Hugelkultur Experiment in Barcelona

So you are probably wondering, well what is this? How is it pronounced correctly?

Hugelkultur, pronounced Hoo-gul-culture, means hill culture or hill mound. (The cross on the mound was a bit of a joke as we finished, as it resembled something very different)

As our Urban Permaculture garden is somewhat of an experimental garden space, we thought we might try different ways of utilising the branches, leaves and other gardening “waste” for something with a purpose, hence building a hugel bed.

For that, we had to find the space first and move existing pots and plants to other areas of the garden, which being in the city isn’t very large. But, we had put our minds to it and also involved the local city workers, which had been busily cutting the city’s trees. Of course our eyes were much bigger, than the space we had but we continued with the plan. Thanks to our amazing team, we moved everything and started shovelling the space on top of the concrete, which wasn’t so easy!

1. Digging as deep as we can in a city garden

Normally, when you are planning to use Hugelkultur in your space you need to dig as deep and wide as possible. In our case, this has been impossible, but we made it work anyway.

So why did we do it? What are the benefits of using this method:

1. The gradual decay of wood is a consistent source of long-term nutrients for the plants. A large bed might give out a constant supply of nutrients for 20 years (or even longer if you use only hardwoods). In our case this might be less, as we could only use a few bigger logs, but still quite useful.

Building the logs on top of each other — almost like a lasagna

2. The composting wood also generates heat which should extend the growing season.

3. They hold moisture, build fertility, maximise surface volume and are great spaces for growing fruit, vegetables and herbs.

4. The logs and branches act like a sponge. Rainwater is stored and then released during drier times. Actually you may never need to water your hugel bed again after the first year (except during long term droughts especially in Spain, where we struggle more and more each year)

5. The method of hilling or sloping the raised bed increased the surface area allowing more area for growing. This is particularly in small gardens with limited space like ours.

Homemade compost from our Urban permaculture garden

Curious on how we continue? Me too….. it’s planting season and we already started with seeds in the greenhouse and saplings, time to now make use of our new hugelbed!

Have you used Hugelkultur where you live already? If yes, please share your experiences please! Any recommendations, do’s and don’ts?

Greetings from Portam l’Hort, Urban Permaculture Garden in Barcelona