I finally got around to making a start on the mother of all Hugel Beds at the top of my olive terraces.
It was actually a relief to find a decent bit of steep slope ready to receive A LOT of vegetative material, I'm sick of burning stuff and I'd really rather my vegetation ended up as good old compost.
It was a bloody mess to start with...
I say 'mother of all hugel beds' - it's really more of a 'chop and drop' type composting system TBH given that I've really just chopped down most of the the mainly Broom that was standing in place (huge fire risk) and then made a bit of effort in stacking it neatly.
Broom is very 'expansive stuff' - many of my mature plants were 6 feet tall with multiple stems branching out making them as wide, but if you cut the individual branches off near the base it makes flattening them out much easier.
Something else I had to contend with was sorting out some of the carnage where the driveway had been made - I kind of want this whole area to end up looking nice, but that may take a few years and only happen once things have established.
I left in some broom and cistus near where any young oak saplings had established themselves - I think they'll appreciate the shade in the hot summer, and I'm sure there's a symbiotic root system under the soil that i don't want to disturb too near to the new trees!
And there was even one oak tree I mulched around....
As I mentioned earlier ATM it just looks like a lot of felled broom rather than a hugel bed, but eventually I will add layers of bark, earth and compost to this to cover it up for planting in to....
They only problem is I'm really not sure what to plant!
Something else to research.....
I've only really just made a start on it, this is between the main task of the moment which is finishing off the inside of the house, but to be honest all I wanted to achieve was the feeling of having made some progress, and I feel like I've done that....
It's defo a lot neater, the idea isn't to get rid of ALL the broom - and all the plant life to the left is all welcome, it's all staying in!
I'll get back to this at some point this month and maybe hopefully find a couple of hours a day in the summer early mornings to progress it!
The best friend of the Hügel builder is a wood chipper. It's not a tool that most of us just have hanging around, but if you know someone who does, and could get your hands on it for a weekend, it would make your Hugel beds look like they build themselves.
I did think about buying one a year ago but decided against it - i guess because it all rots down in the end anyway!
Also I think you'd need an industrial one for the broom - it just cloggs up the smaller ones, I don't know anyone with an industrial one!
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You always start the big jobs without telling me first. Don't you know I'm an expert supervisor and have so many pointers and observations I could say to you whilst you toiled?
Becca 💗
I'll keep that in mind for the next one, oh damn, already started it!
I think you'd get tired of me suggesting much better ways to do things and comments like, put your back into it, quite quickly. 😁
Becca 💗🌷
You'd be helping!
I do like to be helpful.