Hugelkultur Kitchen Garden raised bed no water, 1 year on, a great success for self sufficiency no need to water in a drought!

Hugelkultur , the best way i have found to grow food in low water areas

I have always liked researching and trying different ways of growing things and I have planned to try this for about 15 years, so in 2023 I decided it was time to have a go due to the water table dropping so quickly and lack of rain here in Bulgaria.

Dogs think Hugelkultur is great as well and join in with the digging and sleep right in the way, Rufus loves all dug soil..

This is a traditional method of growing dating back hundreds or more years in Eastern Europe, and Germany but was first made popular in a German book in 1962 by Herman Andrä  the term means hill or mound growing, more exactly ,the beds are mounded up with old wood and things like that inside to allow low water use due to worm activity bringing water upwards

 I had a pile of semi rotted firewood of a few types Oak, Acacia, Beach wood I had chopped from plums and cherry, branches from years of pruning roses fruit trees blackberries etc

First I picked an area that nothing grows, a large plum tree sucks the water from the ground here,

I dug a trench about 750mm deep and filled with layers of wood then smaller sticks and leaves and green weeds from the garden to fill the gaps, a layer of soil , then more wood and weeds , every few layers i added a watering can of water sprinkled over it to help it start rotting

I kept piling it up until the trench was filled and mounded up about 300mm above ground level making it about a meter deep in the center of the mounded trench bed.

After a week or two , I planted s few pot grown tomato plants and cucumber plants in it. at the center of the mound, i only planed a few as it needed testing , and it takes a year or so for the ecosystem within to start working correctly 

Once the plants were in the bed I watered for the first week with about 100ml per couple of days to allow the roots to spread as they established themselves

After about 2 weeks the plants had no water and I had massive crops of tomatoes from them , other tomatoes planted near by with nothing but flat standard soil, needed watering every day to prevent wilting , the Hugelkultur bed needed no watering all year and had a bigger crop per plant.

Last year (2023) we had almost no rain from April until December so it was a good test for growing in arid conditions, 

This year I am building more areas of Hugelkultur as it worked so well.

And a video of  Lucy the Wolf Dog....

Spring is here in Bulgaria it`s fruit tree blossom time here in Bulgaria.

Many of my early fruit trees have finished flowering , the Cornelian cherry ( Drenkie )and Apricot trees have now finished flowering, but most trees are now opening this week , some of the peaches started about 2 weeks ago but most only this week as I grow later flowering Saturn peach varieties as well as the normal ones. 

Victoria Rhubarb , going well had a crumble this week , the Stockbridge arrow , pink champagne and the Livingston Rhubarb are just starting to grow. 

And some Burdock plants getting going already

Citrus, I really need to pick the oranges from the Washington navel, have been ripe sitting on the tree since November last year , just hanging on the tree in one of the unheated  ( this year ) poly tunnels.

Some of last years potatoes , I think the varieties were Charlotte and Jersey Royal , I left in the ground are growing well with no frost damage from last weeks frost, they are about 6 inch high plants now, so I will now plant the big crop of them for this year.

Why is it when something is needed it hides so well, I have a few adaptors for camera sd cards for my old photos and videos , adaptors to fit them in a USB slot, I haven`t used one for years....they are here somewhere.....can I find them NO! , a trip into the big town 30km away is necessary anyway , so I will have a look but probably need to use Amazon or Ebay.

A quick walk with one of the dogs, this is Dougal he is about 2 and a half years old , weighing 65kg, a cross between a Kangal and an Ovcharka cross, his paws are about 3 inch wide!, great walk on the side of the Balkan mountains, ruined by the rubbish as you return close to the town.

 

March 24th 2024....almost 10 years on, Still here in Bulgaria...I have been here all along, and still off grid!

Why no content from me ,here in Bulgaria at all... for so long.....

So many things have changed in Bulgaria, the world etc. , back 10 years ago, no Covid Pandemic, UK was a member of Europe, Not so many absurd wars....a lot of things to have written about...but I didn`t write anything on here!

Its a strange story, but probably quite relatable to anyone with ADHD! , I lost my passwords for lots of sites!, I forgot where i put the list of them!...and forgot to look for them!.....

Time just `sort of passed`...lol...almost 10 years and I found the passwords! and thought,,, Oh yes I did start a blog...

Today I found the little book with them all written in when dusting my Dvd`s....inside series 1 of Buffy the vampire slayer....so I have logged in almost 10 years on from the date of my last post!

I have been filming, photographing everything all along, just not online, a couple of photos and a few posts on Facebook in that time but not a lot!

What has been happening.....well.....

loads of new hobbies ( many old ones have resurfaced as well!) , loads of new plants, more dogs, I am still off grid, growing lots of my own food, still here in Bulgaria about 12 years on!

I still cant spell, lol....but....I am....diagnosed as being Dyslexic, Dysfraxic, ADHD, Autistic and  having PTSD and many more things! a hilarious list!

In the next few weeks I will try to fill in what happened in the time since my last post as well as doing new updates...

updates from the `past` will cover thigs like what happened here in the pandemic and associated local lockdown and curfew...., how some people tried to actively stop my residency application, my rescue dogs from over the years and what had happened to them... , problems caused during and after Brexit |( Brexit in my opinion was the most stupid decision any country could make and I also believe it was handled illegally as well...just my opinion...hmmm....but lots of people agree! ), many things to remember!, I made notes on it all in a paper diary...lol...paper and a pen! 

Some dog photos...

Frankie, the first dog I found on the doorstep about 10 years ago, has now been diagnosed in October as having epilepsy , hard to treat now as no medication , he had a drug Epityl but now unavailable so is taking CBD oil, seems to work!

and... a few of the others..., more...lol but i just popped outside and a couple of them are sitting by the door...so here they are my rescued Bulgarian `street` dogs, all of them seriously injured when i took them to the vets and they moved in to the house here in Bulgaria.

This photo 2 of the smaller of the dogs, the white dog is Gizmo and the brown and white turned up with a name...she answered to...would not respond to another so she stayed at the name `Kuchka`.....the name for a female dog here in Bulgarian.....poor thing no name! she likes her name...she had had a few litters of puppies living wild in the village with a big hairy `karacachan-Ovcharka` ( he was shot with a shotgun )  ,this poor girl was carefully shot a few months later by a psychopath....with a very high power air pistol....in each knee and the center of her back (to try and paralyze her ) and the center of her chest right on her heart...Her whole story and photos will be on here soon

This is Lucy....a 60kg half wolf dog / half ovcharka...taken in by myself when a shotgun was being pointed at the side of her head...I was told `don`t worry it will be quick`....psychopaths and guns are a problem, having also lived for some time in Liverpool near Toxteth I am used to it...lol!, what was Lucy`s crime...., 2 things....she howls being a wolfdog and she was blamed for eating someone`s chickens when only about 4 months old.... She probably did, lived in the woods down the road and had a collection of rabbit tails... in a hole on the floor buried under some gravel and sticks....

And a quick video of one of my electric radio control model aeroplanes!