In looking at designing interesting and productive gardens, one of the gardens at Synchronicity Farm is set up as a Hugelkultur with a vision to trial this method of taking a long term view to the development of low energy, long term food production systems.
Hugelkultur ‘Hill Mound’ or ‘Hill Culture’ are the ultimate in no-dig raised beds that mimic the patterns in nature that occurs in an old forest floor. To build a garden using this method, the bed is constructed from layers of softwood and hardwood logs and sticks interspersed with compost, leaves, newspaper, green material, grass clippings, manure, seaweed and all sorts of organic material. The result is a diverse mixture of elements that will take over 10-20 years to slowly rot down and release nutrients in the perfect form for plants to utilise.
Because the logs and branches hold lots of moisture much like a natural sponge, the Hugelkultur will become more moist over time which helps to build fertility, maximise surface volume and create great spaces for growing fruit, vegetables and herbs.
As the wood and other materials rot down, the deep soil in the garden bed becomes diverse, rich and teeming with soil life. One of the benefits of this design is that after the first few years, the composting process will slightly warm the soil which creates a microclimate that will support growth in the Hugelkultur even longer than the season in a standard garden bed.
We have grand plans to develop series of these functional and beautiful gardens in other areas on the farm as we see the success of this first one evolving.