Hugelkultur

Wooden debris will decompose faster,
(and be transformed into a resource)
when hugelkultur techniques are
employed.

If you have trees that were taken down from Sandy, this is a great way to make something good out of the destruction.

Used for centuries in Eastern Europe and Germany, hugelkultur (in German hugelkultur translates roughly as “mound culture”) is a gardening and farming technique whereby woody debris (fallen branches and/or logs) are used as a resource.
Often employed in permaculture systems, hugelkultur allows gardeners and farmers to mimic the nutrient cycling found in a natural woodland to realize several benefits. Woody debris (and other detritus) that falls to the forest floor can readily become sponge like, soaking up rainfall and releasing it slowly into the surrounding soil, thus making this moisture available to nearby plants.
Hugelkultur garden beds (and hugelkultur ditches and swales) using the same principle to:

• Help retain moisture on site
• Build soil fertility
• Improve drainage
• Use woody debris that is unsuitable for other use

Applicable on a variety of sites, hugelkultur is particularly well suited for areas that present a challenge to gardeners. Urban lots with compacted soils, areas with poor drainage, limited moisture, etc., can be significantly improved using a hugelkultur technique, as hugelkultur beds are, essentially, large, layered compost piles covered with a growing medium into which a garden is planted.
Creating a hugelkultur garden bed is a relatively simple process:
1. Select an area with approximately these dimensions: 6 feet by 3 feet
2. Gather materials for the project:

• Fallen logs, branches, twigs, fallen leaves (the “under utilized” biomass from the site). Avoid using cedar, walnut or other tree species deemed allelopathic.
• Nitrogen rich material (manure or kitchen waste work well and will help to maintain a proper carbon to nitrogen ratio in the decomposing mass within the hugelkulter bed).
• Top soil (enough to cover the other layers of the bed with a depth of 1 – 2”) and some mulching material (straw works well).

3. Lay the logs (the largest of the biomass debris) down as the first layer of the hugelkulter bed. Next, add a layer of branches, then a layer of small sticks and twigs. Hugelkultur beds work best when they are roughly 3 feet high (though this method is forgiving, and there is no fixed rule as to the size of the bed. That is where the “art” comes in!)
4. Water these layers well
5. Begin filling in spaces between the logs, twigs and branches with leaf litter and manure of kitchen scraps.
6. Finally, top off the bed with 1 – 2” of top soil and a layer of mulch.
The hugelkulter bed will benefit from “curing” a bit, so it is best to prepare the bed several months prior to planting time (prepare the bed in the fall for a spring planting, for example, in temperate northern climates), but hugelkultur beds can be planted immediately. Plant seeds or transplants into the hugelkulter bed as you would any other garden bed. Happy hugelkulturing!

End of summer

Another summer has swiftly come to an end.  The garden is still producing baskets of produce.  My freezer is filling up and I am looking forward to a slow down in the garden.

Here is a quick recap of the summer.  Our corn did great this year.  We planted honey select and it was delicious.  We picked approx. 450 ears - froze some, sold some and ate some.  We had 7 fifty foot rows so we were happy with the amount of ears that were produced.  We watered twice - once when the corn was waist high and once when it started to tassle.  When planting the seed, vermicompost was sprinkled on top of the seeds before closing the furrow.  Leaf mulch was spread between the rows and we side dressed with compost after the corn was about 1 foot high.  I went through the rows once or twice and pulled the few weeds that emerged (maybe 15 min. total spent weeding).

I have struggled with the tomatoes this year.  They developed septoria leaf spot.  They look ugly but are still producing nice tomatoes.  I sprayed the tomatoes specifically with compost tea that had trichoderma added to the brewing cycle.  Nothing else was done.  Trichoderma fungi is a beneficial fungi that occurs naturally in the soil.  It will consume disease causing fungi.  Most diseases that affect tomatoes are fungal - early blight, late blight, leaf spot.  I did not start spraying soon enough to prevent the disease from occurring but the spray definately held it at bay.

I am picking loads of peppers - red, yellow, orange, purple, hungarian wax.  The peppers were trouble free this year.  We have dug many pounds of potatoes.  My goal was to produce 100 lbs. in a 50 ft row.  I was inconsistent with weighing them as I dug them so I think that I will be close.  I still have some fingerlings and a few late plants to dig.  The sweet potatoes look good and time will tell how abundant the harvest is.

I have started picking the second planting of green beans and am picking lima beans.  I have harvested large eggplants and they are still hanging full.  We are eating luscious watermelons. 

One the the best things that I planted this spring was a day neutral strawberry.  I planted 10 Seascape roots in the spring and mulched them with rotted wood chips.  I pulled the blossoms off until the end of June and did not allow any runners to grow.  This allows a strong crown to develop.  I did water them one time during the driest part of the summer.  Once they started producing fruit, I have been picking about a pint every few days.  The berries are sweet and a nice size.  It is a wonderful treat to have fresh strawberries.  I would recommend this for every home garden. 

More later.

Cucumber Beetles

This is the time of year that adult cucumber beetles will begin to appear in the garden. You will first notice the leaves of cucumber and squash or melon plants being eaten.  The mated beetles will lay eggs at the base of the plant.  About this time of the year, the eggs will hatch and the larvae will dig down into the soil and start feeding on the roots of the plants for about six weeks.  After they emerge as adults, the next problem they cause is spreading disease.


Spraying with chemicals or organic sprays is only a bandaid to the real problem.  If your soil has a healthy community of predatory nematodes, they will control the beetles.  Predatory nematodes feed on the larvae of beetles.   Last year I had cucumber beetles and squash beetles on my plants.  It was not an infestation but there was damage.  This year I have not seen any damage yet.  I did find 3 Colorado potato beetles on my potatoes.  Last year my potatoes were badly damaged but survived.  By adding our vermicompost to the soil, I am reintroducing the life that is necessary for a healthy soil community.


Cucumbers

Zucchini

Water, erosion and earthworms

It has been raining here consistently over the past week and the forecast for the upcoming week is predicting more rain.  Here are some interesting facts about water retention in soil, erosion and the role that earthworms play in the soil's ability to hold water.

Earthworms improve water absorption and prevent erosion.  The castings increase the water stability of the soil, because earthworms castings can take a direct hit by a raindrop and maintain their shape, which reduces erosion and runoff and helps the soil absorb water.  A research study conducted in Minnesota showed that earthworms added to cornfields increased water absoption rates 35 times over control fields without the earthworms within a six-week period.  In soil in a field with 100 night crawlers per square yard, 2 inches of water (a very heavy rainfall) could be absorbed by the soil in 12 minutes.  The same soil without earthworms took over twelve hours to absorb that much water (USDA National Soil Tilth Lab).  Another study found that if the top 3 feet of soil contained 25 percent macropores (earthworm burrows), then that soil should  be able to absorb at least a 9 inch rainfall without runoff.  Note that tilling the soil not only kills beneficial fungi but reduces the number of earthworms, which affects runoff.  One study showed that on a sloping field with no-till practices, there were 155 earthworm holes per square yard and an average runoff of 0.08 inches per year.  This compares to a tilled field with 6 holes per square yard and 4.9 inches of runoff per year (the average rainfall for this area is 39.4 inches).

To attract and promote earthworms, the soil needs to be mulched with organic mulches that help stabilize soil temperature and moisture.  The mulch provides food and shelter for earthworms.  Native mulch and compost are the most valuable for promoting earthworms.  The increased particle surface area of the small particle sizes in native mulches that have been ground also allows for the greater microbial activity that is preferred by worms.  Worms ingest mulches for the microbes that inhabit the surfaces.

Some scientists now believe that earthworms have the potential to eliminate soil erosion.  This could save society billions of dollars in erosion control, reduce pollution from dangerous synthetic chemicals, and improve the environment.

The secret to attracting earthworms to your soil in to restore the diversity of soil life that is needed for a balanced soil foodweb.  We are building that diversity into our worm bins continually.  Our goal is to provide the building blocks for a healthy soil community. 

Spring Garden

pansies

pansies at back door

bleeding heart

 I thought that I would post some pictures of some of my favorite spring plants.

clematis

viola wreath

onions

romaine lettuce

I am lagging behind in my garden. It has been a busy spring for us. Here are some pictures of what I have planted. Hopefully this weekend will be productive.  We are eating lettuce and asparagus and enjoying the taste of fresh produce again.

potatoes

carrots

swiss chard

red iceberg lettuce

broccoli

bibb lettuce

Why soil biology matters

We have been taught that an ideal soil PH is between 6.5 and 6.8.  Did you know that annuals require nitrogen in the form of NO 3 (nitrate) and that form of nitrogen is only produced naturally in soil in a PH of 7.0 or higher.  If the soil PH is lower than 7.0 the nitrogen available is in the form of ammonium that is used by perennials, shrubs and trees but not by annuals.  So we add commercials fertilizer and our annual plants grow bigger than when we didn't add any fertilizer.  We are then convinced that the only way to grow plants that look healthy is to add commercial fertilizer. 

How did plants grow and thrive before the advent of commercial fertilizers?  If we believe what the chemical companies tell us about the need for their products, we would have to assume that plants have never in the history of the earth been so beautiful and healthy as they are today.  We know that isn't true, so how does nature work?

The microorganisms that inhabit the soil know how to cycle nitrogen better than any man made product can ever hope to accomplish.  PH becomes a mute point when you allow the microorganisms to do their job.  They control the PH and that will change many times during the coarse of a plant's life.  The plant sends signals through the exudates at the roots what it needs.  If the soil biology is present in sufficient quantities, they react to that signal and produce the nutrients that the plant is asking for.  The plant is supplying the organisms with the sugars that they need for energy to supply the plants with their needs.  It is a relationship that has worked for thousands of years without any help from man. 

So what can we do to restore the life in the soil that we have done such a good job of destroying?  Start by understanding what the effects of each additive or spray we are told to use is to the life in the soil.  When you hold soil in your hand, know that there are millions and millions of life forms working for your benefit in that handful.  They want to do the work that they are designed to do.  I, for one, am happy to stop spending money on something that nature does so much better than man can ever do.

Healthy soil makes healthy plants that make healthy food.

Gardener's Day at Zwingli Church

I will be at the Gardener's Day at Zwingli UCC in Souderton on Saturday.  I will be demonstrating aerated compost tea,  how to make extracted tea and how to make humic acid.  We will have our vermicompost for sale and will show the process from start to finish.  Here is the link for the Gardener's Day.
http://www.zwingli.org/gday.php

Stop by and ask me what I learned this week at Rodale Institute!  We will have a bowl full of worms (gummy) waiting for you!