Last September I planted lettuce, spinach, Asian greens, carrots, Swiss chard, and onions in my garden to later be covered by low tunnels, and in my 10 X 10 greenhouse.  Everything under my low tunnels grew all winter long and I harvested regularly.  In my greenhouse, the story was not the same.  Nothing grew.  So in attempt to remedy the problems, which really are that it is just too much space to heat, and it doesn't stay wet enough, I decided to build a hugelkultur bed into the north side of the greenhouse.  This is something I have wanted to try for years.  Cindy and Jason Murray built one this spring and watching them gave me the courage to do it.  I wanted it just high enough so that water would drain off the bed into the greenhouse, but low enough so that I could vent the windows in the summer.

To begin with, I dug a hole 10ft X 2ft X 2ft.  Then, I used the largest logs from my woodpile to fill the hole and piled them up to about two feet above the ground.  I used mostly cotton wood, which breaks down fairly quickly, and apple wood, which is much harder and will take longer.  I washed as much dirt as I could down into the air spaces in hopes that it would minimize the shrinkage of the bed later.  

Then I layered wood chips and straw that has wintered over in my chicken coop, to a height of about four feet.  The chickens do a pretty good job of eating the seed from the straw, so I'm hoping not to have weeds.   Then I covered the pile with dirt I dug out of a newly planted asparagus bed along my ditch, and some mushroom compost.   I drove wood stakes through the middle to help hold it all together.  Then I added more of my straw/chicken compost.

I wanted to plant a perennial in this bed, so I chose asparagus.  Cindy and I ordered 100 asparagus starts between us, so I had to create space for 50 asparagus plants!  Asparagus likes good drainage and the moisture from the rotting wood should benefit it also.  One of the beauties of hugelkultur is that very little water should be needed because the wood has been soaking up water all winter.  I will add 6 more inches of dirt after I see some of the shoots coming up.  I also planted strawberries in this bed as they are a good companion to asparagus.  

We have had two snows since the semi-completion of this bed and it is the last place the snow sticks and the first place the snow melts, indicating that it is quite warm.  It will be a while before I know if it benefits the greenhouse, but I am hopeful.  This summer, I am going to try sweet potatoes inside the greenhouse.  They are a tropical plant and are not suited to our area.  I will post when I get them planted.