How to properly fill a hugelkulture raised garden bed and in situ worms - ft Brenton Thwaites

[@cb-tc9lw]

Excellent video Keith. I would disagree with you on one point though. I would argue that the point is not to have the wood breakdown, although that is a prime purpose, but to have the wood become a sponge. My hugel beds require no watering, even in the driest point of the summer. A simple benefit of the soil settling is that it leaves you space to keep adding mulch. I did that with one of my raised beds. I initially filled it 75% with straw, then some sticks, soil, and mulch. Every year I added mulch to keep the weeds down and it balanced out really well with how the straw settled. On another note, I have found that a really thick mat of leaves works by far the best as a mulch for perrenial beds. I use woodchips the most because of how easily I can obtain large amounts but the beds that were mulched with mulched leaves have 0 weeds growing up through them. The weeds will actually start in the woodchips so they require a lot more work. Thank you for the video.

[@CanadianPermacultureLegacy]

Oooh we are actually talking about the same thing! Wood really only becomes a sponge WHEN it breaks down. Why is this? Wood is mostly lignin, and lignin is actually hydrophobic. It is broken down into Cellulose and hemicelluloses and is it these which are water absorbant. From: Lignin Decomposition - an Overview, Hydrothermal and Supercritical Water Processes, Dr. Gerd Brunner - Supercritical Fluid Science and Technology, 2014: "Lignin componds are crucial organic polymers which are abundant in cell walls of some specific cells. As they are dead, they cement together and anchor the cellulose fibres of the cell wall giving it a rigid and woody structure. It shows hydrophobic properties, which means they do not mix with water and are impermeable." So the key is to trigger lignocellulosis, which is basically just mushrooms breaking down lignins. Also, the mushrooms themselves (the mycellium) is extremely water absorbant. So not only do the mushrooms convert the wood into a sponge, they act further as a sponge themselves, and can actually also transport the water as well. I'm going to pin this, as it's interesting discussion, thanks for the fantastic comment!

[@marcialockhart890]

I have never mulched because it hides the slugs, a garden can be decimated overnight! In the US!

[@johnrockyakarambobalboa8898]

Like me... I green mulch with "weed" of the season

[@johnrockyakarambobalboa8898]

About lignin. Hydrophobic yes. But the poors/veins close after drying?

[@johnrockyakarambobalboa8898]

Get poh and Woods ashes clay cheramics n green and u have terra preta!

[@kajsan760]

This video showed up with perfect timing, since I'm just building my first hugel bed. Lunch break is over. Time to fill up the gaps with soil before i put on the next layer.

[@margaretmiles9204]

Just got in from planing herbs and flowers on my deck to watch this episode. I live in an apartment and the deck doesn't get enough sun to produce food, and I long for the day when i can grow my own food forest. I love every show! You are inspirational!!

[@CanadianPermacultureLegacy]

❤️ 😀

[@bobburkinshaw9408]

Thank you for yet another informative video, Keith. We have two beds that look almost exactly the same as yours and have found them to be very effective in growing excellent veggies that aren't attacked by rabbits and wild turkeys. However, after the first year we had to empty the beds and start over for two reasons: 1. without a tight barrier of 1/4 " hardware cloth at the bottom, the bed became so full of mice and/or voles that most of the veggies were eaten by them, so we had to empty the bed and install that barrier, which has proven to be effective. 2. without a wire brace across the middle at the top, the bed began to bulge outwards under the weight of the soil. So, while it was empty we installed a strong wire across and it has held it well.

[@CanadianPermacultureLegacy]

Thanks for the tips! I will definitely keep an eye out for both.

[@jessicajansson1203]

Thanks for another great video explaining HOW we can do things better!! I am a bit jealous about you in USA and Canada who can get wood chips for free. They are expensive in Sweden because they are used in cities for heat and energy. I ask for branches and make some chips myself in a small garden wood chipper.

[@edpoletto8048]

I like the fact that nature is mimicked but you are very neat with your approach. Not a bad thing.

[@jimcharles270]

Woah that video description is incredible information. Honestly, you are the best gardening youtube channel. I wish one day for you to have 10 million subscribers.

[@CanadianPermacultureLegacy]

me too! 😆

[@deejay-d7q]

Hi Keith. Great video. Love the channel. Really informative and inspiring. I’m from the UK and you’re right about the slugs and snails, though you can find a balance with enough predators, especially amphibians and beetles. A possible transatlantic confusion over what we call compost and Charles Dowding advocates the use of as a mulch: it is just decomposed organic matter. I think in North America compost is closer to what we would call potting mix/potting compost? That’s where the well rotted organic matter is “diluted” with mineral soil for starting seeds or growing in containers. Pure compost doesn’t contain soil, which it seemed is what you were saying. Apologies if I’ve misunderstood. Cheers.

[@CanadianPermacultureLegacy]

Thanks 😊

[@hhwippedcream]

Nice 7 habits reference. 😊 Thanks for the excellent discussion and video!

[@susanmyer1]

I learned a lot from the video. You make layering interesting. I usually fast forward but with your videos I watch with fascination.

[@sharonhoffer3599]

OMG I love the idea of reusing the black ag pipe as tree guards btw!

[@CanadianPermacultureLegacy]

One person's waste us another person's treasure. I found these in the dump lol

[@gabrielleannacormierart]

Loved this video! We are getting ready to build and fill our beds and now we are better armed to do it in the best way possible 😊Thank you so much for sharing your knowledge with us!

[@PaleGhost69]

I had the air pocket issue with one of my hugel pots. It was the only one I didn't add leaves to the bottom of. I've also learned to have gaps I can put soil in while building them

[@georgettesavard4347]

I had leftover Alfalfa pellets from raising rabbits. Now that I am a forager and learning about plants, nutrients, gardening and such, I'm realizing that the Alfalfa pellets are probably BETTER fertilizer and 'organic' matter than the rabbit poop! I am now spending just $25 a huge feed back of Alfalfa pellets to toss onto the top layer of the soil. Alfalfa is like nettle, comfrey, and purslane, in that is a POWERHOUSE for minerals!!! I think this idea is a new concept that really should be concidered over manure and rabbit poop because the minerals are not being stolen by the animal... though poop is great to inoculate soil, the alfalfa pellets has all the minerals intact. It is compact, cheap and FULL of minerals ( well should be... though it be industrially farmed so who knows.. but his same issue goes for the animal feed as all industrially grown crop is near void of minerals.) Is why foraging wild plants for compost is ideal. Wild Alfalfa is everywhere ;) Maybe people might concider buying Alfalfa pellets in bulk feed bags as a way to add mineral rich organic matter that also will help sponge moisture. Probably a cheaper option than advertised fertilizers...

[@Muninn801]

That is such an interesting idea. Please share if you try a comparison experiment or if you find any other studies or experiments that test your idea.

[@BarnBootsandCountryRoots]

Brenton Thwaites is literally YOU when you were young! Anybody who knew you back then knows what I’m talking about! It is crazy 😂.

[@judifarrington9461]

Thank you for this video! I am getting ready to redo my raised beds. You gave me some great ideas and corrected some bad ideas. I have slugs, but found making my beds predator friendly really pays off! It's amazing what a small dish of water can do.

[@YaxisX]

Hugelkulture is an incredible innovation in gardening, and also in Vermiculture (worm cultivation)

[@sandraoconnor5700]

Such great and helpful❤❤❤Very clear, detailed, practical and informative ❤❤❤ Thanks so much for sharing ❤❤❤

[@TheEmbrio]

The compost mulch. I’ve used all methods. Compost as mulch, as used by Dowding and No Till farmer Jesse, is woodchip rich. The rains carry the fertility down, and feed soil life imediately, but then only the woodchips stay on the surface. They stay dark but are basically woodchip mulch. Here i have both bad slugs and snail pressure AND hot evaporative summers. Flax stems ( itty 1 to 1.5 cm fine ’needles’) are both light coloured and dry enough, small enough not to make extra hiding spots for our gasteropod competition... Of course i’m in a flax growing part of France. But just find what locally works.

[@Double0pi]

One of the worst things about moving this summer is having to give up an established hugelkultur bed. 😭 Now, as you might have expected, I want to talk about potential heavy metal contamination. This actually is one of my academic specialties, and explaining metal speciation to students is one of my favorite parts of my job. So apologies in advance for what may be a long comment! For most metals outside of groups 1 & 2 on the periodic table, there are actually two factors in their environment that affect their speciation and therefore their mobility (e.g. whether they move from their current location following groundwater etc.) and bioavailability. The first is the pH, as you mentioned above. The second is the oxidation-reduction potential (ORP) of the environment--in garden terms, basically how oxygenated vs. anoxic something is. These are blanket statements that I would make for generic metals. BUT... Every metal behaves a little differently. Some metals are more mobile in the oxidized state, and some are more mobile in a reduced state. As far as pH goes, most metals are more soluble under acidic conditions (as you suggest), but where you find that dividing line between soluble and less soluble depends on the metal. It helps to look at a Pourbaix or Eh-pH diagram for each metal that you're worried about. I, conveniently have a big book of these diagrams for basically every metal, so I looked them up for you. For both lead and cadmium, oxidation state doesn't really matter--yes, other oxidation states exist, but not under normal atmospheric environments. What is interesting for both of these metals is the pH at which you get good mobility. Lead exists primarily as free Pb(2+) ion below about pH 6.2, and you'd still have a reasonable Pb(2+) concentration at pH 7. Cadmium exists primarily as free Cd(2+) ion anywhere below about pH 9. So both of these metals are going to be pretty mobile at neutral-ish pH. (For comparison, you have to get iron to about pH 2 or into fairly anoxic environments for it to be mobile.) That is my "brief" summary of the situation. Happy to give more info if you like. As far as what I'd do...I'd probably just hit the outside of the panel with a coat of paint. That is probably good enough to keep the stuff from leaching into the groundwater.

[@CanadianPermacultureLegacy]

I love that you watch my channel! I love comments like this. Thanks so much, I think a can of paint is a very reasonable thing to do. Most of the land downhill of this location is just wild forest, but thats no reason to not take every precaution to bind up any potential toxins. Thank you kindly 😀

[@micheledupreystrong]

as someone very 'green' in the gardening world (pun intended lol), I'm not understanding where your concern for heavy metal contamination is coming from? the beds themselves? something else? wouldn't the beds be made from steel (iron?)? just guessing about the material... but, would that be inherently a negative thing? if it is a concern, would it be a considerable enough amount of leaching to be worried about?

[@CanadianPermacultureLegacy]

@@micheledupreystrong It is from the zinc plating used on these older metal. Using new zinc plated galvanized steel is perfectly safe. Using older metal like this is a little more risky. The concern is lead and cadmium that may have been used in older molten zinc dipping processes that aren't used anymore. Also, if the steel shows no corrosion, even that is probably okay. The problem happens when the steel shows corrosion. It's for this reason that we put the zinc plating facing outwards, and will be painting over it to lock any nasties in. It's still unlikely to be a concern, but its better to be safe than sorry. We will also get yearly soil tests to confirm no leeching.

[@lallyluckfarm]

Something I've been leaning into this past year is the intentional inclusion of those anaerobic piles of leaves without breaking them up. We'll still use the drier ones as the top mulch but there's evidence to suggest that plants can utilize a number of anaerobic species to their advantage. It should also provide nutrient mobility during periods where the soils are more saturated for lengths of time and there are lower rates of gas exchange. I can go dig up an interview with someone researching this if it's of interest to you

[@kastironwoman6009]

I am interested in the interview. Please post it.

[@CanadianPermacultureLegacy]

I'd be interested. This whole aerobic vs anaerobic thing is possibly more complex than we understand. I know that Dr Elaine Ingham really prescribes to the whole "line in the sand between good guys and bad guys is oxygen". I got into soil science by her amazing talks, so she's obviously been a massive influence on me. However, I also do realize that a lot of people have success with anaerobic ferments like JADAM and KNF.

[@lallyluckfarm]

@@CanadianPermacultureLegacy kzbin.info/www/bejne/jnKpZZd3lLOIaNk for the discussion between John Kempf of Advancing Eco Agriculture and Dr. John White about the functional role of plant pathogens and anaerobic species. I am fond of Dr. Ingham's work myself, but found her "line in the sand good guys/bad guys" language a little too dogmatic for my sensibilities. To me, the best path forward is supporting a functional diversity of aerobic and anaerobic microbes much like I would design plant diversity for resiliency in the face of dry/wet seasons or cool/hot ones.

[@TheEmbrio]

Yes, after 6 years, i can finally say the wood in my raised bed has finally stopped robbing nitrogen, finally is broken down enough as a sponge. I was sick of the enormous watering i had to do... in drought years no less. Live n learn.now I went and danced on the raised beds, sometimes sinking like in snow... HUGE AIR POCKETS ! yet I had packed it at least I thought. nice firm soil now. Just like Charles Dowding. Firm doesn’t mean compacted. Cross my fingers, a more successful garden this year

[@CanadianPermacultureLegacy]

That's a really good point that firm doesn't mean compacted. Firm soil can simply mean tons of mushroom mycelium, acting like a composite. Very strong, but could still be extremely porous.

[@Growinginontario]

I had some slugs in the raised beds last year. I purchased some copper coated welding wire and going to line the top perimeter with it. I’ve read that the slugs would be deterred when they contact the copper as it would create a small electrical charge with their moist body

[@CanadianPermacultureLegacy]

You would need to attach it to a battery I believe? Unless there is some kind of chemical reaction that happens in the soil with copper. I've never heard of that, and it sounds a bit like a wives tale.

[@Growinginontario]

@@CanadianPermacultureLegacy going to give it a try anyway

[@carolinegathercole8473]

Could fill in those gaps with leaves! I discovered when leaving a bucket full of weeds out in the rain, the liquid has turned brown, I have made my own FREE liquid fertiliser 😌 just a quick tip! Drill some holes in your compost bin to increase air flow

[@ninemoonplanet]

The way the beds are filled makes far more sense than some others I have seen. A lot of the people just dump piles of branches, then cover with soil. I know rats, voles are very glad someone built nice cozy places, with foods, in the gardens. This cuts out the residences for rodents by putting enough wood at the lower part so the access is blocked. 💪👏 Adding soil that hasn't gone through the composting cycle makes sense, it has deficiencies, which will change as the wood changes. I know of someone who used branches, but now has rodents chewing through the beds. I can't convince them to dig those beds out, replace the branches and rebuild. Rats, voles, welcome to your home. 🙄😡

[@ninemoonplanet]

Slugs, 12 cm long here. 🤢 I use egg shells, almost anything with sharp edges. A woman Eli in Scotland has small rocks for mulch for the same reason. Temperate rainforest zone makes very big slugs, so it's a challenge to get mulches that make slugs leave the area. I pick them off about an hour after sunset, put them in deep container, then dump them onto the concrete in the morning for the birds breakfast.

[@barbarasimoes9463]

I'm wondering if putting some of your wine cap mushrooms in the beds would help with the heavy metals that people are commenting on.

[@CanadianPermacultureLegacy]

We have parasol mushrooms native in the woodchips. I'm not going to put the winecaps there because I don't want anyone to eat them. Other mushrooms can lock up any toxins.

[@lindalyc]

Before 14:00, what type of "soil" you filled in between tree branches? it looks to me more like wood chip? you said fresh, hot manure, but it doesn't look like manure at all to me? what type of manure and how you got in large volumes of it? Thanks

[@kastironwoman6009]

Later he said it was horse manure. It is very loose and when broken looks just like that.

[@CanadianPermacultureLegacy]

Yep, it's fresh horse manure. They use wood shavings as their horse bedding, so it's probably about 2/3rds wood shavings and 1/3 horse manure. They also don't spray their fields with animopyralids or triclopyr, so I know the manure is safe. I should add a discussion on that in the comments actually.

[@HiddenBlessingsHomestead]

I used wood and I got mushrooms, in those beds, I preferred using manure and bedding in the bottom.

[@CanadianPermacultureLegacy]

Mushrooms are great

[@HiddenBlessingsHomestead]

@@CanadianPermacultureLegacy Not if they're poisonous lol

[@CanadianPermacultureLegacy]

Just don't eat them. No mushroom is poisonous to touch. Actually just one, Poison Fire Coral mushroom in Australia Of course its in Australia.

[@HiddenBlessingsHomestead]

@@CanadianPermacultureLegacy Good to know, what about if your food touches them?

[@sqeekable]

I have done a ton of research on those worm towers, people do swear the plants nearest the tower thrive but it has been suggested maybe not from worm casting but from the compost vegetation placed in the tube. Have you found any research that the worms hang out in the tubes?

[@CanadianPermacultureLegacy]

Not really, I just watched a Geoff Lawton video on it and thought I'd give it a whirl and see what I think.

[@marjanaavsec8392]

Is using wood chips two feet deep below the soil okay?🤔

[@CanadianPermacultureLegacy]

It can be. You will get nitrogen tie-up while they decompose, but as long as you are amending with compost and manure you can offset that. Once they break down, you will have one of the best garden beds you've ever seen (in about 4-6 years). It's a great long-term play.

[@mikewhite8893]

Do you have cucumber beetles , I got over run with them , I have read that they overwinter in wood,

[@CanadianPermacultureLegacy]

We do. We also grow in ways that provide a LOT of habitat for birds, dragonflies, bats, ladybugs, green lace wings, etc. So they have immense predator pressure. This is why growing FOR nature is important because it solves many problems before they start.

[@slaplapdog]

I wonder if biochar cold make good mulch? Its dark, so it would raise the temperatures of the soil some.

[@CanadianPermacultureLegacy]

Biochar actually has a thermal conductivity of 0.1 W/mk which puts it in thermal insulator category. So even though its black and would attract sunlight and can hold energy, it can't dissipate that energy to surrounding material very well.

[@pattylamb6055]

Do you have a video of how you build your raised beds?

[@CanadianPermacultureLegacy]

Yep if you sort by time released, it will be the video just before this one I think

[@PrayerOpensDoor]

Darn wished I would’ve know this particular method with worm bed included when I did my many beds. I just loaded the bottoms with wood. Excellent vid thanks for your time . 👍🏻🌟 btw, can I use straw for mulch, I have a lot of it and no leaves till fall?

[@CanadianPermacultureLegacy]

Absolutely. Straw mulch is probably the best, I would likely use it if I had access to it. We have a lot of leaves, so that's why we use them. Always use what's abundant and local!

[@baronsanggha9978]

Very informative and clear Hello, you've got a new subscriber,, congratulations 😁

[@CanadianPermacultureLegacy]

Thanks and welcome

[@dialecticcoma]

wouldnt stress about the steel mate, could just line the insides (i do that that with wooden raised beds anyways to make them last longer and retain water better)

[@johnransom1146]

Those beds would be perfect for the elderly or disabled. Nice height. And less watering down the road. You do look like that younger guy. I’ve always thought that you had a great mind in a great package so to speak. Lucky wife you have.

[@lindalyc]

also, did you cover the bottom with mesh to prevent moles climbing from under? thanks again.

[@CanadianPermacultureLegacy]

I didn't. I know a lot of people do, but they've never really bothered me here. Famous last words maybe. We definitely have moles and voles here, but they really enjoy the jerusalem artichoke patches, and I find they don't really show up anywhere else. At least not for 7 years or so now.

[@loveishope4406]

What are your thoughts on rabbit urine/feces compost?

[@CanadianPermacultureLegacy]

Great 👍

[@Skookman]

Outside of the topic. My water is very high in boron. 4.13 ppm. I live in the high desert and get very little rain. Any thoughts on how to reduce the boron and salts so that my water is plant friendly?

[@CanadianPermacultureLegacy]

I'm not a chemist so I'm always weary of giving advice where my expertise doesn't lie. I try to only talk about things that I'm extremely knowledgeable in, as a point of duty to my viewers, so they know when I say something, it's coming from a good place. I wouldn't want to guess. Sorry I couldn't be more help.

[@Skookman]

@@CanadianPermacultureLegacy I knew it was a long shot but being a bit desperate I thought it was worth asking. Keep up the good work. I watch and love all of your vids.

[@MsCaterific]

Won't the onions repel the worms?

[@CanadianPermacultureLegacy]

Nah, there were worms in the onion roots.

[@sqeekable]

I’m at 12 min mark, so maybe too early- but are you adding bio char?

[@CanadianPermacultureLegacy]

Yep :)

[@TheGDJames]

I'm from Britain. I've never seen dry leaves before, lol.

[@kastironwoman6009]

OH MAN- hugelkulturs are SUPER CONFUSING. We are in the middle of building hugelkulturs in our FRONT yard beginning with trenches, 2.5 to 3 feet deep depending on which side of the yard. Most of Northern Utah is a semi-arid desert - and I was told the dryer the area, the deeper the trenches need to be. In order to create a nice dividing line between our neighbors yard and ours, especially since they are extremely upset with what we have done, we are building a cement brick retaining wall between their yard and ours to build our hugelkultur berm against so they can have a distinct separation between our innovative "food forest" and their traditional grass lawn. But I tell you what- we are not doing it ANYTHING like you are. A fellow that also did raised hugelkultur beds in Box Elder County told me that rats & mice loved the air pockets they left inside-so you are providing a second witness. THANK YOU!!! . I was told that the air was good for the roots, but apparently not. 😱 We have 2 beds mostly built and we are going to take them apart except for the bottom level, (which is too big and heavy to take out) - and start over filling in with tons of horse manure and or soil. Plus we put in some bush cherry or scrub cherry or some such tree- it might be black cherry and the trunks will sprout if put in fresh, as well as willow, honey locust, and box elder wood. You have to avoid those if fresh!! I originally thought that you put dirt in-between the layers but was told not to do that but to leave spaces- but I definitely don't want rodents- when we lived in California we went thru that over and over again with the Norwegian Roof Rats. They are endemic there, so every wood or rock pile, every thick bush, every pile of junk, and every stand of Algerian Ivy is a potential home for rats. The more rats & mice you have the more they invade and take over sheds, your home, and even your car!!! The County even has a fellow that will visit your home for free and give advice on how to keep them out of your house and yard, pointing out every nook and cranny that they can squeeze through to gain access. Back to the hugelkultur: We got a load of horse manure delivered for free in exchange for our sprinkler pipes we were discarding. It was a win win. Since I am planning on planting permanent small trees and bushes, we are really putting in as much wood as possible beginning with huge 36" stumps & 4 feet long trunks, back to back, and so forth. I've read that hard woods are better for traditional hugelkulturs, and we are aiming on it lasting 10-20 years and becoming permanent - so maybe raised beds are different?? BUT I have some questions: you mentioned fungus dominated soil and bacteria dominated soil- how do you make one or the other? and I still don't understand what Bio-char is- if its as ancient as you say, where do you get it? Do you have to buy it? It looked like partially burned wood & ashes to me. And you inoculate your bio-char? to kill something? My favorite article about hugelkultur said to not over-think it, and that is what we are doing, but your right, have to avoid honey & black locust, Cedar, redwood and one you didn't mention that is on everyones avoid list, is black walnut. It kills plants.

[@CanadianPermacultureLegacy]

Great comment! I'll try to get to all of this stuff. For the black walnut, it's definitely another to try to avoid. I think it's a little overblown, especially on the wood side. The main concentration of juglone is in the roots, the husks of the fruit, and the leaves. The wood often tests at levels 1000 times lower than the husk for example. So, it's good to consider, but I personally wouldn't worry about it. More concerning to me is the sumac. Sumac will do everything you mention about willow and cherry, it will just simply establish itself in the bed if you put fresh sumac in there. I had to dig quite a bit of it out of there, because I had it in a "to burn" pile, and they loaded it in the bins, even though I said to not load any of that wood. It was the main reason I decided to re-do these. That, and virginia creeper vine!!! That would have been brutal. I had to carefully remove all that as well, and put it back into my biochar pile. For the biochar, I have an entire playlist on it which you can check out. Totally agree with everything else. I'm always cautious that I'm doing things that may promote rats, because my wife is just so terrified of them. Thankfully, we put owl houses everywhere, we have fox dens on our land, and I leave rock piles here and there for snakes (since we don't have any venomous snakes here) and I think if rats did show up, we'd have a natural predator force to hopefully deal with them. Cross fingers.

[@kastironwoman6009]

@@CanadianPermacultureLegacy Checking out the biochar now. Thanks. Still a bit confused but working on it. Gotta get me one of those 50 gallon cans to burn in!!! Another thing is that we have 1/3 of an acre, so a much smaller space. Not sure about aging biochar and wood for several years before using/burning it-but i'd rather put in the ashes and biochar than rotten wood that will be gone in a flash. I suppose I can gather wood along the creek that looks old that we could burn.

[@PrairieJournals]

Oh good idea🇨🇦🧡

[@jimcharles270]

4:30 Bob Ross moment 😇❤

[@chriswhite6326]

I’m puzzled. You didn’t put in any soil. Like sand or clay.

[@CanadianPermacultureLegacy]

The biochar/compost mix is about 50% native soil. When I plant my annuals this year, I will add more compost/soil mix and will likely go a little heavier with soil, so that the plants are forced to go deep looking for nutrients. This bed is also really geared up so that it's going to be optimal in time, less so focused on this season.

[@MsCaterific]

💚

[@georgettesavard4347]

🙌

[@jorgee7470]

My concern is using plastics that isnt food grade in a garden. I wouldnt use this practice in my garden. Would be worse than using synthetic or organic fertilizer.

[@debbiehenri345]

Ugh, the slugs and snails are terrible in Scotland. We must have every species available where I live. Over time, through years of frustration, I finally got round it by 'not' planting the most susceptible types of food plant in the ground. The smallest types of the most susceptible ones are grown in pots, on racks, around the cottage walls, which has a tarmac driveway around 2 sides. I've tried all the anti-slug ideas (beer traps, copper tape, lime, soot, ash, outdoors at midnight with a torch and collecting bucket, etc, etc). Blah. None of them work. In the UK, if you live in a problem area you just have to go with slug resistant hybrids of things like 'Kestrel' potatoes and ditch those plants that are slug magnets. It's not even a 100% solution to make a trough table with all 4 feet in buckets of water, because in a strong wind can make slugs and snails 'rain' out of trees (no kidding). Slugs lace Rhubarb leaves. They stampede through 'Sweet' Violets. Brassicas - forget it. Lettuce... (cue insane laughter). I even had to move my very young potted Mulberry seedlings onto high wire racks, because slugs climbed up the side of my wooden seed tray table and scraped the bark off them, destroying most. So I will have to grow these much taller before I dare put them in the ground. Through experimentation, I have found that slugs and snails don't like slightly weathered zinc galvanised steel 'quite' so much, particularly wire mesh fencing. So I dredge bits of abandoned fence rolls out of ditches by farmer's fields, fold them up (with difficulty), place them on upturned plastic crates so they are above any low-level foliage, and balance small troughs of edible lupins on top of them. Believe me, they look as ridiculous as they sound, the plants never grow to their full size, they certainly don't produce as many beans as they should, and it does mean manically checking them several times a day (because there's always 'one'), but I love edible lupins and I 'will' grow them every year. Hügelkultur is something I do on a very small scale. In large pots, with certain plants. If I put large structures like that straight on the ground every vole, mole, mouse, slug and snail with be clicking their heels and flying up inside of them. Since I have such problems with slugs and snails already, I don't want issues with other creatures as well when growing things in raised beds. So, I sit large plastic pots on plastic sheets and fix a layer of small gauge mesh in the bottom to cover large holes. That keeps the burrowers at bay and I just don't plant mollusc-friendly veggies.

[@CanadianPermacultureLegacy]

This comment was fun to read! Yikes. Snails raining out of trees! 😆 🤣

[@johnrockyakarambobalboa8898]

I did dis alot