Trying New Things with Hugulkultur

What?! is...hugulkultur. Well, simply put hugulkultur is a method of gardening designed to save water and add nutrients and tilth to the soil. I lazily used hugulkultur for a large flower bed at the old farm and I am planning to use a combination of HGK (hugulkultur) for my new raised beds because they are so deep and wide enough to accommodate this to a certain extent. That old flower garden did grow beautiful flowers that multiplied and all of that without much of any effort on my part. I rarely watered in and only once a year pulled a few weeds out of it. Of course, like everything that I do I modify things a bit to suit me. So let me explain HGK in the way that I understand it. Typically with this method of gardening a pit is dug, filled with wood and then the soil mounded over the top of the wood. Like I suggested this created a mound on which all sides can be planted. This is much like the concept of biodynamics and deep digging. As the wood breaks down organically is tends to hold more moisture therefore creating less need for water. It also improves the tilth of the soil. Much like a forest floor that has years of organic matter broken down on it. The soil is soft and spongy, easily workable. Getting a little more scientific it is thought that the breakdown of the carbon in the wood will lock any nitrogen breakdown into the soil so that it is available for the plants to use. Therefore the soil is full of nutrition for healthy strong plants. The true puritan method of hugultur sounds like a lot of work and seems like it would require a good amount of wood. Since I am building raised beds then I have my own bit of work of a different kind, but at least it isn't digging a trench. Also, we don't have a lot of excess wood. We have some....mostly small branches cleaned up from around the yard and off the fenceline. Just tidying up kind of stuff. However, all that little stuff will help fill these large raised bed containers that I am building. See that is my main motivation, because having moved and not able to bring all of my good soil from the old farm I am starting fresh. Starting fresh translates to I don't have much to start with. I am simply trying to fill some space that might actually have some use. I get rid of the yard trash in a useful manner and it might help make my garden grow. But if you are really interested in hardcore permaculture then check out hugulkultur gardening more in depth. Hardcore permies type folks swear by it and they know a whole lot more about it than I do. Blessings, Kat