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Raised Garden Bed-Hugelkulture

Plant Lady· Uncategorized

5 May

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Come along as we build a raised garden bed in the Hugelkulture fashion. Most hugelkulture mounds are made right on the ground, but that would not be allowed in our neighborhood so we built a box to contain the mound. The word may be hard to pronounce, but the theory behind it is easy.

hugelkulture garden bed

The base of the mound is made from hardwoods, then covered with limbs, grass clippings and leaves. Basically any organic material that will break down is good.

Over the years the bed will retain moisture as the wood will absorb water and then release it as the beds dry. Less watering for me and better for water conservation! The bed also provides its own compost as the wood and organic material breaks down and releases nutrients back into the soil after the first year.

We mixed topsoil and garden compost for this first year because the wood pulls nitrogen out of the soil as it starts to breakdown. In subsequent years the material will release all those nutrients back into the soil will not require much fertilizer to produce lots of veggies!

Hugelkulture garden bed

Steps to fill your raised hugelkulture bed

  1. Lay plastic up the sides of your bed if there is space between the boards and dirt is likely to fall out of the cracks.
  2. Fill the bottom of the bed with limbs, rotting wood, leaves and grass clippings.
  3. Fill with topsoil and compost mixed together. In the coming years you won’t have to add much compost because of the organic material already added.
  4. OVERFILL-the dirt will absolutely settle so much more than you think to fill in the spaces between the limbs.
  5. Mulch the bed to help with moisture retention and bug prevention.
Raised Bed Garden

Benefits of Hugelkulture

  1. Longer growing season because all the decomposing material provides warmth.
  2. Increased water retention, decreased water usage, especially in the future.
  3. Decreased need for compost in the future
  4. Use wood and materials that otherwise would just go to waste

This is the year of raised beds at our house. We just finished a raised herb garden bed as well. Click here to see that post!

Video Tutorial

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Thanks for reading along. If you have any questions, feel free to reach out!

Em 🙂

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Comments

  1. Aly says

    May 7, 2020 at 1:08 pm

    I had no idea you could fill the bottom of a garden bed with wood, what a great idea over rocks!

    • Emily says

      May 7, 2020 at 9:03 pm

      Aly, the first time I watched a video where they did this, I thought they were crazy! Then as I looked into it I realized how smart the theory behind the process was. 🙂

  2. Jana says

    May 7, 2020 at 1:49 pm

    Fantastic! We’ll be doing this, too. Thank you so much for the tutorial.

    • Emily says

      May 7, 2020 at 9:04 pm

      Jana,
      You are so welcome! I can’t wait to see your beds as well. Hopefully we all have massive gardens in a few months.

  3. Amy says

    May 7, 2020 at 2:43 pm

    Love this, Emily! I like that this extends the gardening season. Perfect for where I live!

    • Emily says

      May 7, 2020 at 9:02 pm

      Thank you, Amy! Me too! I’m so jealous of Joanna Gaines gardens already this year. Kinda hard to compare our weather with hers though! I’m so ready for leafy greens overflowing the garden bed.

  4. Elise says

    May 7, 2020 at 6:29 pm

    I love these raised beds! They look great too!

    • Emily says

      May 7, 2020 at 9:01 pm

      Thank you, Elise!

  5. Anja says

    May 8, 2020 at 2:24 am

    I should know this because it comes from Germany (Hügelbeet) and I think my grandparents used this method. So cool, I should have put wood at the bottom of our raised garden beds!

So glad you’re here!

Hi! I’m Emily, wife, coffee addict, project lover. Follow along for how-to’s, breakdown of power tools, décor inspiration and courage to overcome your fear and self doubt to accomplish the projects you had in mind. Read more about me here.

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