Cover Crop on Hugelkultur Bed
Channel: Escaping The Daily Grind
Date: 2024-02-27

I ran into some issues while adding cover crop to my Hugelkultur bed.  I had a massive ant hill in the bed which caused me to try and chase the ants away before planting.  I did end up planting anyway and tried to remove the ants while waiting for the cover crop sprouts to pop up.  I chose crimson clover for the cover crop because it is a nitrogen fixer which is important in the early stages of a Hugelkultur bed.  Hugelkultur beds have a lot of wood rotting, which can cause a depletion of nitrogen in the soil.  There is no need for nitrogen in the soil with clover crops because they pull nitrogen from the air and not only the soil.  So they should still grow just fine in the next few months.  Now, I did not use large pieces of wood, and I also added some rotting composted wood from a huge wood pile in my backyard.  I suspect we will have the ability to plant in this bed within 3-4 months and not 6-8 like the normal recommendation.