Fall Garden Projects

  We are having beautiful Fall weather....high 70s to low 80s. perfect for outdoor projects. With the garden reduced to a few tomatoes and peppers still ripening, there is time for other things.
  I am really happy with the progress of the strawberries in the hugelkultur tires.

  The plants are getting established quickly with large healthy leaves. Just 3 plants in each tire and these were small rooted runners from previous older beds of berries. I have kept all the runners clipped off these new ones. I'm really anxious to see how they yield next year.
  I decided to build a large cold frame/raised bed and use the same hugelkultur method as the strawberry tires. I demolished the old compost bins I had built 3 years ago. They didn't work well....I had moved the compost pile out by the corral and these bins were just a catch all and hard to keep neat. So down they came.

  I had used primarily salvaged materials to build these and was able to salvage about 90% of the material again.The soil is from a 2 x 12 foot raised bed that was on the back side of the compost bins. I'll use it in the new bed.

  I started by marking out a 3.5 x 16 foot space for the new bed. I stripped the sod off it in squares.

  I used it and some of the dirt to make dams that will shunt rain runoff toward the pasture. I have had too much water on the garden in heavy rains.Still work to be done on that project before winter.

  This is the bed after "excavation".

  Now comes the fun part! Adding the hugel mass. I have a pretty good sized woodpile and some of it has turned "punky"...soft and rotting...perfect for the hugel mass.

  You can google "hugelkultur" and read some interesting things about the concept.  I'll post later with the final steps in completing this bed. After building the frame around it, I'll water in a mix of soil, compost and aged manure around the hugel mass and then fill the bed with topsoil and compost. I'm going to divide it into four 4' beds and make removable lids with corrugated panels (recycled from an old greenhouse at Steve and Wendy's place). So I can use it for a cold frame for early starts or late fall crops, but remove the lids in the summer.
  I have enough room here to make 2 more beds this size.........that's a project for another year!