These raised garden beds are being made according to the principles of hugulkultur.
Hugul what?
Hugelkultur means “hill culture”, so the beds are first filled with logs, branches, and twigs. Other organic materials are put on top, like grass clippings, manure, compost, and then topsoil. All the goodies that are needed to fill this veggie patch.
Hugelkultur raised garden beds work the same as the natural world’s forest composting. The wood rots and adds goodness to the soil, just like you see on the rainforest floor. It also means the bulk of the beds are already filled with material, so it saves importing topsoil, etc.
So where did we get the wood, twigs and branches from? A “weed” – a golden rain tree that was growing near the gully.
In order to prevent the grass from growing up through the beds, our wonderful team of volunteers dug out the grass and cleared it before the branches went in. And guess what Phil dug up? A dinosaur!
