Huglekultur?

The subject of raised beds has come up again on the DTE forum this week and one of the moderators posted this link to huglekultur on the thread. I found it very interesting as I've already made beds from piles of thin rotting sticks, dead weeds and leaves and my capsicums have thrived in them. As I also don't have a dedicated compost bin/s I make garden waste into piles to  become mulch/compost.

As it was a lovely day today I decided to do some cleaning up in the vege garden. This is my trial run of a fibrous huglekultur using woody green weeds and dead mulberry leaves on the bottom then layers of farmer's friends and pumpkin vines with a topcoat of mainly alder and rotting loquat leaves, mixed through with the humus that was underneath them when I raked them up, along with some soil. All this was wet down liberally with water and when it decomposes will be part of the filling for a new raised bed on this spot.

A good afternoon's work and later in the week I'll water it with comfrey and nettle solution to assist  the decomposition.

Meanwhile, I have my eye on a pile of assorted dead branches/trees that DH is waiting to dry out so he can burn them. They'd make a great base for a big huglekultur in the pumpkin patch area!

Cheers,
Robyn xo