HappyDay: ‘Hugel Beds’

Casey O’Neill is a cannabis and food farmer in Mendocino County who has been writing newsletters about his efforts to provide sustainable produce and marijuana. We feature his column once a week.

     We finished four new hugel beds this week, putting debris from fire clearing and the cannabis stalks from last year into the trenches.  It feels good to utilize the leftover biomass and sequester it in the ground rather than burn it off and add more carbon to the atmosphere.  The woody material will break down over time, releasing nutrients for long-term plant uptake, and it will also serve as a sponge to hold moisture during the summer.

      Our hugel beds start off as trenches that we fill up to the soil surface with layers, first of woody biomass and then compost and native soil that we amend, fork and rake for a smooth planting bed.  There is a deep sense of completion that comes from closing out the biomass from last year and seeing it embedded in the earth for future fertility and plant nutrition.  So goes the cycle as one season slips into another.

      The finishing of these beds is a milestone for us in that it marks the end of our cultivable space within the fence lines that we built over the years.  The gardens are now laid out in their totality and it becomes our task to refine them and to look more to the broader landscape and our management outside the intensive zones within the gardens.

      As we pick our heads up towards the horizons of our lives, we focus on the longer-term, thinking about perennials, trees, the journey of lifetimes.  We think about the people who will come after us, and what they will find when we are gone.  Our goal is to increase the abundance available to all beings large and small who walk this land.

      In the next few days we’ll be planting out the willow that we rooted last year, along with chestnut, hazelnut, elder, fig and plum trees.  Roses for flowers and rose hips will go into their new homes in the house garden, bringing the soulfire that shines from blossoms and entices the nostrils.  Potted clover and comfrey will be planted in the pasture and as borders for other perennials.

      Each year we sow white clover into the 1 gallon pots that hold the cannabis seedlings.  When the sex test results come in, we harvest all but the most vigourous and stinky male plants for making Fermented Plant Juice (FPJ) to feed back to the rest of the crop as part of our compost tea regimen.  The harvested pots then grow lush clover that we plant out in places where we’d like to have more perennial groundcover.

       By the middle of April the female plants get planted into their final beds in the spaces we’ve left between the spring crops, and the clover growing at their base serves as an excellent indicator through the course of the season.  The clover will show water stress before the cannabis, so we watch it with a careful eye during our garden walks.

      We keep experiencing hotter, drier summer and fall seasons, which causes us to adapt our practices to changing realities.  We are planning a shift to a double mulch layer this year, putting down organic alfalfa first for nutrients and soil coverage and then a layer of straw over the top.  Insulating the soil and irrigation lines will help keep water from evaporating and make it more available for plants and microorganisms.

      We want root exudates from plants supporting thriving soil biota, and we need water for this to happen.  We use strategies to store, direct and target water usage to minimize waste and maximize growth, tending and harvesting the resulting abundance.  Our systems range from rapid-rotation-intensive cultivation to long term, slow-food management of perennials with shorter cycles of livestock interspersed.

       Each year our systems become more defined and we add new things into the mix as we gain in capacity, equipment and infrastructure.  Last year was the first time we raised turkeys and ducks, and we’ve added them into our overall farm plan as an indispensable part of our journey.  For the first time in several years we’re raising pigs, and have begun to learn our process for porcine rotational grazing.  The new vegetable hoophouses have shifted our production methodologies and made for a massive increase in winter productivity, allowing us to offer more at market and through our CSA program.

      We are thrilled by where we find ourselves and excited for the journey ahead.  As we refine our systems, this effort becomes self-replicating; we get better at getting better.  The more we are reflexive about our work, the more we are able to adapt our practices, cutting out waste and increasing the joy of clear flow.  Like the river chattering over the shoals we discuss and refine, arriving at the clarity and depth of smooth current in deep waters.  As always, much love and great success to you on your journey!

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21 Comments
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Marsha Ann Dillon
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Marsha Ann Dillon
2 years ago

Thank you for your wisdom!!

Jorge Cervantes
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Jorge Cervantes
2 years ago

#greatsuccess Amber & Casey

Yeah,sure
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Yeah,sure
2 years ago

Always interesting.
Do you deal with a lot of fungus gnats with all of the mulching?

Casey O'Neill
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Casey O'Neill
2 years ago
Reply to  Yeah,sure

We’ve struggled with them some in the propagation hoophouse, but not outside, unless there is an infestation that transfers out with them. Specifically cucurbits and okra have been problematic.

Legallettuce
Guest
Legallettuce
2 years ago

Good stuff, love white clover. I am interested in the male plant juice fermented tea. I wonder if the plant gets anything even at the chromosome level. If so might it be better to feed the male plant juice to the females during flowering or is the male plant material just a nutrient base for the tea?

NorCalNative
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NorCalNative
2 years ago

Casey, really enjoy your thoughts and descriptions of farming, especially cannabis. Using clover to help aid in detecting heat stress is awesome.

Thanks for sharing your story and to Kym for hosting.

kevin marsh
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kevin marsh
2 years ago

Yeah,,,what they said, catch Casey with the only “Farm & Reefer Report” in the galaxy @ http://www.kpfn.org @7pm every other Wednesday

Dirty
Guest
2 years ago

Im so f….cking tired of seeing this dude face can we get some real cannabis stories here..like whats happing in oregon and Oklahoma. Fuck humboldt ..no hemp.. this place sucks and your legal weed is garbage.

NorCalNative
Guest
NorCalNative
2 years ago
Reply to  Dirty

The interesting thing about tested weed from dispensaries, is when it’s 30-40% by weight in cannabinoids, anyone who calls that garbage doesn’t know WTF they are talking about.

I read a comment on Oklahoma here recently and it said growers fertilized until harvest and there wasn’t a loop or magnifying glass to be found. That sounds like garbage.

NorCalNative
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NorCalNative
2 years ago
Reply to  NorCalNative

Testing isn’t always the best way to evaluate weed. Sometime cannabis with mids-worthy THC can have a terpene profile that makes the flower seem way more potent than THC levels would suggest.

One of the best examples I can think of is Purple Urkle a popular flower years ago. THC levels average around 15% Almost as soon as testing labs were popping up, when people discovered the low THC it fell out of favor.

It was a nice smoke for pain relief and sleep. I miss it.

Free estimates
Guest
Free estimates
2 years ago
Reply to  NorCalNative

You can still find cuttings of gdp that are at least half erkel. I miss that stuff too. Haven’t had it for about seven years. Really poor producer, but the effect and taste was excellent. It’s no wonder Ken Estes used sc big bud to make grandaddy purps.

Dirty
Guest
2 years ago
Reply to  NorCalNative

Its still around purple urkle is not even the real name but that makes sence because you dont have any idea what your talking about makes 100 percent sense that u remember that name

Free estimates
Guest
Free estimates
2 years ago
Reply to  Dirty

Well friend; can you tell us where it came from, what it’s real name was, etc? All I know was that about 15-20 years ago so hum had the erkel and mendo had the purps. Those were the only two purple strains I was aware of until i got to try gdp and oregon affie.

Entering a World of Pain
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Entering a World of Pain
2 years ago
Reply to  Dirty

[edit] I’d suggest moving to southern Oregon or Oklahoma if you got it all figured out and let the people who really invest in and care for this corner of paradise worry about ourselves

hortgrump
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hortgrump
2 years ago

hugel beds are huge waste of time. Plants hate it. Everywhere Ive seen it, plants are struggling. -farmer

Entering a World of Pain
Guest
Entering a World of Pain
2 years ago

Can’t imagine wanting all that rotting wood anywhere near my plants. Termites are a mf, a close second to Russett mites

Dirty
Guest
2 years ago

All u morons need a job …im hiring…25 a hour..ima make a shirt that says moron manager

Entering a World of Pain
Guest
Entering a World of Pain
2 years ago
Reply to  Dirty

It’s people like you who clog up our grocery stores. That I have to stand in line behind at the nursery I’ve been going to for 25 years. You think youre big shot cause they put up with your idiocy bcuz you got cash. Acting like your hot shit because some moron financed a grow spot in the ET. Enjoy your vacation. People like you are lucky we have a live and let live mentality and were raised by hippies. We should have started running you all out 25 years ago

Smallfry
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Smallfry
2 years ago
Reply to  Dirty

Of course your hiring Dirty. Sounds like your business has a turnover rate that rivals any fast food chain. Seems like you would have to start @$25 just to get people to tolerate your demeaning attitude..

Hum local
Guest
Hum local
2 years ago

How do you get rid of gophers ?

Free estimates
Guest
Free estimates
2 years ago
Reply to  Hum local

I use a combination of spring traps, dogs and .22 rounds to take them out. They are very resilient. If you want to garden without harming them, you could always dig out your garden space and lay down hardware cloth so they can’t reach the majority of the roots. It’s expensive, but it works. Good luck! They’re clever little bastards!