This sounds rather unorthodox to me even though it’s been done for thousands of years and it is just laying a bunch of sticks, branches, logs and other wood-like things on the ground, burying it somewhat with compost, soil and dirt, and then planting vegetables on top.

What is this? It’s “hugelkultur” and links to articles on it have been showing up in my Facebook feed quite a lot these past few weeks and so I’m thinking that Someone is suggesting for whatever reason known only to Him that should I try it. Or it is Springtime and many of my friends are open to innovative gardening methods and it is the workings of probability and coincidence. Or both.

I’d never heard of hugelkultur prior to this month. The following article is a popular reference, quoted and propagated (a gardening term! HA!) by others, complete with images depicting the progression of the hugelkultur plot through the years: hugelkultur: the ultimate raised garden beds from RichSoil.

The next picture is NOT of my hugelkutur plot, it is courtesy of Grow Your Own Fruits and Vegetables UK but it most closely resembles what mine might look like if I tried and didn’t horribly mess it up. It looks very successful, is relatively modest and quite do-able. (I did a Google Images search for “hugelkultur.”)

A Facebook friend mentioned a story of a Zimbabwe man who was banished to live on an almost barren hilltop by Robert Mugabe. He had to either farm it or starve. He hugelkutured and lived.

Here’s another blogger’s hugelkultur efforts, with good lessons: Slowlyspreadingandsinking

I love the quote from the Rich Soil article above: “It’s a german word and some people can say it all german-ish. I’m an american doofus, so I say “hoogle culture”. I had to spend some time with google to find the right spelling. Hugal, hoogal, huegal, hugel …. And I really like saying it out loud: “hugelkultur, hoogle culture, hoogal kulture ….” – it could be a chant or something.”

That inspired me to go around for a while just saying “hugelkultur, hoogle culture, hoogal kulture ….” I thought, “This is another way for me to be annoying around the house,” until my wife essentially ignored it. No fun being annoying if the effort is wasted. 😉

We do have tons of wood lying about the land. We had a rougher than usual Winter this past year (sorry I didn’t document it here) and there’s plenty of material about. You do have to be careful as to what kinds of wood that you use; some woods consume a lot of nitrogen while decomposing. Nitrogen is necessary for many plants and vegetables

Like I said earlier regarding the vegetable garden that’s planned, I …may…post…a photographic record of my hugelkultur patch.

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