IN THE GARDEN
How to make good use of scrub
I
f you have lots of spare
prunings and excess wood
from tree trimming
activities, and are tired of
bending down to tend and
harvest vegetables and plants,
try Hugelkultur, a type of no-
dig raised beds with a
difference. Hugelkulture hold
moisture, build fertility,
maximise surface volume and
are great spaces for growing
fruit, vegetables and herbs.
Hugelkultur, pronounced
Hoo-gul-culture, means hill
culture or hill mound.
Instead of putting branches,
leaves and grass clippings on
to your compost hea p build a
hugel bed. Simply mound
logs, branches, leaves, grass
clippings, straw, cardboard,
newsprint, manure, compost
or whatever other biomass
you have available, top with
soil and plant your vegetable
In praise of Hugelkultur
down turf. On top of the turf
add grass clippings, seaweed,
seedlings in the resultant
you may never need to water compost, aged manure, straw,
mound.
your hugel bed again after the green leaves, mulch, etc . A dd
first year (except during long
The advantages of a hugel
a layer of soil and proceed
term droughts).
bed are many, including:
with more clippings, com-
K Hugel beds sequester
K The gradual decay of
post, manure etc. This
carbon into the soil.
wood in the depths of the
constitutes sheet mulching
bed is a consistent source of
To build a hugel bed on
(also called lasagne garden-
long-term nutrients for the
previous sod lawn cut out the ing) and is like composting in
plants. A large bed might give sod, digging a 30cm deep
place. And here's a refine-
out a constant supply of
trench and filling the trench
ment to the sheet mulching
nutrients for 20 years (or even with logs and branches. Then layers. Nitrogen-rich material
longer if you use only
cover the logs with the upside
Continued on page 30
hardwoods). The composting
wood also generates heat
which should extend the
growing season.
K Soil aeration in