3 ms·
I wonder: 1. Is this effective without "sod," i.e. can you just shovel your local dirt onto it? 2. Would it work with wood chips? The second point is interes
by biztos 6y ago
I wonder:
1. Is this effective without "sod," i.e. can you just shovel your local dirt onto it?
2. Would it work with wood chips?
The second point is interesting to me because I know someone who's about to come into a large quantity of 100% organic natural pine chips and has no idea what to do with them, other than pay someone to take them to the dump.
- alexose 6y agoLots of gardeners would love to take those wood chips off his hands! There's even a clever startup for this exact problem (see: https://getchipdrop.com/ https://getchipdrop.com/)
- oh_sigh 6y agoGrassed over improves water entry to the hill (instead of forming small streams and running downhill as it might on a dirt hill), and also prevents erosion. It would work with wood chips just fine, but you may want to supplement with actual logs as well. Otherwise you'll need to build your hill very high, or keep rebuilding the hill for a few years(a pile of wood chips has way more air in it than a log, and will compress way more than log would).
- deleted 6y ago[deleted]
- markdown 6y agoWood chips would work better for the short term, but for long-term use (on the scale of 1-3 decades), using logs would be better.
- aliswe 6y agoHugelbeds are said to be "needed" of rebuilding in about 3 years before their production efficiency deteriorates Edit: That said I agree with the short term distinction for wood chips. Edit 2: I'm guessing the 3 year thing comes from the breaking down of everything except the logs.
- foxhop 6y agoDon't bury woodchips into hugelkultur, I found that to not work. Better to use woodchips after digging swales/garden paths on contour as fill for the swale. After 3-4 years dig the garden paths again as the woodchips are ready to be applied to garden beds having mostly decomposed by then into a perfect growing material/medium. Woodchips having so much more surface area _really_ shocks the soil and starves it of all nitrogen, a key element needed by bacteria and fungus in their decomposition process. Nitrogen deficit soils don't grow plants.