Stage two Hugelkultur bed finished

Today was a really productive day. Firstly we decided that we need firewood this morning, which mean't that the trailer had to be emptied of it's current half load of top soil. My two daughters and I got all that soil moved onto the stage two hugelkultur bed in about an hour then collected some mulch and planted a few seedlings in it (just for fun).

 I am so happy to have that bed space to plant out, I can't wait until it starts to produce. The chooks are beginning to lay again, so I have heaps of eggs to play with.

We also had a visit from our heron; he stops by to check out the dam about once a month.

  Meanwhile my partner (who had another day off; two in a fortnight!!) whipper-snipped a path through the tall blady grass so I could move the sheep onto new ground. This involves taking down the electric fencing and putting it up again in a new spot.

 They are now busily clearing a pile of tree heads I want too use for firewood and hugelkultur. I am so pleased we got sheep; they save us so much work and they are such characters.
So almost time to go back to work, I hope I can continue to develop my garden.

stage two Hugelkultur bed in progress

Today has been a lot of fun; we cleared up a pile of saplings from the front yard that had been cut down because they were shading the solar panels. My partner had a rare day off, so I made him cut up the whole pile of saplings with his handy chainsaw.

 The saplings became my next Hugelkultur bed.

In the process of cleaning up the saplings I decided to use an old half tank as a Hugelkultur bed too.

Then my sister rang and offered me some good red soil from her holiday home (just up the road) so off we went to pick it up.

Red soil from my sister.

Tomorrow's adventure is to get all that lovely soil into the stage two bed and mulch it over.
I really need to get some seeds and seedlings soon!
I am really enjoying this process.

Stage one of the Hugelkultur experiment complete

Today I have had a lot of fun. My daughter and I dug some more soil from the future toilet pit to finish off the stage one hugelkultur bed. You can see from the photo how rich the soil is down near the dam.

The future toilet pit

 

Soil added to the bed

Amazed and delighted sheep

Then we spent a while cleaning old straw (well, compost now) out of the sheep shelter, much to the amazement and delight of the sheep. This became the mulch for our new bed, and the whole lot was watered in well.

doesn't that look pretty?

Tomorrow I will spread blood and bone and then let the planting begin!!

Then its on to stage two; build another bed next to that one and so on until the chook runs are full.