Hugelkultur

If you’re not familiar with this term, go here for a deeper analysis — it’s really rather fascinating!

When I planted my garden, I chose to prepare the soil for the long term, it wasn’t a “season by season” plan. Hugelkultur is the idea of piling dead logs, branches, and other wood into a pile (or row) and then packing it in with soil. The idea being that as it rains during springtime, the wood will soak up the rain and slowly release it over summer as the surrounding dirt dries out.

The other amazing attribute is that over time the wood will break down and provide rich nutrients for the plants.

If you need to put people that do this into a box or lump them together, think hippies in Oregon.

It’s truly a long term strategy — the first year you’ll have great benefits, but every year thereafter that soil will grow stronger and better for plants as the wood breaks down and decays. In other words, like a fine wine: age makes it better. Building my garden like this, I’ve already seen many benefits in the second year and I know it’ll be even better for the next several growing seasons (who doesn’t like “growth” and thinking that putting in a ton of work is going to continue to pay off?).

…But just like hugelkultur and the soil changing over time, it’s dangerous to lump people into a category because, over time, they change, too. Humans have character development. They become richer and different than when you first met them.

To expect no change is insanity and poor leadership. To expect and demand the growth curve of excellence and adaptability — that’s the long term strategy.