Organic waste and materials arise in absolutely every garden. Sustainable gardening is one of this year's most popular gardening trends, but how can you reuse old twigs, branches and grass clippings? A hill bed is ideal for making sensible use of plant residues. As the name suggests, this is a bed that rises towards the middle and creates a good growing climate through several layers. Are you a hobby gardener and want to make optimal use of the space in your garden and have a productive harvest? Then read on and find out how to create and plant a hill bed yourself! We'll tell you what you should pay particular attention to, the right plants and much more in our article!
Creating a hill bed – what exactly is that?
For those of you unfamiliar with the term, mounded beds are made up of different layers of organic materials that accumulate in the garden. The way it works is actually quite simple and is particularly worthwhile for gardens with very moist and heavy soil. As the wood gradually rots, it slowly releases the nutrients it contains to the plants grown on it. This means that adding fertilizer would be completely unnecessary, at least in the first 3-4 years. In addition, heat is generated when the materials decompose, which also has a beneficial effect on growth and enables early cultivation. This allows you to harvest vegetables and fruits up to three weeks earlier.
When and where is it best to create a hill bed?
In principle, a hill bed can be created all year round. But to start growing your plants in spring, the perfect time would be fall. This gives the layers enough time to decompose in winter. In addition, during this time there will be a lot of material available that you will need for cultivation. The sun is the be-all and end-all when it comes to the right location. The bed should definitely have a north-south orientation so that all plants can draw evenly and optimally from the sunlight. Oriented differently can result in either a hot sunny side or a cool shady side. So that the growing plants have enough space and are easy to reach, the hill beds are almost always laid out elongated and should not be wider than 1.50 meters. The length can of course vary, but by default it is between 2 and 4 meters.
What materials are needed?
You can either create a hill bedan existing bedor use a new piece of lawn. Most of the materials you will need are probably already in your yard. But normally the following is used:
- Branches and brushwood
- Garden waste and leaves
- coarse compost
- fine compost and topsoil
- A cow
- mown grass
If you have already found the right location, we recommend that you mark off the area with stones or a string. You probably don't want a crooked bed.
Step by step instructions
- First, dig the soil to a depth of around 25-30 cm. To protect the bed from voles, we recommend that you line the area with close-meshed wire mesh. The easiest way to remove the sod is with a digging fork.
- The nextCreate a step when creating a hill bedis adding a thick layer of clippings. Finely chopped or chopped thin branches and twigs, stems or other coarse material from your garden are suitable for this. These form the core of your hill bed and provide drainage. Layer at a maximum height of half a meter and also leave a little space around the edge. The wood ensures better aeration of the soil, stores water and then slowly releases it to the plants. To avoid re-sprouting, you should only ever use old wood without buds.
- Now layer the sod you removed onto the wood with the green side down. It offers additional nutrients for the plants. You can also use thick layers of newspaper or straw. This layer should be around 15-20 centimeters thick.
- Now you can create the actual food for the mound bed. It consists of moist leaves from the previous year and is mixed with either a load of manure or coarse, not yet fully mature compost. Since the compost is full of fungi and bacteria, it forms the perfect food for the plants. Layer it about 30-40 centimeters high.
- And now comes the final layer where your plants will grow. Cover the leaf mixture with ripe compost and some garden soil left over from digging up the turf. This area should not be more than 20 centimeters thick.
- You could leave the soil a little loose - this will ensure better growth.
- If you create your hill bed in autumn, we would recommend that you finally cover it with a layer of mulch or fleece. Hay, straw or old leaves are usually used. Mulch actually has a lot of important properties, such as retaining moisture in the soil, preventing soil erosion and creating a good habitat for various microbes, fungi and insects.
Which plants are best?
Nitrates are released in the soil of a freshly planted bed in the first few months or sometimes even years. Therefore, we advise you not to grow plants that store these nitrates. Best suited for the first 2 yearsHeavy eaters, such as tomatoes, cucumbers, zucchini, cabbage, radishes or even celery and pumpkin. From the second year you can also grow onions and carrots. Vegetables that store too much nitrate include spinach, lettuce and chard or peas and beans. You can plant these after the third year. Perennial vegetables such as asparagus, rhubarb or artichokes can also be considered. Depending on how big it is, you can also plant different berries on it from the fourth year onwards.
While you should always be particularly careful not to plant nitrate-storing plants with fruit and vegetables in the first few years, this point is completely eliminated with perennials and flowers - you won't eat them anyway. Almost all flowers are suitable for a hill bed as long as they like warmth and sun and have high nutrient requirements. A hill bed is also ideal for mixed planting. Not only does it look very attractive, but it also has a very positive effect on plant health. For example, garlic is an extremely good friend of roses because it keeps aphids away. Since there are also many plant combinations that have a harmful effect on each other, we recommend that you plan everything carefully and coordinate the mixed culture. Ideally, the flowers are placed on the outer areas or, if they are taller species, in the apex.
So that the vegetables thrive and you can look forward to a good harvest, regular watering plays a very important role when creating hill beds. Always make sure that no soil is washed away. The nutrient supply generally decreases over time. Depending on the structure and planting, you may need to add organic fertilizer from around the third year onwards. The wood rots completely after about 6 years.
The many advantages
- The lowest layer of wood acts like a sponge, so to speak, absorbing all of the rainwater and making it available to the plants being grown.
- The stacked layers of organic materials and wood protect your hill bed from flooding.
- The decaying biomass warms the soil and in this way the growing season is extended.
- The hilly shape also increases the cultivated area.
Hill beds as an element of a permaculture garden
The concept of traditional gardening is based more on what people want to grow.But in a permaculture gardenIt's always about growing the plants that are best suited to the local climate and environmental conditions. So if you want to create your garden in the spirit of permaculture, choose a concept that strives for the long-term and sustainable coexistence of people and nature. It is a philosophy that allows you to make full use of the resources you have around you. A permaculture garden gives you the opportunity to get a good harvest with relatively little effort. It is, so to speak, a closed system in which absolutely no energy is lost. For example, rainwater is collected on the roof and can be used in the kitchen. From there it flows into the irrigation systems that feed the plants. They, in turn, provide people with food and wood.
The agricultural rebel – Sepp Holzer
Sepp Holzer is an Austrian farmer, author and an internationally active consultant for natural agriculture. With innovative ideas, but also old methods, such as building terraces or creating raised and hill beds, he founded Holzer'sche Permaculture. He is considered a strong advocate of many ecological principles. On his Krameterhof in “Austrian Siberia”, at around 1500 meters above sea level, the diversity of plants is the top principle. That's why, despite the climatic conditions, citrus fruits, kiwis, cherries and pumpkins still thrive there and in the middle of winter he also harvests radishes! Sepp Holzer works worldwide as a consultant for various agricultural and aquaculture projects and has already achieved amazing results in many areas.
