Mini-hugel kultur

Just inside the base of the new section of 5 foot tall goat fencing a wonderfully generous blog reader gave me that I've erected along the west bed, I today dug a pit about 2 feet wide and deep, dropped in several chunks of VERY dried out sycamore logs that Pat dropped off, sprinkled in a handful of dolomite and 10-10-10 tropical fertilizer with trace elements, several big shovels full of fresh horse stall sweepings, covered it all with the sandy soil I dug out of the hole, and am now doing a slow deep soaking to settle it all in. Next I pound down a ten foot length of rebar to make that section of goat fence sturdy vs. wobbly.  I am sure I will need to add more sand and manure as it all lowers due to the slow saturation. Then I will plant the very vigorous chayote now thriving in a 1 gallon pot of soil from the free range chicken path, then mulch the whole area in a 4 foot diameter circle with oak leaves and horse stall sweepings. Lastly, I will briefly turn the sprinkler up a big and soak for 10 minutes that whole area. If all goes well this mini-hugel kultur pit will at LAST give me oodles of fresh chayotes plus vine tips to use in stir fry.

 About 10 feet NW of this I will then dig a VERY big pit and line it with the above ground pool liner my neighbor gave me, puncture it a couple of feet from the bottom on the sides to make it a GIANT Water Wise Container Garden, fill it hugel kultur style, then plant the Raja Puri banana that Mary Jo gave me last week in this bog garden. Once the drought settled in over 7 years ago my bananas population dropped from 21 colonies of 16 varieties to a handful of three varieties that RARELY set fruit....hopefully this bog garden will give me back a vigorous clump!