hugelkultur, nature’s raised garden beds

FOR 25 YEARS I have grown my vegetables in raised beds, but the kind that you need to purchase lumber and bolts and use a saw and hammer to construct, then fill entirely with soil and compost. Lately I’ve been looking longingly at photos of a centuries-old, sustainable way of making raised garden beds called hugelkultur, or hill culture.

“It’s like sheet mulching or lasagna gardening,” says Dave Whitinger of All Things Plants, who regularly lectures on the subject, but in hugelkultur, “wood is the first level of your sheet-mulched bed.” In print or my public-radio show and podcast  to the April 22, 2013 show, or using the player just below) to hugelkultur 101 with Dave (whose robust hugelkultur onion bed that is up top).

my hugelkultur q&a with dave whitinger