Can Rotting Wood Help Plants Grow?
The combination of Earth Day and emerging from a pandemic in spring can encourage you to look for ways to get out, connect with nature, and plant new life. If you are like me (a person devoid of any hint of a green finger), you will need all the help you can get to keep these plants alive. Fortunately, there are a few simple tricks you can use to get your garden ready for success right from the start. TikToker Crunchy Urbanite , for example, swears by the “Hugelkultur Method” to prepare their beds before planting. Here’s how to create a Hugel garden bed and become a leader in gardening.
What are Hugel beds?
The Hugel beds follow the Hugelkultur planting method, or “garden in the hills”. You start by building a hill using a stack of old wood planks buried underground to simulate the natural growing environment of plants in the wild. The Permaculture Research Center explains in detail the process, a natural process that the method tries to recreate:
“Wood debris (and other debris) that falls on the litter can easily become spongy, absorbing rain and slowly releasing it into the surrounding soil, thereby making this moisture available to nearby plants.”
In theory, mimicking a backyard environment like this should help the plants thrive and save you some of the hard work involved.
Raised beds require less work
When creating beds in the soil, there are several steps involved in cultivating the soil to make it more conducive to new plants. Preparing for planting involves killing existing vegetation, turning over soil by digging a minimum of a foot, and more. With a raised bin, you can simply use fresh soil and skip digging and tillage altogether.
Remake your old wood
Find old wood before laying down the dirt. You can collect sticks, logs and dead leaves (and any other items you can throw in the compost heap) or remodel any old wood you have. The best wood for this task will already rot a little. Newer wood can affect soil nitrogen levels, disrupting the natural balance needed for plant growth. On the other hand, rotting wood will provide the soil with nutrients and help maintain proper drainage , leaving you with the perfect amount of moisture for plant growth. To illustrate this process, watch The Crunchy Urbanite’s video , which shows him landscaping the hills in his own raised Hugel beds.