My version of a Hugelkultur raised garden bed

[Aussie-Garden]

G'day everyone.

1 Year ago, I had  left over Colorbond from when our house was built and decided to make a raised garden bed with that and scrap wood.

One problem I had with a very low budget project, was how the heck do I fill a large bed with that much soil on a low budget? 

I couldn't dig it from the yard as we are on an inland island and it's all sand here and I only had a little bit of compost from the previous house.

One night online, I discovered Hugelkultur, which if I understand correctly, is an old German method of building up raised beds with logs, branches and organic matter and growing your produce in the soil above that. Then, as time goes by, the wood and stuff underneath will eventually rot down and become nice organic matter for your garden bed.

I back onto a forest, so I used debris along my fence line, which ranged from very thick branches, down to twigs and leaves.

Apologies for the long read and here are some photos of what I did back then...

It's almost 1 year later now , so next month I will remove the strawberries and broccoli I have in it now and will dig down to above the branches and give it one big turnover. That will be the first time all those upper layers have been mixed, so I'm keen to see what it all looks like after a year of watering, rain and having small crops growing on top.

[Aussie-Garden]

Just a small update for anyone who is interested...

I turned over the soil deeply for the first time the other day and pretty much everything other than the big logs and branches at the bottom have broken down.

Smaller twigs pretty much crumbled in my hands. Any leaves or cardboard in the upper layers are unrecognizable.

Very happy with how it has turned out and I would imagine that it would be a few years at least, before those big logs and branches broke down at the bottom.

[Old-gal24]

It's been very interesting reading your article @Aussie-Garden I did much the same when I built some big garden beds around the back of my home.  More so because I didn't like the idea of wheel-burrowing any more than I had too!  It took close to a 6 x 4 trailer load as it was.  I had lots of branches from neighbors overhanging tree's I needed to dispose of and was so over filling my green bins with them.  So thought why not fill up the large garden bed bases with them and all of the excess newspapers & cardboard boxes I had from moving here.  I haven't been as diligent as you.  I didn't do such exact layering.  And I haven't turned the garden beds over now it's been close to a year.  I also planted more permanent shrubs in mine.  Things are growing, so I figure all must be okay.

Thanks again for sharing.

This old gal

[Aussie-Garden]

Hi @Old-gal24.

That sounds superb!

I had no experience with it prior to my attempt and it's such a great concept for people wanting to dispose of such waste and great for people on a budget, where they only need to purchase and use just enough soil on top for whatever they are planting.

[querencia]

Thanks so much for posting this @Aussie-Garden   What a great project. I did something similar to this about 10 years ago when turning 4 old bathtubs into raised garden beds. I used dead branches, leaves and horse poo. The crops were fantastic! The sweetest tomatoes ever, almost as sweet as lollies, and most abundant crops of peas. I had no idea that what I did was actually a real method!

[mich1972]

Very happy seeing this @Aussie-Garden
Can’t wait to see all of your beautiful produce from it 🥰🥰

[karischi]

Hi @Aussie-Garden

thanks for sharing your experience

I’m interested how your colorbond has fared since you built the raised hugel bed. I was about to build the same as you but found out the colorbond will corrode quickly due to contact with the soil. What’s your experience with this please?

[EricL]

Hello @karischi, 

Welcome to the Bunnings Workshop community. It's fantastic to have you join us, and thanks for sharing your question about the Colorbond panels.

It's great that this project has inspired you to build one of your own. Let me tag @Aussie-Garden to make sure they see your kind words and questions. One way to protect the Colorbond from soil contact is to build a timber structure with panels first then place the Colorbond outside as a cover. Another alternative would be to line the inside of the structure with builder's plastic before filling it with soil.

Once you proceed in building your own raised garden bed, please make sure to post an update. I'm sure our members will be keen to see what it looks like.

Eric

[Aussie-Garden]

G'day @karischi 

I am so sorry for not replying sooner.

I rarely come back to the forum due to some things going on in my life here, but I am trying to come back slowly as it's a great source of information and help.

The Colorbond on these beds looks great after all this time. There are no signs of rust, warping or degradation of any kind after maybe 4 years or so?

The colour still looks the same and that's no surprise as it's meant to be on a roof for decades.

My only regret is that I did not take it all when I saw it being disposed of when they were building my home.