I was going through our local library and came across the topic of Hugelkultur which I believe now translates to permaculture. Since you are a .org, I thought it might be worthwhile to join and share ideas. The permaculture concept is extremely interesting considering there are lots of logs on the land and I don't really know what to do with them other than invite some friends over and do a bonfire. After a while, it seems like a waste of resources to just burn them. In any case, the most perplexing thing to me is how does one bury the logs with soil without digging or using excavators? For one, I do not own a trailer to be able to haul an excavator over. Secondly, it is quite costly to rent an excavator. Looking for a good conversation on soil for mound building. Digging or no digging, I believe displaced soil won't be enough to create a mound. So, what does permaculture think soil is and where to get it? Looking forward to your encouragement in creating a successful start with permaculture even if it is a small start. Hopefully, I can learn a lot, successfully experiment and spread the wisdom of permaculture.
Welcome to the PRI Forums CMCNeal, Permaculture is the art and practice of living in concert with nature, rather than in conflict. Much of the western world's practice seeks to dominate nature and force it to submit to our short-term, profit-driven approaches (especially with regards to agriculture). Geoff Lawton has used the metaphor of Permaculture as a wardrobe, with hugelkultur being one of many techniques/hangars within that wardrobe. Swales, mulch pits, guilds, and hugelkultur are all techniques that follow the patterns nature has set-out for us to emulate, with an overarching goal of building living soil (which is essentially the basis for everything!). Hugelkultur is the result of observation of natural processes such as "nurse logs" and dead tree stumps/trunks, how the wood trunks decompose, and how they nurture other plants As far as hugelkultur mound construction goes, this article describes both small and large scale hugel-beds: https://permaculturenews.org/2012/01/04/hugelkultur-composting-whole-trees-with-ease/ If we look at hugelkultur as "composting whole trees", we can see that adding nitrogen (such as manures and green vegetation) to the mainly carbon tree parts will greatly accelerate the composting process while providing a moisture source and nutrients for hugel-bed plantings. Hope this helps your project to move forward. Looking forward to hearing about your progress!
hello and welcome, you can just use them as edges if you have areas on a slope to hold back what might be flowing downhill. i don't burn anything if i can help it. i consider that a huge waste of energy (all that wood being reduced to ash). burying does speed up some forms of decomposition, but in MN you have enough surface soil moisture that it should go fairly quickly anyways. if they are newly fallen trees you can cut them in sections and innoculate with different fungi for growing mushrooms. or you can just move them off to the side and let nature take care of them. after a few years as they get beetles and grubs in there various animals will start helping the process along by tearing them apart looking for those. i bury things here a lot of the time because i cannot do as much cover planting as i'd like and that is the only way to help increase soil carbon and also because i find most composting methods more work than i want to put in and the soil community does as well of a job as a fast compost heap, but it is slower. it's ok with me... p.s. bury too deep in clay and they may not rot for many many years...
Thank you for the warm welcome and advice. I definitely do not want to put in a lot of work into building a garden as I have a day job and budget limitations. I also believe that gardening should be a hobby for everyone. In short, it should not cost much to enjoy gardening. I have looked at the links Ganda1f has shared. One of the links mentioned top soil. I know that top soil is the top layer of the soil. But if that is not enough to bury logs, is top soil sold in home improvement stores the same as top soil being mentioned in the article? Thanks in advance for enlightening me..
Topsoil is alive with bacteria, fungi, and other tiny critters who work to break down organic materials and make it available to plant root systems. I'm afraid that purchased topsoil most likely doesn't contain living creatures. Instead of bagged 'topsoil' you might try obtaining some compost from a local composting facility, which should be rich in soil life and work well with your hugel beds.
