Hugelbeds at Meadow Orchard

If you are familiar with our Blog, you might have read our post about Hugelkulture. Most of our raised beds at MOP feature an element of hugelkultur, but most are what is known as below ground hugel beds.

Below Ground Hugel

In this style of bed a pit is dug out (the soil put to one side for use later). The pit is then filled with a layer of large logs, with smaller woody material in between the gaps. Green kitchen scraps and garden waste material is used to fill any voids between the logs. The pit is then covered with part composted material and a layer of soil. The soil excavated from the pit initially is used to cover up the mound.

In these types of bed, the resulting mound is lower. It is basically using a layer of logs to raise the height of the finished raised bed. You can use boards or logs to edge the bed. This semi raised bed can help with accessibility. You do of course gain all the other benefits of hugelkultur as mentioned in the link above.

Depending on your soil type, depth or topsoil, soil conditions, groundwater, annual rainfall and access to irrigation, the construction of the hugel may differ. It is also dependent on what kind of organic waste streams you have access to and size and type of logs.

Above Ground Hugel

In this type of bed, rather than digging a pit, the logs are laid directly on the ground in a kind of pyramid shape. Organic matter is used to infill the gaps between the logs as with the below ground bed.

The difference over the below ground bed is that the resulting bed is a much higher mound. It is in effect not much more than a log pile with a cover or organic matter and soil. This method is ideal if you have a lot of large logs and you want to compost those, but also get the benefit from growing in that area as they break down. You could fell a large mature tree and earth over it with smaller logs, organic matter and soil.

This bed being a mound will have more planting diversity, the south facing side being raised will offer more sunlight, whilst the north facing side will suit plants more adapted for semi shade.

A Hybrid Bed

This bed is a mix of both above ground and below ground hugelbeds, it provides the benefits of the below ground bed, with a lower resulting mound than with the above ground bed. The soil removed to create a trench for the lowest layer of logs is used to cover the hugel.

Hügelkultur at MOP