Hugelkultur Gardening, Year 2

Hello! Happy summer! I'm here to report on our front-yard garden, which we set up in two rows last year for a hugelkultur experiment. I wasn't sure what we should do specifically to "refresh" our hugels now that they're in their second year. (They're really just very heaped-up garden beds rather than a full-on "hill," but keep in mind that underneath there are layers of wood and leaves that are supposed to decompose over several years.) So I simply made up a plan for jollying up the hugels a little bit this year, with the goal of getting things planted by around Memorial Day (the last weekend in May).

My main challenge was that we had covered everything with wood chips last year. I didn't really want to just mix those into the soil by hoeing or raking everything together. So I tried to push the wood chips aside a bit...

• First I prepared by clearing weeds. I hoed and removed the tufts of grass and the dandelions that had set up shop.
  
• Then I did my best to rake the wood chip layer away from the center of the hugel and toward the edges, to better expose the soil underneath.
• Next I poured a bag of "Moo Dirt" augmented topsoil along the top of each hugel, and raked to mix it with the soil already there. 
• Finally, I attempted to rake the wood chips back up so they covered things evenly again. 

I'm happy with how the soil got a fresh infusion of rich dirt, but my attempt to keep wood chips separate didn't really work. The wood chips are essentially mixed into the top layer of dirt now, but it seems fine!

Then it was planting time! Here's what's growing this year:

Cucumbers: I am in full battle mode with cucumber beetles as they have killed my cucumbers for several years in a row. I'm not being polite any more but just squishing them on sight. We have set up some trellis inventions for the cukes to climb should they survive that long.

Here's another angle of the cucumbers and trellising. I read that cucumber beetles don't like marigolds so I've planted those everywhere. Beyond the cucumbers are two summer squash plants, and at the far end of the hugel is a population of lettuce. I also put some kale plants here and there.

The other, streetside hugel has 3 tomatoes (foreground), and then chard and collards beyond that, and green beans at the far end. Everything seems happy over here!

We pondered maybe getting more wood chips to re-cover everything, but at the moment I'm happy to just keep weeding and let nature take its course. On the plus side, several volunteer tomato plants have sprouted up from last year's plants. I also think that this sweet lettuce crop was probably all self-seeded because we let our lettuce go rampantly to seed last year. Check it out!

This lettuce in the foreground all just SHOWED UP as soon as frosty nights ended. It's been a delicious spring treat! We'll definitely let the lettuce go to seed again this year.