“Hügelkultur” (pronounced hyoo-gul-kulture) is a German word that means mound culture or hill culture. A hügelkultur is a sloped and raised planting bed filled with topsoil, wood, and organic materials. German and European people have practiced it as a gardening method for hundreds of years.¹

Hügelkultur is growing in use as a method to control water drainage within a garden space. It can be used to build a berm to hold water in a basin so it can sink into the ground and water plants nearby, while preventing water runoff from washing out your garden. I am in the process of building such a berm at the bottom of a steep clay slope. With every heavy rain this slope runs with water which drains directly across one of my garden beds and across the access road in my lower property. I learned about hügelkultur and thought to combine it with a swale to create a space that will retain water that normally would drop clay silt onto my garden bed. Once the hügelkultur berm is completed I will plant fruit trees and other crops on it.

Using the berm design as a garden bed can be designed to capture groundwater and direct it to catch areas. This can be as simple as three rows at 90 degrees to each other. The interior captures water and the berms act as sponges to absorb the water. The woody material inside the berms retain the water long after the runoff has gone and that water is distributed into the nearby soil, watering the plants on the berm.

The raised design of the hügelkultur berm can actually create more planting space than a flat bed the same size. This is because the slopes provide planting space on both sides and on top of the berm. This design also makes it a bit easier to harvest since the plants are higher and there is less bending over to harvest ground crops.

The material inside the berm provides many other benefits. It sequesters carbon, it utilizes woody products that would otherwise be burned or hauled to a waste site. The material absorbs water and releases it slowly to benefit nearby plants. The material breaks down slowly, providing nutrients over a long period of time. The berms create more efficient planting spaces.

It is labor intensive to construct a hügelkultur berm or raised bed. Woody material needs to be gathered and placed where the bed will be constructed. There are many designs that can be used to create beds and place them. For very detailed examples and explanations of designing and creating hügelkultur beds I recommend the document from the Oklahoma State University: Sustainable Landscapes: Creating a Hügelkultur for Gardening with Stormwater Management Benefits | Oklahoma State University.

Hügelkultur beds can be constructed with a minimum of tools and some sweat equity. If you have access to a small tractor it will be very helpful throughout the process, but you can build one with little more than a shovel, woody material and dedication. Depending on the size of the bed you want to build, woody material can be as large as tree trunks, chunks of wood, branches, shrubs, leaves and bushes. Mound up the material and cover it with layers of compost and soil.

On a small scale it is possible to make hügelkultur raised beds. The material you use in the beds should relate to the size of the bed. If you have a raised bed that is 2 feet high by 2 feet wide by 8 feet long you would need to use much smaller material than you would in a berm that is 4 feet tall and four feet wide. In a raised bed you can use small branches, shrubs, leaves, wood chips, and compost. Make sure to leave room for growing medium deep enough to support the plants you intend to put into the beds.

In the United States there has been little scientific research done on hügelkultur. It has been a longstanding practice in parts of Europe. Even so, it is difficult to find creditable scientific data on this subject. My approach has been to try a few different types of hügelkultur beds and see how they can benefit the soil health and productivity of my garden.

¹ Sustainable Landscapes: Creating a Hügelkultur for Gardening with Stormwater Management Benefits | Oklahoma State University