those are gonna be some big mounds! 
This thread inspired me to do a little more hugeling. The back of my plot at the community garden has a steep drop, so I decided to make a retaining wall and use some wood to fill it out. I had most of the construction material on hand from some scrounging, so it just cost me around $20 for some more spikes and the last few pieces of landscape timber to finish it off. Here was after I built it and I had dug out one side and put in some old rotting oak my neighbor wanted to get rid of. That is five buckets of compost from my compost pile waiting to go in as well.
Here is the mess of soil and weeds I dug out before putting in the wood - lots of rhizome types so I had to get it all out of it will just come back from the roots and take over. This is all screened to remove weeds, rocks and rhizomes/roots before going back in. When everything is done, I’ll cover the soil with a layer of newspaper and then wood chips to mulch things and keep the weed seed that I’m sure is in the soil from getting a start.
I screened the dirt and compost, alternating about a half bucket of each at a time.
And when everything was back in it looked pretty good … and I was totally exhausted. I’ll tackle getting the other side dug out, filled with wood and the contents screened and cleaned another day. While it was a lot of work, the logs filling up the bottom is much cheaper than buying some quality dirt to fill the beds, plus hopefully I’ll get those nice hugel benefits for any dry spells, etc.
I have declined Black Gold after reading some reviews that said it lacked flavour.
@zendog Thanks for sharing your photos! How’d your project turn out? I’d love to see photos of your hugel retaining wall now! It’s almost a year since you installed it!
Well right now there isn’t too much going on in the bed, except for a lonely red cabbage and some cover crops I sowed for the winter. They are tiny still since I got a late start, but hopefully they’ll grow quickly when it warms up and I can cut them down and mulch them under to keep improving the soil. But here are a few pictures from last. year soon after I built the bed. The first shows greens growing great in the bed a few weeks after I transplanted some small starts. and the second shows the kohlrabi on the end growing nicely.
Overall everything did very well in the bed and I look forward to seeing how things grow in the bed this year, especially compared to other beds without the hugel element. If there is one downside I realized this year it is that part of the way through the summer some critter (chipmunk, vole or maybe even a rat) moved in and started eating some plants. I think the space between the wood, plus just the outside retaining wall itself, creates a natural habitat for burrowing animals that aren’t welcome. I’ll have to keep an eye on that, but hopefully, it won’t be a real problem and I may just need to occasionally set a trap if I see any holes appear, In fairness, I’ve had burrows appear in my regular, much shorter raised beds at the garden as well.
I have seen this technique in my Edible Landscaping book by @MichaelJudd but did not try it out yet. I do have some hardwood scrap pallets I may work into the bottom of my raised beds this year to see if it gives them a boost.
Wow - looks fabulous @zendog. Gosh I hadn’t thought about the hugel as a home for critters but that makes sense. I have a ton of voles…not sure I will ever stop them unless I import a cat.
The hollows down within the Hugel seem to draw them like a magnet. I keep a close eye out for developing depressions and stab then flood them.
The first year I noticed the bed was drier than the surrounding beds. It took 3 years, but the 2 beds I did this with seem to be much better at weathering dry spells than the other beds now.
Scott
Hmmm. I am thinking about building a low hugel for a perennial mound. Given that I already have voles, do you think this is a dumb idea?
My thoughts are that you should focus on importing hawks by providing them suitable perches and habitat if possible. That should control the vole problem. Plus then you won’t have to get a cat if that isn’t a commitment you are looking to make.
@disc4tw I love that idea. Or maybe I could teach our crows how to hunt voles. I like cats but right now I have a dog and that’s enough of a commitment.
I’ve had cats and dogs in my life and while I love both, dogs are a lot more fun and they are better burglar deterrents, even if I have to take them on walks.
We had a family of red tail hawks reared in the huge white pine trees in my neighbors yard this past year. For some reason I didn’t see as many rabbits…
I know I have owls in my yard occasionally…I just don’t know how to welcome hawks…The last time I saw a hawk, a crow was actively chasing it away…maybe i need to get rid of the crows first?