A Florida hugelkultur bed? Can it be?
I was visiting my friend Cathy a couple months ago and had to take pictures of her latest project… a big hugelkultur bed right in the Florida sand. I’m just now getting around to posting them. Check this out:
Can you tell what’s going on? She had a fellow with a tractor dig a big old trench in an “L” shape, then pile it up with tree waste. Next thing that will happen is the dirt on the left will be dumped back on top and… HUGELKULTUR!
I’m curious to see how this gardening method works in Florida. As much as I keep fiddling around with varying experiments, I haven’t created a full-on hugelkultur bed yet (though this one is close). I’m usually short on tree debris and time.
Good luck, Cathy… can’t wait to see what happens and how you do with your Florida hugelklutur bed!
NOTE: For a good article on the “hugelkultur” method, check this out.
8 responses to “A massive Florida hugelkultur bed in progress”
YEAH! That IS a great size! I have several going now that are awesome for my seminole pumpkins and have several in progress…I feel like they actually don't take that much time, since all the stuff I'm piling in there has to be dealt with in some manner anyway! I LOVE them for Florida since our sandy soils are difficult to improve on a large scale basis, and I think they look really cool as well.
Glad they're working for you. I bet they don't last nearly as long here as they would up north, but anything that gets that much organic matter into the sand can't be bad.
Using trimmings from my jungle every 3 months I could make quite the hugel pile! Add in the dead tree that smashed our back fence line a few weeks go, and I'd be good for two hugel piles. But where to find free dirt? Then it hit me! Duh! Like your double digging method, I could strategically dig up one area of the yard, toss the "cough" dirt (aka sand/clay/shells) on the pile, go up the street for free mulch, buy a bag of peat, and voila! Dirty soil. Then next round of jungle trimming I can use the "dirt hole" for the next kugel pile. Boy have I got a lot of work to do. But I'm excited!
Those beds look really nice, seems like a nice option where burning is prohibited, but… wouldn't those hills be difficult to grow anything? Every bit of moisture would percolate away…
At my house… I pile up some brush (in the middle of the garden), and then pile weeds on top for a couple a years… and then level the pile a bit… leaving the good stuff several inches deep to prevent weed seed germination over a large area… Seems to be working out… Still need to take pics…
[…] into the chicken run. When all the leaves fall off, pull the branches out again and throw them into a hugelkultur mound, turn them into biochar, or use them for rocket stove […]
[…] into the chicken run. When all the leaves fall off, pull the branches out again and throw them into a hugelkultur mound, turn them into biochar, or use them for rocket stove […]
Any updates on this?
I visited her place in March – she’s covered all the material over and has planted trees and shrubs. Looks good right now, but not as advanced as I would have liked to see. I think it sat unburied for a long, long time.