g'day gothic,

your ideas sound fine to me, nothing like keeping adding that organic material in, raised beds will still be best over time, use lots of mulch and maybe even hugelkultur under the beds.

len

Here is a link that might be useful: lens garden page

OK, I managed to secure about 25 yards of wood chips. What do you think of using masses of wood chips in the hugelkulture?

Klaus

g'day klause,

yes the wood chip would be good in hk, but maybe outside the box you could lay it in long rows oh! i dunno 1/2 meter high and wide along the contours to act as swales and in time it will rot down bolstering your soil.

could do the same with bales of spoilt hay material (greens) or straw (browns), be less labour intensive than diging a trench swale that has to be all but perfectly horizontal.

the raised beds won't miss not having hk over time

did you check our bale garden presentation?

if you plant trees along where the swales might go and mulch around the trees and between them in rows then you get 2 birds with the one stone hey?

len

Here is a link that might be useful: lens straw bale garden