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Old February 22, 2018   #4
SQWIBB
Tomatovillian™
 
Join Date: Jan 2018
Location: Philly 7A
Posts: 739
Default Raised Bed #4

Raised Bed #4

Hugelkultur Bed




April 2nd, 2016



OK... Time to start this nightmare, Like I said before when building Bed #1, the Asparagus bed, I hate this part of the yard, it has never looked good and the Bradford Pear tree tore it up pretty good. Working around the stump and roots is gonna be a nightmare especially factoring in the close proximity to the fence. Last year I tossed in this pallet fence to keep the dogs out and try to grow some beans...FAIL!

This bed will be a Hugelkultur bed, I have researched this form of gardening and was quite impressed, so I figured I would give it a shot. I have plenty of wood from the Bradford Pear tree to fill it with, (Crotch wood, roots, stuff I can't easily split for firewood). Ray next door wants his shrubs out, so my goal is to get this built, add my logs, cut Rays shrubs back a bit, trim the evergreens and toss everything in the bed. The build will be similar to Raised bed #2 and #3, but three (10") boards high.

The yard slopes a good bit here so the bed will be approximately 30" at the low end and 18" at the high end.



  • First I removed the pallet fence and 4x4.



  • Oh boy!

  • Dug out a bit.

  • Then marveled at the roots and tried to come up with a game plan. I decided to "irrigate" the soil away with the hose then chipped away to see what I was up against. OH BOY!




  • Look at this thing

  • These are the two roots that almost sent me to the emergency due to a cardio event.

This project is proven to be a total nightmare. Working around the stump is impossible the roots are embedded with rocks so after frying my chainsaw blade on rock embedded roots, I switched to a Sawzall then an axe, it was impossible to get a swing on the axe. The roots were so abundant that I had to irrigate the soil away with a hose but after I got down so far I hit Green/Gray clay.

The clay was so hard that I had to chip it away with a hammer and screwdriver. I finally got through one root that was over 12" thick...REALLY, A DAM FOOT!!!. I am pretty persistent but finally gave up on my original plan to dig behind the stump for the 2x10's and went another route.



Anyhow, after building one frame I decided to put this section in place, level and secure, the next piece was a three sided section that slid in underneath, everything was leveled (somewhat) and secured. What a dam mess!
Of course my wife lets out the, "two stupid dogs" and they decide to run through the mud and jump on me to show me how much they love me!



  • After everything was secured, I added some of my crotch wood, roots from the Bradford Pear tree from the back yard and some old firewood. The section in the center where the buckets are will be tore up and pavers will be put in.




  • My neighbor wanted to get rid of this shrub, so I told him I would take care of it, figured it would be great for the Hugel Bed.




  • After some of the trimmed bush was added to the Hugekultur Raised Bed, the third section was built and secured.



  • The top is capped with 2"x4"'s with a 1.5" overhang to be flush with the uprights but I can't finish the uprights yet because the pavers need to be installed first, then I can cut the uprights to be flush with the pavers.

  • Another layer of Crotch wood and logs are added. I told a friend that I am planting firewood so I can have a firewood crop in the fall.



  • The soil that was removed during construction was dumped into the bed. It's a fairly heavy clay soil but I have had no problems growing anything in this soil, quite the contrary. It will be top dressed composted manure and mulch.



  • I busted up the concrete slab under the gate, it was over 5" thick and took a bit of work with a sledgehammer, after the slab was busted up and tossed in the truck for disposal, I removed the roofing tile and placed it in the truck for disposal.




April 12th - I spent several hours trying to get this root out, I even tried irrigating the soil away to get under it and only made a mess. This thing is just SICK!






April 13th - I finally gave up and removed as much as possible with a 12" sawzall blade. I wanted to remove the whole root and back-fill because the pavers will sink when the root rots, I figured it would be less effort to lift the pavers, back-fill with paver stone and replace the pavers in 5 years or so.

Early on in this article I said, "The hardest part about building these beds has been removing the River Rock and the cleanup", BOY WAS I WRONG! The Bradford Pear stump and roots are kicking my ★★★.

After dealing with this stump and the roots, I decided to remove the two Bradford Pear Trees on the back hill before they get too big... I'm getting too old for this $hit!












  • Looking good so far, In a few years I'll most likely lift the pavers and peak the center up a bit so its rounded and not concave, but for now I'll leave it!





April 14th -
Final touches, adding the side pieces and irrigation.




  • There was a 1-1/2" gap on one side of the cap stones (steps), so I centered the cap stones (steps) and cut two pieces of 5/4 P.T. and placed the cut 5/4 in the gaps.











  • Finished the pavers and uprights




  • Ran some drip irrigation to the bed.




  • This year the bed will be used as an overflow (extra veggie plants)




  • Even looks good from the deck.




April 26th, 2016 - Last night I was going through all of my landscape lighting supplies to find some lighting for the new bed, I came across 4 railing lights that I decided to use, I ran some wire and connectors today.

April 27th, 2016 - Last night I installed 4 railing lights and two Bolo lights, I have a 21 watt incandescent bulb in one socket and 3 led's in the other fixtures to see how they looked at night. I did not like the LED's but really like the glow of the incandescent but its 21 watts, that would be 84 watts on the transformer that's too much.

If I used the current LED's, it would be 4 watts but I don't care for them.
I ordered some
0.48W LED's to try, that would be less than 2 watts, I also ordered some 11 watt incandescent, I can live with an additional 44 watts on the transformer if need be.
The Bolos had 20 watt bulbs and were replaced with 3 watt luxeon LED's.


March 1st, 2016 I installed the new LED'S last night and I am extremely impressed, I am so impressed that I ordered twenty more bulbs and 6 more Railing lights for the other Hugelkultur bed. @ 0.48 watts, you cant beat it, these will replace my 7 watt deck lights and 21 watt front yard landscape lights.





  • Here's a pic from 2012 that shows the tree, it was taken out in 2015 and was much bigger than this pic shows.





September 17th, 2016
  • In the fall, the beds are stained, cleaned out and top dressed with mulch.




Much nicer!



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