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#Post#: 857--------------------------------------------------
Hugelasagnardening
By: Uncle Bob Date: March 11, 2014, 7:58 am
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Hugelkulture is the practice of burying logs and sticks semi
below ground and mounding soil over the top of this woodpile
then growing vegetables on this mound. It is meant to produce
healthy and abundant plants and produce with little to no
watering required, even in dry conditions.
I would be skeptical of this claim as too good to be true or a
practical joke played on the first of april except for one piece
of experience. A large bush/tree around 5 metres tall, which was
pruned regularly because of having much healthy growth and was
basically never watered. This big bush/tree was exposed to
howling dry wind much of the year as well, in full sun much of
the day but always thrived. I noticed after hearing of
Hugelkulture that the roots of this big bush/tree were on one
side fusing into an old and rotted big stump sort of under the
big bush/tree, so this had been planted right next to the stump
cut close to the ground of what was once a huge oak tree but was
well rotted by the time I noticed.
The fact this big bush/tree had managed to thrive in such tough
windy and dry conditions needing pruning at least once a year
without watering made me think maybe the hugelkulture effect of
roots accessing rotting wood really works. It also made me think
that the Hugelkulture (hk) effect is not just for vegetables
and small plants but also good for trees.
The problem in Australia with using hk is about all the native
trees are Eucalytpts also known as gum trees, and these contain
oils or some sort of chemical that retards other plant growth
around them and makes them take a very long time to break down.
Where I used to live the trees were mostly Jarrah "Honkynut"
trees and although that is a red coloured hardwood used for
building and timber industry, expensive these days, It is not
really heavy and does get eaten by termites from my observation.
There are 3 main types of trees I have where I live now in
Tasmania. Huge Eucalypts, many already cut down from clearing
and in huge log piles, these being a metre / 4 or 5 feet
diameter trunks, some even larger. These take several decades to
even begin to break down and only in the centre of the trunk not
on the outside, this seems to happen even when the trees are
still alive with leaves on as they get very old. These big trees
are known just as "Tasmanian Hardwood", which is a dark grey you
can buy but is expensive. It is clear that it was not always
expensive and was formerly found very plentiful. People still
burn it for firewood, at around 100$ a ute (pickup) or small
trailer load, but I suspect most people just know someone with a
chainsaw and get it free or cheap.
Anyway just buying planks for building supply of this is now
expensive. All the small shacks, hardly big enough to call
houses that previous generations lived in were all made from
this wood. They are still standing all over the place, 100 years
old or so, tiny two room shacks long abandoned but still
standing because the wood does not rot. I will get around to
taking pictures of some of these to post on up.
Where at least slightly larger basic or bigger houses have been
built from this wood people often see no need to keep it
painted, again because it does not rot like most wood. That
makes it useless for hk then as you want the wood to rot under
the soil and roots of your plants. The bark however does seem to
break down when it is in the dirt and exposed to wetting after a
while, like in a draining area I see it gets soft unlike the
wood itself which is rock hard.
I have a lot of Wattyl trees but these are full of oils as well
and would not be suitable for the hk. I have pine trees too,
mainly on one hill side where it is a lot more rocky, most are
healthy but a few are dead here and there so I will use those.
Pine is fine for hk.
I could go to hardware stores and buy sacks of pine bark for
around 5-10$ bag, but I dont see anyone on utube or doomstead
diner doing that and plus factoring driving to the nearest small
city 2 hours away and probably finding they have only 10 sacks
there since they were not expecting anyone to come and take 30
odd, its probably not that much more time/work to pick up all
the wood and bark around the property and break it up. Mainly
also because I want to minimize my exhaust emissions as much as
possible.
I did have to burn some diesel to pick up a load of hay but
everything else was sourced right on site. As the title of this
topic suggests, this experimental method of gardening
incorporates hk as well as lasagna layers. Heres a series of
pictures showing how I compiled it for planting trees in: As
agelbert is currently AWOL/MIA hes not around to help fix the
picture embedding, so Im afraid you will have to click on the
links.
1 This is the only component that I had to go out of my way to
get. Load of hay from far away..
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#Post#: 870--------------------------------------------------
Re: Hugelasagnardening
By: Surly1 Date: March 12, 2014, 5:43 am
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This is one fascinating thread, UB. I don't know anything about
hugelkulture, but it makes sense. Hopefully you'll keep us
updated as to the progress of your trees.
#Post#: 871--------------------------------------------------
Re: Hugelasagnardening
By: AGelbert Date: March 26, 2014, 7:30 pm
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PP said, [quote][b] It also made me think that the Hugelkulture
(hk) effect is not just for vegetables and small plants but also
good for trees.
[/b][/quote]
It is a pleasure to listen to the thoughts of a true scientist
at work.
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