The hill bed is a central element in permaculture because it enables the cultivation of very high-yield vegetables or fruit without adding fertilizer and using natural garden waste. Creating a hill bed is quite easy if you follow the steps below.
How do I create a hill bed in permaculture?
To create a hill bed in permaculture, follow these steps: Choose a sunny, elongated location, prepare and leave several layers of organic materials such as branches, grass, leaves, manure and clay in the fall put over the winter. You can then start growing straight away in the spring.
Why create a hill bed?
A mound bed consists of different layers of organic material that occurs in the garden. The utilization of everything the garden produces is one of the basic principles of permaculture and helps to achieve sustainable cultivation. Thanks to the organic material that gradually rots, the hill bed contains numerous nutrients that provide the fruit and vegetables grown on it with nutrients all year round, making fertilizer completely unnecessary. In addition, the decomposition of the materials generates heat, which has a beneficial effect on the growth of the plants being grown and also enables early cultivation. Vegetables and fruit can be harvested up to three weeks earlier. Another advantage is that due to the hill shape, the growing area is slightly increased, allowing you to grow more fruits and vegetables in a smaller space.
Planning the hill bed: location and size
Hillbeds are usually designed elongated and should not be wider than 1.50 meters so that the vegetables growing on them can be easily reached. The ideal length is four meters, but you can also make your hill bed longer or shorter. It is important that you observe the local conditions. Fruits and vegetables almost always grow better in the sun. So don't place your hill bed on the north side of your house, but instead look for a sunny location. It should also point from south to north, if possible, so that all plants get equal sun.
When will the hill bed be created?
The best time to create a hill bed in a permaculture garden is in autumn. The layers can then settle over the winter and you can start growing straight away in the spring.
The construction of a hill bed
A hill bed is divided into several separate layers. What exactly you use in your hilled bed, in what order you do it and how thick each layer is depends entirely on what you have available. Usually used:
- branches, sticks and chopped things
- mown grass
- Leaves and garden waste
- Manure and coarse compost
- Fine compost and topsoil
- clay
A hill bed should remain in use for five years, so stronger branches can also be used, which only rot after a year or two.
In this video you can see how to create your hill bed step by step:
