How To Hügelkultur AMAZING Grow Method For Raised Beds Vegetable Gardens - Organic & Cheap 

If you're in the USA and looking for a similar raised bed check out this one bit.ly/2zhUrHk Lots of people ask me where to buy something similar to the raised beds I often show in my videos, unfortunately, high sided raised garden beds are not as common in the USA as they are here in Oz but hopefully in the future there will be more options. If you know of other retailer/s in the USA who do stock high sided raised beds (about waist high and especially the rounds ones) no matter what they are made of please send me a message and let me know so I can share it with others. Cheers :)

I appreciate the long distance shots while wearing a mic. It gives us perspective. Thank you!

I've been doing this for over 35 years with kitchen waste, fish carcasses, garden waste, leaves, twigs and small logs without even knowing it had a name. I just knew when I was a young boy how I would hunt for earthworms to fish with and I as I turned over logs that would lay on the ground for years in the swamps and forests that they break down and attract all kinds of beneficial worms, beetles, and larvae that feed the soil and in turn create its own composted soil. I love your videos Mark and learn many things from you. Thank you for that.

He's like the Bob Ross of gardening.

You could explain anything, and I would enjoy listening to it. 😂😘

Man this is amazing news. We cut down several trees in our back yard recently and they’re all just stacked up in the back. I have more garden bed filler than I’ll ever know what to do with. So now I can build some more beds without having to spend hundreds of dollars on bagged soil since I don’t have a truck to buy in bulk.

My favorite RU-vid gardener

When I see your videos, I LIKE first then watch. I'm a newbie and you are a great teacher. Many thanks, Mark. Oh, that smile is an instant mood lifter!

I'm an addict. Three seconds in and Mark not only calms all anxiety but puts a smile on your face and positive anticipation of what he's up to in the video. I'm trying to find a therapist; they recommended Mark. :)

I am actually from Germany and had to google "Hügelkultur". Yes it is a German word, but I found the term just on English websites. In Germany they say "Hügelbeet" (hill bed) to an unframed one and "Hochbeet" (high bed" to an framed one. I also saw a guy from Germany who build this with a frame made frome turf divot. :)

One thing I love about gardening is there’s always something new to learn

Hey Mark, your channel is pure gold. I'll be modeling my garden after a mixture of yours and "Epic Gardening." May even make a channel to showcase how it goes. You're definitely an inspiring beacon of light during these darker times. Thank you for existing.

Like you I made a Hugelkultur bed without realizing it. My husband works for a factory that has the machine parts shipped in huge crates. He brought home a couple and they are about 2' wide by 15' long and knee height. I knew filling them to the top with the compost mix I ordered would be expensive so I used the small branches and leaves that fell under a tree nearby to fill it halfway. I figured they would break down and contribute to the soil over time and saved me lots of money. So far my plants are doing well in those boxes. A good way to save money and help the environment is to ask your employer or local factories for things they would normally trash such as these crates. I also get landscape fabrics for free because of small imperfections in the product. I am lucky to live in an area known for furniture and fabric so I dumpster dive for stuff all the time and score big. Just a couple days ago I got a brand new box of fabrics from a local factory. Each piece was 3 yards and perfect but they no longer carried that line. One of my favorite finds was a petrified log in a showroom dumpster that has a new home in my flower garden. When I worked retail resetting I would ask for the displays. My mother-in-law made two amazing quilts for me out of curtain panel displays. You can find free stuff nearly anywhere, you just have to have the guts to ask.

The soil here in Colorado is notoriously clay and really stubborn to grow in. We finally got my beds built at the house and this is what I did! So far I've noticed that the soil is staying wet longer and that the plants I have in there have been much more tolerable of the cold. It's the first year of trying with it and I'm already sold. My parents just built several of these beds in Texas and they are also shocked with the results. My brother in Arizona is starting to build these there too, so will report back with how those go!

Hi Mark! I hit the jackpot when I found this video. My son has literally just assembled one of the two 1 metre square raised beds which are a surprise birthday present for my 79th birthday. He appreciates my difficulty bending. I searched for advise on how to fill it up frugally without buying lots of soil/compost. Your way is the absolutely perfect solution. I can easily get the logs, wood chips, twigs, straw, homemade compost etc., before adding the soil or compost. Thank you so much for the great tutorial on filling raised beds.

Great presentation. I think the main difference between your raised beds (hochbeet) and hugelkultur is that hugelkulur provides you with twice the amount of growing space and different microclimates for different plants, which is great for polyculture gardening. It's a very intelligent design and if you are using differnet types of hardwood, it can increase your yields for many years and even decades. Keep up the great work.

Ok, so I saw this video last year a couple of weeks into quarantine and I said, I am going to do that. Today I built two raised beds and loaded them with logs. Tomorrow is leaves, grass and other yard waste. Then the soil. Thanks for educating me.

Pleased to hear you talking about hugelkulture! Lots of happy helpful wee beasties munching on those old logs and sticks. And you can be proud for being twice as smart as you thought you were. 😎

Got my birdies raised bed yesterday. Today I assemble! Over the past year, I have been scavenging my 2.68 acres to save up items you've been teaching us about to use Hügelkultur in my raised bed. Love your channel! Best wishes from North Florida. Namaste. 🙏🦋🌿

It's okay Mark, I don't use terms that many uses in the gardening world such as hugelkultur, back to eden, permaculture, and blah. I do what works whether I learned from somewhere or from my folks or mix ideas to achieve an outcome that works. I have done them all and not knowing it is the same method that people are going crazy about. My style of madness is what you mentioned using what materials you have around you. I could never afford a lot of compost to fill huge beds. I have always filled it with sticks and branches, leaves and garden waste. Then, I top it with what soil or compost I can afford. it works.

This is my second year doing Hugelkulture raised beds after finding you on RU-vid. Nothing but success both growing seasons! Thank you from Ohio!

Hugelkulrtur has been a complete liberation for me. It stops me feeling guilty for being lazy; I can just chuck everything on a heap - cardboard, prunings, weeds, manure - whatever. No more dragging huge loads of grape prunings out to the bin, or having to go to the tip with tree prunings. Its the best concept ever for lazy gardeners. I feel respectable being able to give my rubbish heap a flash German name. By the way, I don't use a frame - I just build a mound.

You will also find after a few yrs the area around the outside of the raised beds becomes super yummy filled with juices from the rotting materials in the nearby bed so you can put a fruit tree nearby or more ground level beds

We did this as well, my husband works at a wood mill, and he filled the truck bed up with wood chips from the “chipper” we filled the garden bed up about 2/3 the way full added top soil and topped that ....I’m on my second year, and the tomato’s that were left in the bed from last year sprouted, i now have some 400 little tomato plants! But I thinned them out, anyway we did to this ....

I did this with a tote box (intentionally; I had heard to hugelkulture before. :-) ). I took an old plastic tote box and filled it up halfway with sticks from my yard. Then I covered the sticks with a thick layer of leaves to keep the dirt from falling to the bottom--and to make sure I introduced some fungus. Then I took a bit of leaf and rotten food material out of my worm compost box--along with some worms, and added that as a thin layer. Then I topped it with a layer of bagged garden soil deep enough to accommodate an onion bulb. I planted some onions, wet it, then covered it with cling film to keep the moisture in (so I don't have to water it daily). I checked last night and I saw a few tiny sprouts! Once the tops are really up, I'll give it a top dressing of leaves (or woodchips if I have a load in by then) to keep the soil from drying out and when it's warm enough, the tote will go outside. The benefits for me with using this method (besides all the ones you mentioned) is that I didn't have to put holes in the bottom of my box, so I don't have to try to put a drip pan under it while it's in the house; the bottom section has a lot of water holding capacity, which my onions can eventually take advantage of, like plants grown hydroponically. (One of the drawbacks to container gardening is that the soil dries out much faster than it does in a regular garden). Secondly, this made the box light enough I could still pick it up to move it! I don't think I could have done that if it had been full of dirt (or had gravel drainage). And lastly, I have come to find that I hate using gravel as pot drainage because when it comes time to get the dirt out of the pot to refresh it, gravel inevitably gets mixed in. And I don't want dirt with gravel in it. But when it comes time to remake my onion box, if some sticks get mixed into the dirt, that's okay; they'll break down eventually and only contribute to the soil.

One additional tip. Throw some green, (grass, leaves, etc) in with the logs and sticks. It prevents a nitrogen drop as the wood starts to decompose.

excellent explanation. thank you! i have been thinking 'surely i can just dump sticks and logs in there'. i am a first time gardener and i'm trying to approach this as simply and cheaply as possible. I love the idea of using what i've got. thanks for all your great videos. they've been extremely helpful. ps i like the energetic music as your intro/outro. have a good day!

I've had these in my polytunnel for a while. Wood and any fresh manure in the bottom then a good layer of old hay followed by a couple of inches of compost. The wood works really well as a reservoir and slow release nutrients. Fantastic crops. Can wholeheartedly recommend it.

I buried lots of firewood much to my husbands dismay! Ha ha ha. Loved it. Always adding leaves manure mowed lawn and even compost material from the kitchen. We have moved into a new home now and will hope to implement your great idea for the raised bed with the metal! Will be heading to the mountains for bigger broken down branches twigs and leaves and will use the neighbors mowed grass and leaves and yard debris to add to the full finally topping of with soil peat and compost as I can. Loved your video! Thanks for sharing your great ideas! Wish you were my neighbor!

I have a Self Sufficient Me videos addiction. There I admitted it

Thanks for expanding my garden vocabulary!

Thanks for showing us what you put in your raised bed as I hadn't thought of using such big chunks of wood. I tried Hugelkultur for the first time this year and had phenomenal results in a new raised bed we built this spring (eastern WA USA). I had raspberry prunings, sticks and leaves from a tulip tree, spruce tree cones, arbovitae prunings, and whatever didn't compost in the compost pile over the winter like pea and squash vines, iris stems, etc., and these took up about 1/3 the space. I then put compost and dirt on top of that. I planted corn and sunflowers on one side, cukes in the middle and carrots on the other side. The first 3 have taken off and are over twice as tall as the same plants planted elsewhere in the garden in the same kind of dirt mix. They also look healthier, with bigger darker green leaves, and have thicker stems. I have to keep staking up the cukes and they are keeping me in pickles. Carrots are too immature yet to see much progress. I'm going to change all my raised beds over to this method next year.

Keyhole gardening is Hugelkultur with a central composting basket where you recharge your bed with scraps from the garden and kitchen. I can see how the two are closely related. I just do not have the money for making metal or bought stone bed walls, but perhaps rammed earth made by mixing portland cement with earth will stand up under the rain and stay in place for many years. Try looking up keyhole gardening to see the many variations of this technique. The best I could find on this was the original African style using rocks for the perimeter and the key hole part, but I would use heavy galvanized fence materials for the central basket. Well, try using the keyhole gardening method, I think you will like it.

Thank you Mark for all these videos. We are planning to get into the self sufficient mode and you sure are one of the influencer for us

It is a big help! Thank you.

Best thing I have learned so far Mark. I have all the branch cuttings from fruit tree pruning just sitting in one big pile on my land. Had no idea what to do with it and now I do. I have tons of leaf mulch and other debris I can now utilise. I'm excited! Thanks so very much for sharing this. Look out Tasmanian gardening here I come!

I love your manner of presenting information...slow enough for the brain to take it in, plenty of visuals to show what you are describing, using what's on hand rather than expensive garden supplements, etc. and pragmatic choices of subjects anyone could utilize. Love your accent as well! Just an added bonus!

We just did the same thing with our new raised bed, for the same reason you did, I didn’t want to waste soil! I thought at the time that the breaking down of the branches wouldn’t hurt & might help. Great to know it is a known & beneficial practice. Thanks for the info 😊👍

I've done a similar thing. Several years ago I got some large rubber (similar to tire material) horse troughs cheap on sale. I checked out to make sure they were safe for gardening in first. Although I don't have access to the large pieces of wood, I can get wood chips for free. I place aged wood chips in the bottom then add chop and drop and kitchen scraps, whats left after filleting fish, etc., then a quality potting mixture. This has worked great. The wood chips help hold moisture at the bottom and slowly break down adding nutrients, along with the compost ingredients. My garden is thriving without any additional fertilizer except worm tea. I mulch with leaves and aged wood chips, whatever I have on hand. Too many people get caught up in rules, but if it works and is cheap and not polluting, and makes my gardening easier or more productive, I use it. Love your videos.

This video has really made my day. I work in disability sector, and we go to a 'farm' on mondays and its a pesticide free, clean, reuse type of farm, No animals, but we have build 4 raised beds which are up to our chests/abdomins and we have feel slowly trying to build them up with compost, mulch and dirt. But it is taking a long time. This will help us out so much and I can claim the browny points also haha. Great vid. Keep it up.

High Raised Beds are amazingly useful method....to fill in with logs, organic debris..seriously very thoughtful.. Also very helpful in saving my vegetable plants from my Pets. I have been pondering for a an easy and useful way of growing vegetables...this is one of the best methods..I will share the pictures with you once i am done with this new project in my garden. Thank you Mark. Very inspiring.

I've been gardening pretty much my whole life, beginning when my parents had me working in their veg patch when I was young. I'm still learning and your channel is fantastic! Even though I live in a completely different climate, your principles still apply. Thanks for all the valuable info you put out for the world! Can't wait to put this knowledge to work.

Thanks a lot Mark for the valuable tips. You are awesome!

cheers from Romania (Eastern Europe)... yes very far away :) you just gave me a bunch of ideas about what do do with garden waste

I am doing this in one of my two big galvanised beds and will do it with the smaller ones too I thought I commented already as seen this and share it all the time for info. I did know about Hugelkulture and thought it was great. I walked home after dropping my boys to school with another handful of sticks of different sizes and bark I must loom quite the sight walking to my house😂🤣😂🤣😂 I also use my old bike trailer to collect I love this info Thanks for the awesome info Mark Shared many times on garden pages as with other videos of yours like the one about using ash in the garden

logic is trendy =) good vid mate

I bought a couple Birdie's raised garden beds and after being subbed for a while, I thought of this vid to fill them. Did the Black Friday sale which I only knew about from your channel. I have a fallen tree to use as a base. Thanks man!

I've done this since I was a teenager, didn't realize it actually had a name lol. Cool to know

i'm pretty happy to have found this channel.... which is the best one can hope for.

Awww I wish I had watched this video before I filled my amazing raised garden beds my husband just made me - I did full the bottoms with leaves and sticks but the logs would have saved me some money in soil - however I am having a couple more made so logs and sticks it is - thanks Mark enjoy your videos

Thanks for the great tip. Like you, I had never heard of Hugelkultur. I am about to start building some raised garden beds and was going to fill them with just soil. I was dreading the cost. We live in the mountains in SW Victoria, surrounded by state forest and national parks, so there is plenty of fallen tree limbs and undergrowth to pick from. Being a very cold climate in winter, I like the idea of the soil generating a bit of heat, to help the plants survive. Thanks again for the great tip. Garry

Nice video Mark....great to listen to someone without an ego. One could probably use the weekly waste; egg shells, green leftovers and such to add to the H.Kultur too over time....keeping a good balance between Nitrogen and Carbon.

Hi there! greetings from germany! I'm sitting here watching an american guy telling me a german method of gardening. THE INTERNET!!! :-D thank's a lot. That reminds me of being one big family spreaded out the planet. And I watched the hole video just to hear the nice music again! :-) keep it 90' !

I REALLY enjoy your videos. Yours is the most honest and genuine enthusiasm for the garden. Its brilliant! Thank You!

Thank for the video i am in Florida and will be using this method for my very first garden! Hope it works.

Without knowing about this I've been doing the same! Only in a smaller scale. To me it works perfectly! I never knew about this but it even works on a balkony with small pots.

1) So glad you did this video on Hügelkultur. You are the First Gardener I've seen who puts tree trunk pieces in your raised beds. Of course, you can do that with your very intelligent use of high sides raised beds. Having gardened with raised beds with wood sides of only c. 24" my goal is to implement high-sided raised beds as you use. 2) Have you addressed how hot the galvanized metal gets during your summer? I live in the foothills of Northern California where summer temperatures stay in the 90s (F.) and even 100s. It gets so hot black plastic plant pots cook the perimeter roots of plants. 3) Thank you for your videos. It is lovely to see how beautiful and productive your garden is.

Love your work. As a gardener in a botanic gardens and digger of holes in the ground I think this is absolutely wonderful. I am setting up garden beds at home and will definitely be doing it this way. Hopefully at some point I will be able to pass this info on to the general public at our Eco Fiesta.

I did a combo of hugelkultur and Back to Eden on my beds. I live where we don't get a lot of rain during the summer and it's working wonderfully.

His accent is amazing specially the guddaay

I like your style of hugelkulture better mark. Strong walls, easily water able, looks nice, probably heats up a tad more in winter.

Love these videos ...so informative and straight to the point ie no annoying music and stupid comments. Keep up the good work

I am off grid and not rich to buy an insane amount of soil. I am on a mountain and it's very rocky with much clay. I built raised beds in a green house and started using the old fall leaves as my base for a slow release of nutrients for my plants, with a layer of soil. The logs are a great idea. My land is extremely raw and plentiful of downed old trees. Pulling up leaves today to add logs before my first crop this year. Thank you for the extra ideas! God Bless you Sir.

I’ve been working like a dog clearing debris from my plot. Branches, weeds, pine droppings...... now I discover this and feel remarkably stupid. Why didn’t I think of that!? Oh well, every day is a learning day. Thanks for the inspiring videos and information.

Beautiful garden! I'm going to try a hugelkultur bed for the first time this season in New Hampshire. :)

This is great, now I have a use for all those limbs that seem to overwhelm me. Thanks 🇨🇱

I watched this show a couple of months ago I just watched again bloody fantastic

We filled 4 huge raised garden beds using the layer method (hugekulture) after watching your videos, but that the worst garden mistake we’d ever done. We have huge problem with rodents using the lower part of the bed (the broken logs, sticks layer) as rat motels, they dig under the bed to access that area and dig up to the top of the bed to have some sky view while eating their dinner. So warning to all beginner gardeners, research this method widely and use extra precautions to avoid building rat motels.

Loved the explanation and taking a tour of your yard. Beautiful and peaceful!

Cool! I’ve done something similar in smaller containers. I didn’t know it was actually a thing. Glad to know more!

I am not sure what exactly it is but you have a seriously trustworthy and engaging demeanor! Teacher in past life? Fantastic content. Thank you

I didn't know what it was called either but I have done it for years in my raised beds :) 🌱🇦🇺

I have also done the hügelkultur method without realizing. I have just dumped some soil on one of my "raw" compost heaps, of sticks and leaves, and plant big spreading veg on it, like zucchini or squash. They take off and always do well. And, it does accelerate the breakdown of that compost, which I will use in other parts of the veg garden. I have also heard that this method creates a lot of air space in the soil structure, which is another big benefit for both the plants and the other organisms in the soil.

Your a very nice guy sir, you never keep secrets for ur videos, God be the Glory... God Bless u...

I have never and probably will never garden. But for some reason I love these videos. Keep up the good work Mark.

It's informative, it's natural and it's fun to watch you in this very cute way... you are awesome 💛🙏

Ty for showing me how to make the most of my raised beds I am installing in my new courtyard. I love growing vege and raised beds are great for someone like me who can't stand to garden. Many thanks for your wonderful channel for blooming beginners.

Mark! Thanks for hosting this channel. I am so encouraged by your efforts. Your guidance is wonderful!

What happens after the heavy base materials complete break down.Does on start all over?

I just started watching your videos within the last month more or less and I've learned so much about not just growing fruits and vegetables but more importantly ecosystems and maintaining them in your own right you are like a botanist and you explain everything so that the average person can understand it . Thanks .

I’m in Tucson, AZ. Sonora desert. It gets quite hot here and this type of gardening and raised beds, works wonderfully for food production. Thank you! So, informative. 😀👍

i live on a property where we keep having to cut back the trees. so we are left with these piles of sticks and logs that are meters high doing this would remove those unwanted stick piles as well as be good for the garden.

Enjoy your videos very much. Discovered your channel about a year ago, subscribed and now watch all of your productions. From Oregon State, USA.

yeah, I imagine a lot of people do this by accident. The bottoms of raised beds are just a great place to get rid of big stuff that is too big for the compost heap.

Thank you for this. We are using this method in our first raised garden beds now.

Outstanding! Hügelkultur. Even pronounciation of the "ü". Kudos from Germany ^^ . You are an interesting character and I love how you explain things and how interested you are in all kinds of methods. Wunderbar!

Thanks for the idea. Did a raised flower bed about a month ago and tried your idea. My green bin was practically empty by the time i was done. Used neighbours green bin for cut grass and dead plants. Got a full garden of healthy plants. Thanks again

One day I have my garden and it will flourish cause what I learned from your videos😅

Hi...... Self Sufficient me, thank you for sharing your video 👋 bye 👋 bye 👋 bye 👋 🎥👍👍👍

Thanks mate from Arizona!

Love all Marks fantastic helpful videos 👍 Good humble man. I really like that Mark mentioned not to struggle with mother nature, but instead choose to accept working with it - currently learning that myself. Words to live by.

I did the same thing you did, hugelkultur by accident! I did raised beds 32" tall because of my bad back and they work really well!

I love your videos. years of experience in a matter of hours.

Great video. Thank you. I tried to build a Hugelkultur mound a few years ago, but it was a flop because I did not have the energy to build it properly with sufficient material. Your method, in an enclosed bed, makes a lot of sense and looks somewhat easier. I'd like to know what kind of wood and leaves you are putting in the bottom of the bed. Is it Eucalyptus? I seem you have a lot on the perimeter of your property.

I am so glad that I discovered this video. I have a pile of branches in the backyard I was planning to burn to make room for a raised bed garden lol. Before I begin my project I think I'll watch more of your videos. Thanks for the video!

Do you need to fill it back up with wood/compost/branches over years when it breaks down??

Love you Mark..I'm eating much better these days because of your good advice..

Same here. Long before I had heard of the trendy gardening method I was putting filler material at the bottom of raised beds to save money. I'm now trying to decide for next year if I will build solid sided raised beds or save more money on materials and just build hugel mounds.

O my...imagine every few years getting in those beds & stirring it up & maybe letting some of the sticks/logs sit closer to the surface to break down even further. Black gold!

My 8 year old daughter and I are just getting into gardening and she also loves woodworking so we’ve made a raised bed out of some old wardrobe doors 😁. We will be going to the woods for some logs because it will save me a fortune 😂