Hello ECHO Community!
Last week at ECHO North America we set up a Hügelkultur (“hill culture”) bed in the Urban Garden. This is a traditional German technique where decaying wood and other plant materials are mounded to create a raised bed. It has resurfaced and gained popularity in Permaculture circles such as in the book The Permaculture City by Toby Hemenway. Hemenway describes the benefits as holding moisture between rains, releasing mineral nutrients, providing organic matter, and generating heat as it decomposes.
In the Urban Garden context, I was interested in how planting on a slope would allow for better use of scarce land. Also, we are testing if the benefits will transfer from a temperate climate to a subtropical climate like we have in Florida.
I have attached photos I took throughout the process. We dug 8’x4’ trench then layered in logs, mulch, branches and leaves, manure, and coarse compost with soil and water in between each layer to fill in air spaces.
- Have you tried this idea, what has been your experience?
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@Julianna_Mueller Thank you for sharing!
After hurricane Irma in 2017 we had so much debris in our yard, but didn’t want to waste all that good organic matter by putting it on the side of the road to be collected so my husband built a 10ft long hugelkultur bed in our backyard and we grew moringa and cassava on it for years. All that remains now is a low bump, but the soil in that area is particularly rich! We recently used that soil to build a mound to plant an avocado tree on in order to protect it from flooding in the summer.
When being built in 2018
Now in 2025
Life gave you lemons and you made lemonade! I’m looking forward to rich soil one day
One part of our veggie garden is particularly dry because of its location and close proximity to a hedge. I created one of these two years ago and it made a huge impact. (In Australia).
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UPDATE
The bed is doing really well growing cabbage and bok choy! I planted radishes and mizuna on the other side, and they are coming up well too. On the bed in the back, I planted Austrian Winter Pea as a green manure cover crop. The roots should help prevent the sand from eroding before I’m ready to plant my next flight.
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