Homesteading Middles: Recharging the Hugelkultur

Three summers ago I made a living hugelkultur art installation. Tiles of thick bark and effluence from splitting logs stimied weed incursions. Then leaves fell. And decayed.

More leaves fell and more leaves decayed. Japanese Stiltgrass slid into the tiny cracks of soil and invading their way in. Thankfully, that invasive is very easy to weed with it’s shallow roots.

It was time to recharge the hugelkultur with new wood.

I felt like an art historian retouching a Caravaggio - but instead of fine badger hair dipped into cadmium and ochre my tools were gloves to prevent splinters.

I circled the space a few times - admiring the lenten rose, hosta, irises, lilies, pachasandra, and ajuga thriving in the shade.

Why do the deer eat only this hosta and not the hosta next to it?

Jousted with…

Where are those daffodil bulbs, I don’t want to cover those up.

And finally…

How amazing is this to have the time to place each sliver of wood. Instead of just dumping all of this in the woods I get to sculpt something beautiful that brings me joy.

And such joy.

It is a treat to see the beauty of the earth with my caretaking. Beyond the hugelkultur hillock we have planted a whole woodland pollinator garden with color and shape and form.

There is such bounty and beauty on this earth. It is such a huge gift to have the land to feed and have it feed me in return. I recharge the land and the land recharges me.

My ostensibly atheist grandparents had a sign in their garden, apparently even they could feel it.

The Kiss of the Sun for Pardon

The Song of the Birds for Mirth

One is nearer Gods Heart in a Garden

Than Anywhere else on Earth