as I'm trying to grow my channel over
100 so I can unlock some YouTube platform features which I'm currently blocked
on. (Namely live streaming from my mobile phone)

~~~
thehouseplant
There you go, I am officially subscriber #100. Thanks for taking the time to
make so many informative videos.

~~~
tomcam
Ahh... the perfect symmetry of your user name and your good deed.

------
chmod775
> I had to spend some time with google to find the right spelling.

Well... here goes the nitpicking.

The German word is "Hügelkultur". If you for some reason can't use an Umlaut,
the proper spelling would be "Huegelkultur".

~~~
washicalendar
I don’t blame anyone for not knowing that ü = ue if they don’t speak German,
but if you are/were one of those people who didn’t know this and just ignored
the umlauts altogether (Hügelkultur -> Hugelkultur): the ü and u, ä and a, ö
and o... are all different letters. They are not simply modifications to the
letters a, o, and u. They are different letters entirely, which can also be
represented as ae, oe, and ue. But they are NOT the letters ae, oe, ue, if
that makes sense.

~~~
slim
to be clear they sound different

------
minerjoe
I've help build a few of these, some using heavy machinery. The linked article
is a bit misleading, in its "without irrigation" bit and the time it takes to
get a fully established system. As with almost everything related to nature,
"it depends". In Montana, where the author of the article resides, I've seen
my share of hugels fail miserably without irrigation. For us here, I think the
biggest advantage is the elevated soil temperatures in the spring due to the
steep slope, but with that also comes an irrigation demand.

------
NedFlaymer
Hugelkulture is great. It will jumpstart the soil in even the most degraded of
conditions. It provides time release moisture, the right combination of
fibers, sugars, and micronutrients for fungi and bacteria, and plenty of
spatial complexity for insects and such, which also accelerate the nutrient
cycling process. It all combines synergistically to provide better conditions
for the propagation of biotic life, in general. Though I've run into some
problems with early beds in Brazil. As there are a lot of ants that live in
old trees and love to much on leafy plants. The important thing in this case
is to make sure your wood is completely underground, with no interface
aboveground. If you're patient (as you should be) A healthy soil will, over
the long run, prove to be protropic. Which means that soils improve, and this
can happen because of, rather than in spite of, intensive cultivation.
Important names: Sepp Holzer is an Austrian most responsible for popularizing
this technique. He's known for using macroelements like rocks lakes and cliffs
to create the climactic conditions capable of growing cherries and lemons (in
the Swiss Alps). He also has a very interesting of cultivating (my favorite
way) that is most likened to companion or guild planting, but he doesn't
organize his plantings into neat little rows. He takes a patch of wilderness
and tills it under, then goes out and throws out buckets of seed blends and
leaves it alone. I personally prefer covering it with a banana leaf grass
clippings or mulch cover, during the germination phase. Depends on where you
are and what you are planting. Geoff Lawton did an incredible experiment in
Israel. He greened the desert. He took a bulldozer and built a really long
swale along the slightest slope and mulched it. Then the project ran out of
money so they abandoned it. After a few years he managed to make his way back
and checked on it. He found the mulch was teeming with fungi and mites.
Species no one in living memory had ever seen. There were ducks and chickens
and all kinds of interesting shrubs and fruit bearing trees. He built an oasis
where everyone is running out of water, and resorting to using desalinated
seawater and massive greenhouses to grow food. Check out the video on YouTube.
Geoff Lawton Greening the Desert. Emilia Hazelip has done some interesting
work with raised beds and mulching. With that she manages to keep out the
weeds, control temperature, contain moisture, and accelerated microbiotic
nutrient cycling. I like her work a lot, and have found it most effective.
Another Important people of note is Bill Mollison. We need more people like
this. Following through with their work. Sorry guys but throwing concrete dust
on fields is not a good idea!!!

------
shawnz
The author notes how there are advantages to having the bed raised, like less
irrigation required, but why can't you get the same effect by burying the logs
instead?

~~~
jchmbrln
Also, either way, what kinds of plants can you grow without irrigation or rain
for a full summer? I'm guessing only ones whose roots go deep enough into the
pile?

~~~
minerjoe
Exactly. The apex of the hugel is fruit trees and perennials. with annuals
filling in as they can. Zepp Holzer, the originator of the word, scatters seed
mixes with great numbers of different species while at the same time planting
out many fruit, nut, and other trees.

~~~
NedFlaymer
And what's interesting is that the roots of short and mid height vegetation
join together, creating a dense mat of roots and fibers, that contain a
surprising amount of mostuire. When you combine that with spongy soils, buried
wood, and shade they provide localized cycles of fluids and humidity. Overall
it makes for much more resilient and productive food systems. Though you have
to pay more attention to what you are doing.

If you plant one by one, neatly spaced apart, you won't have this type of
nutrient cycling and moisture uptake.

------
llamataboot
Can also accomplish the same thing (on a shorter timeframe) with lasagna
raised beds. I have been using layers of grass clippings and leaves as the
bottom 60% or so of my raised beds when new (and then adding some layers over
the next years) for a while now, and the plants seem to do almost ridiculously
well with no weeding and no fertilization required.

~~~
llamataboot
[https://www.bbg.org/gardening/article/make_a_lasagna_garden_...](https://www.bbg.org/gardening/article/make_a_lasagna_garden_in_a_raised_bed)

------
biztos
I wonder:

1\. Is this effective without "sod," i.e. can you just shovel your local dirt
onto it?

2\. Would it work with wood chips?

The second point is interesting to me because I know someone who's about to
come into a large quantity of 100% organic natural pine chips and has no idea
what to do with them, other than pay someone to take them to the dump.

~~~
markdown
Wood chips would work better for the short term, but for long-term use (on the
scale of 1-3 decades), using logs would be better.

~~~
aliswe
Hugelbeds are said to be "needed" of rebuilding in about 3 years before their
production efficiency deteriorates

Edit: That said I agree with the short term distinction for wood chips.

Edit 2: I'm guessing the 3 year thing comes from the breaking down of
everything except the logs.

------
blisterpeanuts
Hügelkultur is fascinating. Early this year, my kid and I built an 8'x4'x2'
Hügelkultur raised bed for vegetables. We're fortunate to have some fallen
trees and rotting logs in the back of the yard, and we were able to fill the
first foot of the bed with this debris, then regular soil and compost.

The plants are thriving and producing plenty of edibles, and now I'm thinking
about building a second one.

The most interesting discovery is that the bed seems not to require much
moisture. I was watering it every day for a while, until it seemed that it was
turning into a big mud pit, so I stopped, and the plants have continued to
thrive.

I also built a drip irrigation system into the bed, very easy to do actually,
but have not turned it on for the same reason. The ecosystem seems to retain
water and is not draining moisture into the ground nearly as much as I first
anticipated.

If you build a raised bed, it's a good idea to put in 1/4" (1 cm) metal mesh
at the bottom and up the sides a bit, to discourage burrowing creatures. Then
add a layer of cardboard (old pizza boxes or shipping boxes work fine),
followed by your Hügelkultur logs and branches, and finally some decent
organic raised bed soil and quality compost.

Another lesson: this system is _heavy._ Make sure you use strong wood and
solid construction techniques. To do it again, I would add more reinforcing
beams, because a couple of the side panels are starting to bulge a bit. I will
be patching them with struts later this year, probably.

Another interesting discovery: Hügelkultur is conducive to slime molds. I
noticed this weird, alien life form appearing overnight and had to ask in a
gardening forum: yellowish domes of soft, fungus-like stuff. It turns out to
be Fuligo septica, commonly known as dog vomit slime mold (any players of Hack
out there?). It's harmless and even beneficial, but looks horrible.

I've started using Hügelkultur in my patio buckets and ceramic pots as well;
half the pot gets the rotting sticks, then top it off with dirt. Thus far,
these pots are doing very well.

In this era of uncertainty, growing your own food is a great idea, and it's
good to see such brilliant ideas as Hügelkultur and square-foot gardening
being widely disseminated.

Probably next year we're getting chickens.

1\.
[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fuligo_septica](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fuligo_septica)

------
foxhop
On a small scale you can try hugelkultur in a pot. Works great for nursery
baby trees. The baby trees root I to the log and use it to regulate water and
also form relationships with the fungi decomposing the wood. Use plenty of
Compost.

------
carapace
Random shot-in-the-dark here but does anyone have any land within 3-4 hours
drive of SF on which they would like to try out these techniques? Hügelkultur
and "eco-mimetic" horticulture generally?

~~~
sentientforest
Yes, actually.

I live due east of the SF Bay Area in the Sierra Foothills. Per Google Maps
right now it's only 2 and half hours by car, realistically it's typically at
least a 3 hour trip or so to make it out here.

I have been working remotely as a software developer out here since 2014, when
I left the Bay Area and my commute behind. My property is a little over two
acres.

I got into permaculture right around the time we moved. I have yet to try
Hügelkultur specifically but am working on establishing a food forest and
various other perennial systems. It's slow going - there are challenges to
this climate and elevation that I certainly didn't face in the mild climate of
the SF Bay Area. Our summers are very hot and irrigation is pretty critical.
But working outdoors on the weekends and PTO days is actually a very welcome
change from being in front of a screen all day.

Living here the past six years, I have learned tons about what works and what
doesn't on this property.

If you want to hear more, seriously reach out - there should be a pointer to
my LinkedIn and an email in my HN profile.

~~~
carapace
That's awesome! I didn't see an email in your profile but I sent you a message
on LinkedIn. My email is via hushmail.com, username sforman. I'd love to hear
more.

------
sidpatil
Composting is one of the most fascinating and useful technologies in
existence—it is an environmentally-friendly method for organic waste
management, resulting in a product with uses in agriculture, land/water
management, and environmental remediation. I don't know why we don't do much
more of it.

~~~
aidos
I’m only just starting to get into gardening and we have a lot of garden waste
to try to deal with (including a lot left by the previous owners). In the last
few places I’ve lived, the previous occupants have always left a big pile of
garden waste and it’s just sat there. Turns out you actually need to put in
some effort to make compost - it’s really a big organic system that needs
nurturing. Also, it does take a long time; months to years, apparently - but
I’m not quite there yet so I’m no expert.

~~~
alexose
There are so many opinions on how to compost that it can be hard to know where
to start!

In this gardener's opinion, however, Charles Dowdings' teachings on compost
are absolutely fantastic:
[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Kf6CGj7xpFE](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Kf6CGj7xpFE)

------
sigmaprimus
In my experience when I build a new garden by hand on land that was freshly
cleared, a hugelkultur like row will develop naturally. I normally plant
strawberries in it.

When I start working the soil either by tilling and or raking I always end up
with lots of roots and dead branches that get moved to the out side edge of
the garden into a long pile or edge row of sorts.

Rather than haul it away, I rake a bit of decent soil overtop of all it and
plant away.

It's almost as easy as the "Ruth Stout method", I'm not sure I would ever put
the work into hauling logs and other materials from one area to another just
to bury them. It's a great concept that probably works. I'm just not sure it's
worth the "HugeL" amount of work over just bringing in compost in the
beginning and top dressing (Which I have to do for weed control anyways) each
year.

------
aliswe
Does anyone have ideas on what to do in a desert climate? I would love to try
a variation on this in Saudi Arabia. I've read much about this but since it's
on HN I might as well throw it out there, you often get unexpected expert
input here.

Edit: I'm thinking of doing the hugelbed but kinda upside down, under ground.

~~~
splittingTimes
I think you need a more encompassing approach. Permaculture might be something
for you. They have developed specialized techniques for all climate zones.

For example check out the "Greening the desert" project.

[https://youtu.be/2xcZS7arcgk](https://youtu.be/2xcZS7arcgk)

~~~
aliswe
I really dislike the idea of continuously having to water in order to keep
plants alive. If that will be the case, I feel it's not worth doing.

I mean that's the case none of these projects have REALLY taken off at scale.

------
lukasfischer
Nice! So many gardeners and permaculture enthusiasts on hn. Fun to read the
comments. #gardeningnerds

------
projomni
we've done a similar experiment--because our garden is on a hill, we created
step-like 'beds' for veggies and fruit to grow. the results have been
phenomenal so far. the only problem is, moles like this place too... so we've
been battling them. highly recommended.

~~~
kjsthree
Definitely do whatever you want with your land but thought I’d throw in my two
cents on moles.

I gave up worrying about them after learning about all the good they do
(aerating, eating grubs that turn into beetles that do harm my garden, etc).
Turns out they don’t bother me at all. I live out in the woods though and
don’t have a showy lawn.

~~~
foxhop
Same here, my garden with raised half-finished hugelkultur is teaming with
life: moles, voles, and chipmunks.

As soon as that happened the birds of prey started hanging out. Since my cat
passed last year, a large 5 foot black snake has filled the void as the top
preditor. (No worries it's a constrictor! Not venomous!)

------
gdubs
I’ve been considering hugelkultur as one option for the massive amount of
poplar we will soon have on our hands. It’s taking over, and a hazard to our
structures, so it’s gotta come down. (We’ll replace with more appropriate
trees.) My one concern is that the poplar will simply start sprouting again.
It root-suckers, aggressively.

One other thing to note is that if you do anything on a slope, it would be
wise to at least _chat_ with a structural engineer about it. I’ve heard tale
of people building hugel mounds on contour / swales, and basically creating
landslide conditions.

Edit: another thing I’m curious is how advantageous the water retention
actually is. A lot of species really want a lot of drainage, and won’t survive
with wet feet.

~~~
dendroverse
To reduce root suckers cut the tree in the fall and apply an herbicide to the
cut. The root system will pull the herbicide as it would have the carbon from
the leaves. This will kill the root system and suckers.

~~~
gdubs
Sure, but then you’ve got tree-killing herbicide in hour hugel-mound...

------
brainzap
Hügelkultur

~~~
everybodyknows
Hügel: hill or mound

[https://www.collinsdictionary.com/dictionary/german-
english/...](https://www.collinsdictionary.com/dictionary/german-
english/hugel)

~~~
contingencies
I wonder if there are any cultures that _aren 't_ associated with hills?

------
seotut2
The juxtaposition of diesel tractors and permaculture seems a bit weird to me.
Wasn't the point of permaculture to make it more sustainable, less resource
intensive and less environmentally destructive? If you already have tractors
and heavy machinery, intensive agriculture is within reach.

~~~
mahaganapati
To your point, I would say that the machinery has a negligible impact compared
to the benefits of permaculture, and if makes permaculture more productive
without greater risk, then it seems good. That is, we shouldn't have some kind
of Luddite purist view of permaculture - it should be practicable. Things like
this help to break the stereotype that permaculture is just hippies chanting
in a field that conventional agriculture proponents seem to believe and do
perpetuate.

~~~
foxhop
Affirmative, use the best tools for your context, especially when those tools
were used to destroy the natural system that used to be there. (My land was
filled with stone and gravel with 4-6 inches of soil ontop using machines...)

Use any means nessasary to move the current system into one that will self-
renew and self replicate.

That's permaculture. Set into motion a permanent self-renewing system!

------
koonsolo
It's a nice theory, but in practice I see an issue with water.

I have a raised part in my garden (just dirt, no wood below it), and the
bushes on there have a hard time growing, simply because that hill is really
terrible at collecting water.

~~~
foxhop
Hills are amazing at collecting water. You need to build swales on contour
with the land (typically I fill my swales with woodchips and they become
walking paths.

The dirt and turf that is removed from building the swale goes on the lower
side so you end up having double the topsoil in a bed the same length as the
swale to grow food in.

Additionally because you have a hill, you may capture water in a reservoir
(home made rain barrels) and then use common rubber hose (can be broken/found
freely) to transport water around the property with just gravity.

------
ed25519FUUU
One thing I don’t understand is wouldn’t burins large amounts of wood increase
the nitrogen requirement is the soil? It seems to me that the soil would want
to break down the wood as fast as possible.

------
orasis
Hugelkultur is a nice idea until you try to plant something the subsequent
year - you can’t dig because there are still too many damn sticks.

~~~
jagger27
I don’t see the problem if you’re just planting small seedlings or doing
direct sowing.

~~~
orasis
It's not a problem if thats all you'll ever do with that piece of real estate.
The tradeoff is future flexibility.

------
AdrianB1
I see many countries jumping to idea of such gardens, they can get more in
property taxes for the surface than a flat one.

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chrisjarvis
Does anyone know why you don't have to water it? I didn't understand that from
the article.

~~~
chrisjarvis
if anyone sees this: wikipedia answers: "Hügelkultur is the practice of
burying large volumes of wood to increase soil water retention. The porous
structure of wood acts as a sponge when decomposing underground. During the
rainy season, masses of buried wood can absorb enough water to sustain crops
through the dry season"

------
fluffernutter
This will become useful for my move away from the Bay.

------
carapace
The forums there are lively and civil.

