Field Notes: Hügelkultur(ish)

Video Notes:
Some good reasons not to build hugel-swales on contour: permaculturene...
How to potentially mitigate these concerns and properly implement design: permaculturene...
Interesting convo in this space for rule-breakers: permies.com/t/...
More considerations: midwestpermacu...

[@brucea550]

‘Mosh pit for plants’ should inspire a tee shirt or something! That idea is so awesome- both funny and logical. I just started doing hugelkultur raised beds (not mounded) a couple years ago and it’s been an excellent experience so far. Lots of junk aspen (poplar) here which rots quickly, and gets delivered to me for free. The worms LOVE it so you know it’s a good idea! Worms are the soil geniuses. The tall mounding of hugels is a Sepp Holzer thing, not sure it really matters all that much unless a berm suits your growing needs. I do have one 5’ tall mound which is oriented north-south, so the east side has lettuces, peas and peppers which prefer morning sun and cooler temps, and the west side has beans and squash which like the heat of the afternoon. The top has tomatoes, sunflowers and pumpkins. But interspersed are potatoes, carrots, beets, onions.... It’s an integrated neighborhood for sure, and likely on the cusp of being a mosh pit!

[@VeronicaFlores]

LOVE IT! And good to know about the height bit. I always thought it went back further than Sepp, but I like to keep this sort of stuff flexible to case-by-case needs.

[@Zbyhonj]

I'm a metalhead gardener and from this day onward I'll only ever refer to my garden beds as "plant moshpits." Thank you for everything you do, but namely for this expression :D (Also for the Thunderdome.)

[@johnwarfield7742]

Hi V, I marvel at how our garden focus' overlap !! I have had an area of my lower garden that actually gets quite wet (usually in early Spring) so this year I decided to build raised beds, with landscape timbers, in that area. I filled the lower section of the beds with punky logs and brush , some leaves and grass trimmings and will top it this fall with soils and chicken coup dirt ..... I guess it is a "Raised Hugelkulter" garden ... : ) Best of luck, and keep 'em comin' !

[@VeronicaFlores]

Nice! I did something similar in my raised beds in LA years ago and loved the results from it. 🙂

[@alyssagibson799]

I love your gardening approach. Let plants be themselves-yes! Makes for an easier gardening experience and definitely interesting! I’ve struggled with this in the past. Today as I was watering my garden I kept getting a message from the garden to let it grow wild. So that’s what we will do.

[@VeronicaFlores]

Always amazed by how they're able to guide us, if we're just willing to listen. ❤️

[@MrBobthephilosopher]

Fascinating! My raised beds hugelkulture have worked out totally differently to what I'd planned. Having prepared the beds with logs, leaf mulch, soil and garden compost I was getting ready to sow. Then, the seeds from the compost decided to grow and I just let them. As a consequence, this year is a big experiment! The plants that have come up are so much healthier than the ones I've been sowing and potting on. It's all a mixed bag in the same space: potatoes, squashes, tomatoes and...unknown. Something to be said for just letting the plants do their thing !

[@VeronicaFlores]

Totally agree! I'm all about letting the plants guide me - have learned so much more this way, about working with them and what they need. 🙂

[@tigerstrings]

I'm glad you are still posting !!! I have learned a lot watching your videos

[@VeronicaFlores]

Thanks for joining! 🙂

[@ellenblumhardt3145]

I'm really loving your videos! Currently binge watching them. :-) I'd love it if you did a video about how you learned what you know about permaculture and just your background in general.

[@VeronicaFlores]

Thank you! Adding it to the list!

[@paulbrodie331]

Didn’t know there was a name for this approach. After my intentional planting this year I took all the remaining seeds, mixed them up, and spread them around the perimeter of my garden, just to use the seeds and see what happens. So far I have a bunch of corn and lettuces and radishes growing beautifully together. I’ll have to study the mosh pit approach more

[@kc3621]

Wow you're still here and active! I ran into you about a year and a half ago...your pepper pruning video. It was a huge leap in my pepper growing evolution. So happy you're going strong and have now subscribed.😀😄👍👍👍 And this video gives me ideas for a bare spot on my lawn. It's bare because of pine needles, about an 1/8 of an inch deep. I've thought of doing this in the past but never went past that...but this video inspired me. Thanks.

[@Sundayhandwound]

I’m in middle Georgia, red clay, lots of runoff, gardening on a mild slope that is north facing for 85% of the space, but turns east and south east at the far end. I have alternating swales and hugels down the hill on our garden on 20 foot spacing, the swales on contour and the hugels basically mirroring them but with a slight angle and broken into sections so there is no danger of over saturation and a slide during heavy rains. We can get 1-2” in a day when it gets going steady and it’s coming from the gulf. All the swales have an overflow on the ends where they will fill the next lower one, bypassing the end of the hugel. I’m 2 years in and will probably dig new trench on the leading edge of all the hugels in the autumn and I’ll restock the logs so to speak, as mine have all subsided from about 36” high at construction down to as low as 12” along the crown in some places now. I experimented with small wattle fences around a few this year as a barrier to the grass, and to help mulch stay put, seems to be working well to keep the chickens and rabbits out too vs board sides on some raised beds. Where they are having lots of fun! I had 8” of wood chips on top as a mulch last year, fire ants loved it and the grasses did too, I couldn’t get it deep enough without it just rolling down the sides and baring the crown over the length of the season. This year more intensive plantings if many things and more of a Ruth Stout/straw mulch approach has really cut down on ants, and it seems to stay put on the berms better. I’m using wood chips more in the walkways now on the uphill side of everything and top dressing with compost that the chickens have helped to break down, really makes the wood chips break down much quicker and soil conditions underneath are really getting nice, very wormy, lots of fungi. From what it looks like you are doing great with it. I’m trying to develop the first half of the garden this way, orchard planted in swale berms, alpine strawberries on hugels and swales as ground cover, garlic, walking onions, rabbiteye blueberries, Swiss chard, peppers, cilantro, basil, dill, zinnia, butterfly bush, crimson clover, rosemary, lettuces, all thriving in that space. I have some corn on a hugel too with sweet potato on the downhill side and fingerlings on the uphill side, that is all working out ok too and the corn seems much happier than in flat ground when things get real wet, I think the drainage and self regulating moisture level is helping immensely. I am going to try and get be more thing in the fall, basically a keyhole garden idea, but with hugel as the circle and citrus in the middle. I’m really curious to see if the heat of decomposing wood in the hugel is enough to protect the citrus when it gets below freezing here. Maybe a fleece teepee over the top? Just an idea. As usual, great info and great to see so many others trying out an approach that could be left alone a bit more to just decide what it’s gonna do! magnolia_hill_eatonton on IG

[@VeronicaFlores]

Thanks! This is sort of along the lines of what I was thinking - using broken up hugels slighty off contour to not create a logslide down slope when it pours. Good to know about the ants! 😳

[@jacobatz1]

I utilized storm damage and used difficult to split wood buried into forest edge and planted fruit trees among it 3rd year in and fruit trees and native plantings are thriving Underlying soil is hard packed clay Whenever starting new raised beds I always start off with rotten wood Mycelium is life Happy gardening One love Peace

[@Jshenesey97]

Great channel...Just started my first real garden this year and have picked up a lot of great tips from you. Thank you for sharing your knowledge.

[@VeronicaFlores]

Thanks for joining! 🙂

[@SmallGardenQuest]

Talking about hugelkultur beds and all I am thinking is how I would love to build this beautiful natural fence :) Nice work Veronica!

[@VeronicaFlores]

Thank you! It's a work in progress- had to do something to keep the dogs out! It's nice to have a few weird little creative outlets to work on here and there whenever I need to decompress, esp when they serve a good purpose. (The bare spot at the top is where the doggos dug up and rolled in my baby melons a few weeks ago... they're just lucky they're cute. :P)

[@defaultuser1447]

@@VeronicaFlores I was reading about he evolution of dogs, including "puppy eyes" to make them more endearing to humans.

[@davidniemi6553]

Love the new video -- faster-paced, you are very energetic and confident and throwing around words I had to look up! Peppers would seem at a disadvantage in the Thunderdome setting -- they are perennial plants north of their native range, while tomatoes are designed to be annuals even where they come from, and germinate and grow a lot faster. Wile there is pretty regular rainfall here, I have slope and excess rain to deal with so I can see a benefit. I have vast quantities of rotting wood around, will have to try this somewhere I can protect from deer. Speaking of which, are the branches around your experiment to keep your dogs from digging there or something else? I'm sure dogs are far less troublesome than deer or even foxes, but at least our foxes keep rabbits away.

[@defaultuser1447]

I don't think so. Tomatoes are non-hardy perennials. If you have the right conditions, an indeterminant will keep growing.

[@davidniemi6553]

@@defaultuser1447 On further review, you're right -- indeterminates can last 2-3 years in a tropical climate, even though I rarely see them even last all the way through summer. Meanwhile, peppers are perennials down to around freezing or a bit below, and can grow into long-lasting shrubs in the right climate, and take their time doing it. Also, tomatoes are a single species, while peppers are dozens of species, all edible, even though only one species accounts for nearly all commercial production.

[@defaultuser1447]

@@davidniemi6553 And all durn tasty.

[@VeronicaFlores]

Thank you! I've found that peppers direct sown catch up a lot faster than most people expect, but these weren't super rare varieties so I'm not all that concerned with them being at a "disadvantage" so to speak, esp since they tend to function rather well as understory plants. I will possibly transplant a few if they're doing well and just getting really choked out though. 😬

[@VeronicaFlores]

Oh! The branches are a fence I'm building to keep the doggos out. They're big fans of playing king of the mountain on anything remotely hilly (hence the big empty spot in the middle.) 😂

[@Shavenerd53119]

Love you, love your garden, love your videos! You're my favorite gardening channel to watch 😁

[@ricklindblade6509]

Is it just me or is she just drop dead beautiful?

[@Xerox482]

ya beauty

[@brucea550]

Veronica is insanely attractive, and that’s before even discussing physical beauty. Her mind is absolutely gorgeous!

[@shawnlandry9287]

All around beautiful. !!

[@eaglewolfff]

On a scale of 1 to 10, she's an 11 !

[@Lalfy]

I like the Thunderdome title. A true test of survival of the fittest. You'll naturally end up with stronger cultivars.

[@VeronicaFlores]

That's the plan! And with less work too, which I always appreciate. :)

[@jerseyknits]

We planted a garden in the same manner. We took all seeds from years past, put them all in a bucket, stirred it around and planted in rows. We called it our "Pot of Gold" garden because we planted it on St. Patricks Day.

[@VeronicaFlores]

I bet it's a riot of plants now! 😍

[@deanfuller1702]

Doing my 1st hugleculter this year. Onething I notice, some things did awesone, others did not. Squash zucchini has done great. My peppers are struggling. Need water a lot. Perennial flowers doing well. Don't water them. We've had quite a bit of rain to now. I think I over munched the top, causing a roof effect. Dry top. Also my mulch kinda got mixed in with the soil I put on top. Causing some root rot. Gonna work on it more. Much potential.

[@deanfuller1702]

Oh yeah, good videos, thank you.

[@VeronicaFlores]

Thanks! Yeah I meant to mention (was sure I did but it was in a longer not as well thought out take lol) that hugels really take 2-3 years minimum to get going, and at least 3-4 if you're using larger logs/less soil/don't get much rainfall. The first year with them is always the trickiest... agreed that squash love them though! :)

[@bobandkaren2011]

I've been studying Permaculture and applying the concepts to our property in Virginia for a few years now. We have several hugel beds that are in there 2nd year. They are steeper than yours. I did not dig down but rather laid the logs and branches on top and then covered with leaves, compost, soil, and mulch. The first year was just ok. This year the vegetables are doing better. I suspect that the wood has broken down more and they are building more beneficial fungi and holding moisture better. I've heard year three is the breakthrough year.

[@VeronicaFlores]

Year three is totally the breakthrough year, provided you get decent rainfall and/or irrigate the beds. I've seen stagnant perennial herbs go wild in the spring of the third year... I definitely think it's worth the wait. 🙂

[@joecraddock4286]

I love your system of getting scrap wood from the forest to improve your soil and lessen fuel for a potential fire!

[@VeronicaFlores]

If only parks could somehow encourage people to come help remove the same! I do think we could collectively lessen the risk of fire, but it would take some elbow grease. 🙂

[@ThePaterfamilious]

Love watching and get motivated by your Gardening Videos, I raised 8 kids... All Girls and you make me miss them!!!

[@nicolasbertin8552]

I tried it, it works when done right, but it doesn't do the things it's supposed to do. First, the wood never does its role of water sponge, or at least no better than most soils. So for hugelkultur you need a lot of rainfall because it drains water too much as it's higher than the ground. Second, it's a LOT of work. You need outside material, and it doesn't produce more than a nice flat bed. It's only useful in two cases : if your terrain is waterlogged, so you need better drainage or if your terrain is just rocks and no fertility. But that whole trend of doing hugelkultur is just ridiculous, especially in France. It's like everyone who tries gardening thinks it's mandatory to start there... Also, a lot of people do it wrong. In my communal garden a guy is doing it. We have clay soil, and he buries dry wood like 80 cm deep, digging the ground insanely deep, and building this mountain of earth, sand, and compost. And finally he doesn't even mulch them ! So it's dried up clay on the top, and dry sand in the middle it's ridiculous. Last year nothing grew properly because of the drought, while the flat beds with mulch did fine. He even told us not to water his mounds because the wood would retain water. Of course it didn't, the wood didn't decompose under 80 cm of clay soil with a bit of sand in it. Not to mention he actually sifted the sand, which you absolutely shouldn't do if you want to lighten a clay soil, you need coarse sand. He built cement basically... This year, another guy did one, but just because he had a mound of decomposing weeds, and some left over compost and manure. And the area we did it on has no deep soil, because there was an old road underneath, so it's leftover broken down road material, nothing grows. I added straw on top of the final mound. No wood. It works insanely well, especially courgettes and squashes. What I need to do now is compare the taste to vegetables grown in flat beds, because it's well known that too much fertility means less taste, less nutrients. It's the work of Donald Davis from the university of Texas riordanclinic.org/wp-content/uploads/2014/12/declining_nutrient_article_p1.pdf . I know people who just do mounds of pure compost and rock dust, like 20 cm thick, and grow stuff in it. No real mulch on top. It's pure fertilizer, and to me it's wrong. In the UK a lot of them do that, and I bet their vegetables are just not as good as "normal" garden vegetables in a flat bed with no dig and permanent mulch. But they have the compost for cheap at the dump, so they choose the easy way.

[@VeronicaFlores]

Yeah you really do need to consider if it can work for your climate, as well as be mindful around how you build it. There's such a delicate balance when it comes to creating good soil (hence me using mostly decomposed wood and better soils from around the property vs clay and sand... bc yes, you ultimately do get cement lol.) As for the taste bit, as far as I can tell it's less about how much fertility and more about being mindful about how the soil microbes actually contribute to the overall equation. Like I have soil that mostly has what it needs to grow plants (minus nitrogen) but it's compacted and not readily bioavailable because it's lacking in organic matter and microbial biomass. However, I'm not going to just dump a bunch of manure and straw on my field, as too much of everything at once can create "boom and bust" effects on already marginal microbial populations, leaving you with unstable biology. So you do have to be a little careful, and not do anything to let them get too lazy. (I tested this patch of soil however, and the headcount was so low that basically anything = improvement.)

[@kaleflower2319]

please keep posting...I love your post. I learn so much from you.

[@VeronicaFlores]

Thanks! Doing my best to keep the juggling going here! ✊

[@johnmicknal4620]

I had to put some chicken wire around a small space in my garden to keep the rabbits out so I planted a lot of different things together like you. I think they do better that way. Thanks again for your videos.

[@VeronicaFlores]

I think they do too! Diversity is so key to a healthy happy garden. Thanks for joining! :)

[@nicholasb8799]

Good work, great concept, I had people who used to use a bunch of wood chips to berm their blackberries and raspberries, they always came up nice. To get that into the soil should be a great base to work with....

[@bobrobertsNotUrBob]

My Hugel worked out great, after 3 months it was full and lush, compared to the surrounding area...crazy growth. I used straw, dead leaves, compost, peat, sticks, logs, bone meal(thou dolomite might have been better if I had at that point), blackstrap molasses. The only problem I have with it thou is if you want to bring certain plants to seed, they can get very large and steal the light from everything around been in such a small space..also if you decide to plant something in the hugel, it can be an issue depending on how deep the branches are..somethings you just can't find a spot to dig in..so plan and start from seed.

[@VeronicaFlores]

Yeah I've had the branches problem too before! Huge part of why I did so much soil on top this time. 🙂

[@bobrobertsNotUrBob]

@@VeronicaFlores you live, you learn... which is the beautiful part of mistakes

[@spritecut]

I did a small hugelkultur and have blackcurrant, strawberries as cover and Indian spinach growing up a frame, as shade. All seems to working out well so far. I tried a similar system with redcurrant and they really struggled, which may or may not be to do with how I built it. Live and learn.

[@VeronicaFlores]

Ah I don't tend to put woody perennials on hugels, esp in the early phases, as they don't seem to get good anchoring while the pile is settling. Trees for sure, but even shrubs I've noticed struggling as well.

[@terancebailey4175]

I made a 3 by 4 bed using old bean poles and twigs that fell off the trees over winter in the spring of 2018 ;I had two nice zucchini and this year out of 30 tomato plants the two in that space are much bigger than the others

[@VeronicaFlores]

They really seem to love these sorts of beds!!!

[@rock5138]

Great looking greenery Veronica! 👍🏻

[@donaldash3942]

Thank You Veronica for all of your interesting learning videos. Great work !!!!!!!

[@mppp1877]

My neighbors here is so cal eat cactus! I have this old traditional cactus tree, plant, whatever, growing at one corner of my property and the neighbors harvested it and cooked up a dish called NOPALES? Not sure I spelled it correct. Anyway, not bad taste and I never thought id eat cactus. Can I grow more cactus by cloning. Combine cooking with gardening?

[@michaelmcdowell6792]

Eclectic collection of survival of the fittest. Time lapse video could produce a vegetable video game.

[@dezertraider]

Thank you Veronica,,Cool experiment,,STay well,And thank you so much for your great work and fine announcing of what you are doing.Fantastic!

[@DIYSolarandWind]

You are amazing. When I get to the country I want to do a lot of beds like this.

[@VeronicaFlores]

I highly recommend them!

[@RomainBruckert]

I love how you are passionate about plants; It reminds me of myself. Your videos are always interesting : "this is what works for me" vs "this is how you should do it"... and we usually learn a lot ! Have a great day V.

[@OvidiuHretcanu]

Hi Veronica, I am planing this year to make a raise bed (for aestetic reasons) and I'm thinking on filling it up with wood scraps, as I don't have a practical way to carry too much soil in that location. I would like to know if you have a follow-up on this video for 2020, how it want last year?

[@Lightfields]

Totally in for the mosh pit of new plants coming in, taking a new garden now in Oakland. LMK if you have great soil or amendment resources up here to try this type of experiment in the new garden! -

[@elijahwilson1422]

I have a Hugelkultur mound and it has wild Tomatoes that reappear annually.

[@FinehomesofNewHampshire]

Woohoo! Thank you! Great garden! I created one this year in early spring. Ill plant on it next year.🙏

[@VeronicaFlores]

You're way more patient than I am! LOL. :P Dad wanted more stuff growing so I was like okay let's put something right outside the front door then and get moving on it! :)

[@FinehomesofNewHampshire]

@@VeronicaFlores 😀😆 Im adding leaves and dirt to it as we clean the forest floor at top of beautiful hill we own. No fertilizer need for these amazing gardens. Fyi....if you have rotted tree stumps...its an amazing add on. Be well. Dont forget to design your winter garden.....lights are ready whenevr you are. ❤🙏😊

[@bigh650]

yours is doing better then mine - no rain and lots of 100 + days and yes I do hand water

[@VeronicaFlores]

We have had 100 heat index here a few times, but it's been cooler than usual overall, which helps (as well as the shade this space gets probably half the day.)

[@heavymechanic2]

My garden is doing well despite the hot dry weather, and grass is starting to look bad. I am working on building the soil with a mix of compost and some natural soil amendments to encourage the soil food web to build strong healthy roots to tap water deep in the ground.

[@KeikoMushi]

I like this variation on hugelkultur, Veronica. I can see it being adopted by a bunch of other people due to the simplicity and non-invasive nature of the method.

[@VeronicaFlores]

Thanks! I like that it will eventually be mostly flat when it's finished. I'm all for a hilly landscape where it will work, and appreciate the curvature of it in the process, but want to be as smart about materials and resources as possible longer term. 🙂

[@daledemro3393]

As far as beans and peas are concerned , do you inoculate them before planting or let the natural fungus& microbes in decomposing wood and leaf litter do it

[@VeronicaFlores]

I inoculate whenever possible

[@svetlanikolova7673]

I put extra firewood, compost and goat bedding and top it with hey . Maybe give it a jar of spent coffee grounds and leave it to rot all fall winter and early spring without any digging

[@vahlla78]

I'm the same with the mixed plants in my garden beds. Mix of different veggies and some flowers to bring in the pollinators. I've not done hugelkultur yet, but I put leaves in the middle of my raised beds and it works well so far. I can't grow in ground yet. We have voles in our area and they eat the roots of the plants if I don't do raised beds with hardware cloth underneath or pots. If you have any info on them I would love to hear it? Your Hugelkultur bed looks beautiful, I'd love to try one but the voles...

[@VeronicaFlores]

Yeah voles are tough. We only have moles here and they don't do much damage to plants. Last farm I was at we had gophers, and it was pretty much just setting and checking a lot of snap traps almost year round (plus hardware cloth under raised beds.) I did test doing diy hardware cloth root baskets last year for individual long season plants which helped (they'll still nibble roots but can't suck entire plants down at least) but overall, I lost A LOT of annuals to them. 😞

[@vahlla78]

@@VeronicaFlores I've tried mouse traps set under pots in their vole trails and all sorts of things that I read online, but the only thing that works is the hardware cloth. Even three cats can't keep the numbers down. I also use it to make baskets for perennials and such but that is very time consuming and can get costly. Thanks for the info you have, most people don't even know what voles are lol

[@johnnypaints23]

Great way for pest problems. Survival of the fittest! Did you add anything for nitrogen? From what Ive read from Charles Dowding, wood under the soil will take away nitrogen as it decomposes.

[@VeronicaFlores]

The pests have been minimal so far but the birds seem to patrol it pretty well as it's next to their bath. I add some cut weeds down below as well as some pockets of food scrap to compost, but for the most part no. I do soil drench with fish fertilizer and humic acid almost weekly though to compensate.

[@johnnypaints23]

@@VeronicaFlores Just realized my first post sounded like I said good way to have pest. It meant to be good wa NOT to have pests by avoiding the monoculture.

[@JM-mr5jo]

May I recommend a few sunflowers around the outer edges or possibly in the center.

[@headlessspaceman5681]

My plant moshpit/thunderdome has been raised this year listening only to Candlemass, Cirith Ungol and Black Sabbath (gardens love metal) and consists of giant sunflowers, japanese popcorn, white pan squash, loads of cilantro and sunflower volunteers and a little bit of wild spinach/goosefoot (a tasty "weed") which I thin gradually when they get too rough with the others... Also an indeterminate roma, two "hatch" green chilis, two jalapenos, and a whole bunch of blanketflower, yarrow, blue flax and hollyhocks, I just want to see how many different bugs and desert bees show up. I don't think plants really believe in rows and columns, that's more for armies and such, so I plant in crescents and clumps and Venn diagrams, and then I get to watch what the plants want to do, and try to keep them from strangling each other. It's more of a jungle than a garden. I want to see which plants do well next to each other, which ones don't, which ones thrive with competition, which ones are loners. And also it seems better to crowd the plants a little out here in the high desert so that the ground around all the plants is shaded and not a convection oven all day long, but maybe not all plants will thrive this way. Like she says, so what if this one crop fails, you still have five or seven or twelve other things going in the same area which will make up for it. Thanks for taking the time to show people a different, more chaotic way to grow stuff! And good luck.

[@VeronicaFlores]

Love the visual you painted here! High five for keeping soil shaded and covered - that's such a key point in all of this!!! ✊

[@divinityfive4350]

I love this technique for water conservation, contours etc and hope it provides a bounty - NB: Japanese culture is centred on serendipity, or the Art of surprise - looks like u may have mastered that too? :)

[@VeronicaFlores]

I think it will work well here, since we don't have much of a slope! Re: serendipity, lol no mastery here, but yes- it's a constant thing I work towards, quite intentionally... for me, stoking curiosity while integrating play via experimenting and physically working out things I grok in theory helps quite a bit in terms of finding my own flow state. :)

[@heronlyfriend]

We had seeds left over and now have a couple "chaos" sections, fun stuff

[@pepperguy]

"Mosh pit of plants." -- Perfect!

[@guntcheck]

Damn that's beautiful. Oh, and also the garden.

[@TherealTHAWEEZL]

I need to try this hügelkultur here on my sand pile - I need detritus under foot.

[@TheFarmacySeedsNetwork]

Nice! I'm planning some permaculture/HugoKulture trenches in between my annual zones next year. Thanks for sharing!

[@VeronicaFlores]

Lmk if you decide to draw up/write anything out and want to share links with me! Would love to see how others are implementing.

[@TheFarmacySeedsNetwork]

Will do! Just a got a tractor last fall.. with a backhoe. Planning on digging trenches between annual beds and then loading with logs / forest debris etc. Sort of permaculture integrated with production beds.. lots of food and homes for beneficial soil microbes and fungi.

[@jean-marclariviere7618]

you, soil, green stuff...yeap i like this type of content....2 days ago was in my little forest looking at a bunch of decomposing tree trunks...thanks know exactly what my next week-end will be...will send pictures if you want..thank you again...

[@VeronicaFlores]

Feel free to add them on Facebook! Would love to see 😍

[@Ullmans9]

Hello my chilli plants are not doing well at all :( first 3 weeks they were looking super good with a healthy deep green color then the new leaves started to grow out deformed with yellow spots that turned into dried out leaf and the rest of the leaves started to get dead dried spots on them too.

[@VeronicaFlores]

Sounds like your watering regimen might not be great. Are they draining well? I've mostly experienced this sort of thing with root rot in containers at high temperatures

[@doubledown187]

"Mosh Pit Of Plants" - Oh, the imagery🤓😂

[@cadaverthehacker]

Had an unexpected frost this spring... It was a normal sunny spring then BOOM a 2 week long blizzard. All my salad greens died... EXCEPT the ones on the hugelkultur.

[@VeronicaFlores]

Gotta love that decomposition based heat!!!

[@cadaverthehacker]

@@VeronicaFlores totally 😊

[@paperas24]

Love it! Nature, being nature! Great vid!

[@tomellison5588]

You make me smile! 🐢

[@ecocentrichomestead6783]

I was wearing shorts today. Was wondering if it was a fashion sin to wear rubber boots with them. Guess not huh?

[@VeronicaFlores]

NOT AT ALL. ❤️

[@VeronicaFlores]

Though I might be a little biased. 😂

[@rogermarnoch767]

Love watching these vids, reminds me of home !

[@russellhays2355]

Overall, how did this method work for you? Do you think the second and third year on this particular bed will result in better crops?

[@VeronicaFlores]

Yes. The first year is a lot of nutrient cycling which can sometimes hinder the growth of more nutrient hungry plants, as a lot gets tied up in the breakdown. The more time that passes, the more work done by microbial life, the more nutrients bioavailable to your plants.

[@cindyneely6087]

every thing so pretty

[@LibertyGarden]

My only objection to hugelbeds was that rodents used them to nest. I had them for a few years but did not really see much of a difference in production compared to regular raised beds.

[@VeronicaFlores]

So true- yet another reason to make sure that you have a good soil to wood ratio. I've worked with ones that were mostly wood, and as they settle and pockets open, have had all sorts of wildlife (lots of mice and rabbits and a few snakes) move into the open spaces. I did a few takes of this video (picked this one because it was the shortest) but forgot to mention they do take about 3 years to really get going, especially if you're using large timber instead of stacks of smaller sticks and logs.

[@LibertyGarden]

@@VeronicaFlores I built my version of hugelbeds after watching a Sepp Holster video of the Krameterhof. I raised beds by 12 inches then filled them with logs primarily green ash and oak and then backfilled them. By the time I got rid of the beds last year, the logs had mostly rotted. It occurred to me, then, that Sepp tried this method because when he was terracing the Krameterhof it was more practical to cover the bulldozed trees with dirt and plant directly into the mounds than to burn or otherwise get rid of the fallen trees. It was a practical matter for Sepp that somehow got enshrined in the permaculture community much like herb spirals. But for us flat landers, in my opinion, it makes absolutely no sense, other than to try as a novelty. The only thing I continue to follow from the huglekulture practice is planting diversely. Like you, I enjoy surprises and watching plants compete for space. I think the pressure and stress of overcrowding makes plants produce faster and more abundantly.

[@tactrix1h]

I have a question, when you throw that many seeds together I know they self select, but what happens to the other seeds? Do they decompose? Do the plants just kind of absorb them? Just curious. On a side note mad max approves this use of space 👍🙃

[@VeronicaFlores]

I think they just decompose, which depending on growth stage, likely feeds the plants around them via root exudates (perhaps not significantly at this phase, though I do think there's something to be said about microbe partners arriving to the root zone of the cluster and then compounding their focus on less plants as the weaker ones die off.)

[@tactrix1h]

@@VeronicaFlores so really when nature or people toss a bunch of seeds in the mix it's actually a lot better than a few here and there, because they're all going back into one plant and kind of powering it up more. 🙂

[@stevengordon9365]

Loving your work again 😊

[@suebar5177]

Awesome video...thanks🐞🐝🌞

[@garypowell4565]

That's my kind of gardening, just let it grow.

[@knuckledraggingneanderthal720]

Can I use sour cream containers instead of rotten wood?

[@TheRealHonestInquiry]

No.

[@bpora01]

Are you planning to do additional beds? I remember on another channel that they did both hugel and ruth stout beds to compare the results

[@VeronicaFlores]

I won't be doing many more methods "to compare" so much as to help determine what techniques I want to apply to this particular landscape. But yes... additional planting areas anywhere there's not a tree until I run out of space.

[@HappyPepper]

I've never heard of this. Very informative!

[@Liverpoolboy01]

That the way to do it, I also add wild flower seeds for colour 🇬🇧🇬🇧🇬🇧

[@thc2112]

if you have an old ponds lake Ive used the water log half decomposed branches along with pond weeds (i call it seaweed) old barn rake head and rope trick it out preforms all my beds now and i amend my beds with every organic trick worm castings bone meal worms rock dust micro rise all the tricks the ponds branches weeds scum garden i built 3 years ago outgrows beds by far never get water besides seed planting day never get weeded love your vids our defiantly a crazy plant person (highest praise in my book)

[@VeronicaFlores]

Thank you! I've been eyeing a few piles of wood rotting in the pond, along with the weeds, but there's still too much water to drag any of it out. SOON. 😬

[@thc2112]

@@VeronicaFlores if you go stick fishing maybe leave the dogs brought sades my lab she kept stealing the sticks made the job 3 times longer but 22.5 times more adorable

[@doobs930069]

Now I'm curious about what happens when you use select kinds of wood to bury. Me daydreaming: Throws some orange trees in a hole and plants tomatoes on it.

[@VeronicaFlores]

I'm not sure about using citrus wood, but I have contemplated using conifers to help lower my pH... just don't have many to work with here.

[@kmalnasef1512]

👍👍👍

[@alanthecat59]

why so few weed seeds?

[@VeronicaFlores]

There wasn't much growing in this spot to begin with, but I also picked a ton of grass out of the topsoil as I was adding it back onto the mound, so that could be why. (Shouldn't become too much of a problem down the road either, since I'm building a more fungal dominant environment, and weeds prefer bacterially dominant for the most part.)

[@Raul28153]

Listening to you speak; diction, enunciation, grammar etc., I hear an education.

[@VeronicaFlores]

Yes

[@sweetvuvuzela4634]

Hello Veronica lovely garden 🥰💐🥰

[@bamboo1566]

another great vid veronica do you lay awake at night thinking of gardening lol

[@VeronicaFlores]

OMG YES EVERY NIGHT 😂

[@bamboo1566]

@@VeronicaFlores lol I thought so

[@mppp1877]

I'm still stuck on the nice lined rows and I like my successful tomatoes grown elevated and hanging which show them off decoratively like a hanging garden. walk ways must always be 5 feet wide. I like elevated cause I use no pesticides and elevation eliminates pests to a large degree. Also the area under the elevated gardens has block out cloth and absorbs water which diverts ant colonies away from the house. Pesticides are bad. Much better to manipulate nature.

[@VeronicaFlores]

I'm all for sticking with whatever works for and appeals to you, as long as you're growing something! :)

[@tylorban]

Liked! Look forward to seeing more like this :)

[@rehoboth_farm]

You can always build a Hugel into the berm of a swale.

[@VeronicaFlores]

What do you think about the concerns in that first link I posted? (Description area) I'm on board with it in theory, just don't do really long ones with giant logs that will float away. 😂

[@rehoboth_farm]

@@VeronicaFlores I read through the whole thing and then realized that it was Jack Spirko. Then he posts a video explaining that he was describing a specific situation with giant swales that could be problematic. Will it settle? Yes. Will it explode into flames? I don't think so. The dirt on top would have to completely liquefy and the wood would have to be buoyant enough to float the wood through the liquefied soil. Even in lahars you don't find trees floating on top of them like a cork, they are mixed into the slurry. I personally think Jack Spirko is a little overly dramatic sometimes. I would have no problem using a little bit of wood in the berm of a small swale, especially if it was rotten wood. I would also understand that it was going to decompose and flatten over time and plan accordingly. It wouln't be best practice for a dam or anything that is going to retain large volumes of water at elevation for a long period of time but anything like that NEEDS to be compacted with a cut key way. So no, I wouldn't build a 9 foot tall hugel that would be expected to retain 9 feet of water behind it like a swimming pool. I would have to be obtuse to do something like that. I don't do much digging. I did dig a small pond and a very shallow swale to feed it this winter (by hand). The berm is only about 8" or 10" high. Most of what I have been doing is with mounds of wood chips and piles of sticks and logs. I always put these on contour to collect and soak water kind of like a gabbion would but across a plane roughly on contour.

[@SuperKingslaw]

Beyond Thunderdome: Many will Enter. Few will LEAF. ;)

[@VeronicaFlores]

😂😂😂

[@Combat.Wombat.official]

all my patches start that way, the difference in a few feet decides what grows and doesn't around here, so I'll end up with like 1 carrot in the middle of peppers lol

[@Combat.Wombat.official]

oh, and some farmers are doing water retention here, they are slowing the creeks with weeds basically, going against the rules of irrigation, but the result is the water table rises on the entire property and they don't need to irrigate. I'll try and find a video on it after work to link.

[@VeronicaFlores]

@@Combat.Wombat.official please do! And LOL on the carrot in the middle of a bunch of other stuff... that is basically the story of my gardening life! :P (But I do it that way on purpose lol.)

[@Combat.Wombat.official]

@@VeronicaFlores This is the most in depth one, but it's a drawn out a bit.. (try to) enjoy kzbin.info/www/bejne/Y2Wyc5aIfb1keMU

[@havenlew]

She's one of the best folks! #notill #mycelium

[@seldomseensmith4684]

I've done several hugelkulture beds in the garden. Something about watching the plants dook it out for supremacy just appeals to me, sadistic tendencies?:D

[@VeronicaFlores]

I like to think of it as playing a little more of a benevolent role and giving everyone equal opportunity 😂

[@seldomseensmith4684]

@@VeronicaFlores Oh, that sounds much better than being a sadistic overlord who pits plant against plant. Thanks for the clarification.:D BTW, I hope you had put on mosquito repellent, I know how the mosquitoes gang up in texas.

[@greggiono8789]

Love the fence!I Great information!

[@VeronicaFlores]

Thank you! It's a work in progress, but it's finally starting to keep the dogs out of this space 😂

[@marcinmazur1217]

👍

[@MollyMcBooter]

That fence is so cool. It reminds me of something from The Blair Witch Project ..lol.. but I swear I mean that in a good way.

[@VeronicaFlores]

Thanks! It's a work in progress, but I think it feels kind of magical. 😍

[@mppp1877]

One more comment and I have to go. I successfully cloned a Rosemary bush 8 times so far. Each time never failed. Now I am supplying my Los Angeles suburb neighbors with Rosemary plants. Someone said they ward off insects but I think that'd just a tale. I saw you used garlic to ward off insects. I want to hear more about this subject if you can elaborate. gotta go.....take care

[@VeronicaFlores]

Re: rosemary that's awesome! Re: insects will mull that one over and figure out how to integrate it into my shooting lineup- thanks!

[@mjcleveland4787]

Rosemary is an effective repellent. I concoct my more natural spray in a 14.5 oz spray bottle with a capful of vanilla extract, a few drops of anise extract & put a few sprigs of rosemary in & top off the bottle with filtered water. On a side note & since I now reside lakeside, a little star of anise or the extract is super effective at eliminating fish odor from hands & utensils. For years I had quit fishing because fish mixed with any soap gagged me to the point where I couldn't eat the fish after, often for days. I just learned about this & now have a hand soap pump bottle I keep with a few drops of anise extract, filtered water & a few drops of citrus soap in it to remove the fish oils before I soap up.

[@mppp1877]

Anise. Interesting, I will have to get some anise, thank you. How long do you let the "concoction" with the cap full of vanilla extract, anise oil, sprigs of rosemary and filtered water brew for before it's ready? This is fascinating!

[@mjcleveland4787]

@@mppp1877 I used it right after putting it together & it started taking on a darker color like a tea very quickly. The bottle is still sitting out on my porch & is a bit darker now but still smells nice to me, doesn't seem to stain & best of all stops the mosquitoes from landing on me. I may have to try it out on my green beans next to see if it works as well at stopping beetles & ants from chewing their leaves.

[@mppp1877]

mj cleveland: Nice. I like the organic harmless aspect. Rather than poison nature we can figure it out better and manipulate it. I like elevated grows since it lowers the insect problem to a large degree. I used that thin black netting to keeps the birds away and I had a very successful tomato grow this year. I will double my efforts next. This is getting serious.

[@alternateh]

I have 3 (6wx20lx4h) Hugulkulturs, second season, and they are amazing! Everything is exploding!

[@VeronicaFlores]

Awesome! Year two is my favorite with them as well... it's kind of like riding a slightly crazy horse lol- mostly fun with the occasional near disaster here and there 🤣

[@alternateh]

@@VeronicaFlores the beans, pea and zucchini are in paradise. I tried some tomatoes this year too and it's my most successful year ever!

[@rehoboth_farm]

Oh to have a loader on my tractor. If I had a loader on my tractor there would be so much rejoicing.

[@VeronicaFlores]

And cursing bc there's more parts to break and try to weld 😂 But mostly rejoicing 🙂

[@rehoboth_farm]

@@VeronicaFlores I'd be pretty happy to get a battery for mine right now.

[@andyfoelsche9985]

Rehoboth? MA? I live here, have tractor, with bucket. Need help?

[@rehoboth_farm]

@@andyfoelsche9985 I'm a little farther south. Way south. I really need one of my own anyway. It is an ongoing sort of problem but thank you very much for the offer. Not many people are willing to do things like that anymore.

[@NeilNye-fp4df]

I have pumpkins growing in with my tomatoes . I never planted them . No clue how they got there but I had to trellis them cuz they get unruly and take over . I love that tree branch cage . I will maintain a sense of professionalism and decorum so I will not comment on how incredibly sexy and beautiful you look in those shorts and boots ... :|

[@VeronicaFlores]

Ahhhh you were doing so well until the end there!!! -_- I kind of love it when pumpkins take over... I think it's a subconscious holdover from watching too many Disney movies as a child. :P The fence is quickly becoming my favorite. It's coming together out of necessity (DOGGOS) but has been a great creative outlet to go to at the end of the day with a beer and some wire and wirecutters and just play with all the branches from the forest and pruning fruit trees. Thanks for joining! :)

[@NeilNye-fp4df]

LOL You are the best! Yeah I hafta put those little green wire border frences everywhere cuz my rescue schnauzer likes to pee on every thing that is his height. I never have any success with pumpkins here. The blooms just fall off. What is your favvvv Disney movie, mine is the Lion King , the whole circle of life thing lol. Hey I did try, but being a leg man ..... HAHA

[@davidniemi6553]

@@VeronicaFlores That's what I guessed about the "fence". I use dog wire on locust or cedar logs planted with a post hole digger for the most part, but then I'm trying to stop deer. At any rate I have pretty much the same idea of a good end to the day -- a beer and some outdoor useful activity -- plenty of branches here but wish I had more fruit trees.

[@davidcaldwell8977]

Botanic Thunderdome, You're soooo awesome.... LOL Yes, Mosh pit,.... LOL

[@hallpaintandbody7717]

Jump starting the soil with rotten wood, fascinating!

[@VeronicaFlores]

Trying to get that fungi ratio up! This soil "will" grow stuff, but is pretty devoid of microbes as far as my tests confirmed. :(

[@userbosco]

Holy crap! I'm doing this and didn't even know it had a name. xD Hilarious. Learned something, darn it! We call ours the "test lab".

[@damageincorporated2158]

Mud boots, mosh pits gotta it thanks so much but seriously awesome idea

[@VeronicaFlores]

Highly recommend the steel toed ones if you're gonna mosh in them 😜

[@LibertyGarden]

Nice hugel bed.

[@FinehomesofNewHampshire]

😀

[@VeronicaFlores]

Thanks! I think I already like it better than the strictly above-ground ones, at least for my climate. :)

[@LibertyGarden]

@@VeronicaFlores It's very nicely done.

[@spritecut]

Hahaha! Many will enter, strongest will grow. #Thundergarden