This is a HUGEL! It is an ancient German way of gardening where you plant plants in a mound of dirt, mulch, and plant debris to make a giant nutrition bomb! It is basically a giant compost pile, however you use logs which act as sponges for water and also release nitrogen for the plants’ roots as they break down.

I recently went to a hugelkulture workshop where I helped make one. The hugel that we built was teardrop shaped about about 15 feet long, 10 feet wide, and about 3 feet tall. It took forever to fill it. They called it a lasagna where you layer mulch, soil, tree branches, and then repeat. There was even a layer of garbage!! The garbage had to be paper products though. My job was to shovel the mulch and here are some pictures.

The landscaper who was running the workshop, Shawn Maestretti of Studio Petrichor, said that they were not going to plant in the hugel until September. I am not sure why, but I think it might be because the hugel will compress and get lower over time so maybe they want to give it a chance to settle. They asked me if I would like to come back in September for a planting workshop and I said that would be cool.