New Hugelkultur raised beds

Well, I got up this morning not feeling too perky but after my coffee, tea & a bc plus a whole lotta determination, gathered my tools and made 2 more raised beds.  Actually, I didn't quite finnish one of them....ran outta go power.  Anyways, here they are....not pretty but functional.



 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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Composting Chickens

I dumped some more leaves in the chicken yard.  As you can see my lil composting buddies went straight to work scratching, pecking & pooping.  Love watching them work.

 

 

 

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Today's project: Cold Frame

Well I got a little bit of work done this morning.  Doesn't take much to tire this ole lady out.  I've been wanting a cold frame & didn't have the material on hand to make the one I wanted...so I worked with what I had on hand....cinder blocks, landscape timbers....2 old windows and leaves....This is the finnished product.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Bush sweet peas in the homemade paper seed pots.  Some may think I'm a lil weird for not sowing them directly in the ground but.....hey, that's the way I roll :)

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Vertical Hugelkultur

Now this is really cool.

 

Source: lowcostvegetablegarden.blogspot.com via Vel's on Pinterest

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Hugelkultur Containers

You can also use this method for your container plants....saves on potting soil :)

 

 



Source: homesteadingdownsized.com via Vel's on Pinterest

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Cinnamon...Rooting Hormone Substitute

Source: allthingsplants.com via Vel's on Pinterest

Use cinnamon as a substitute for rooting hormone.  It kills fungus & bacteria as well.....who knew??? Pin It

Hugelkultur Raised Beds

I've been doing some research on hugelkultur and have plans to make several raised veggie beds using this method.. 

 

Please visit http://www.richsoil.com/hugelkultur/ for more detailed information.....

 

"Hugelkultur is nothing more than making raised garden beds filled with rotten wood. This makes for raised garden beds loaded with organic material, nutrients, air pockets for the roots of what you plant, etc. As the years pass, the deep soil of your raised garden bed becomes incredibly rich and loaded with soil life. As the wood shrinks, it makes more tiny air pockets - so your hugelkultur becomes sort of self tilling. The first few years, the composting process will slightly warm your soil giving you a slightly longer growing season. The woody matter helps to keep nutrient excess from passing into the ground water - and then refeeding that to your garden plants later. Plus, by holding SO much water, hugelkultur could be part of a system for growing garden crops in the desert with no irrigation."

 

Leaves, twigs & fallen limbs are abundant in my yard due to the many trees mostly in the backyard.  Usually we pile them up and burn them but this is certainly a much better alternative.  I took advantage of the nice weather the other day and made one bed.

 

This is the bed filled with limbs, twigs, leaves & some rotting logs.

Compost from the chicken yard....leaves, hay, chicken poop and worms.

 

 I spread the compost in the bed , watered it down and will cover with mulched leaves.  I am using my son's mulching push mower but it took an attitude yesterday....ran for awhile, sputtered then died...darn mower.  Hubby promised to look at it this evening when he gets off work so that project is delayed till tomorrow.  Can't wait to get my plants in there!!!

 

 

 

 



 



 

 



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