Many gardeners swear by raised beds. We reveal the pros and cons of each and show you how to properly create and plant your own hill bed.
What is a hill bed?
A mound bed is a bed in the garden that is raised towards the center and creates a favorable growing climate by layering various organic materials. A hill bed has the same advantages as a raised bed, such as higher yields without additional fertilization. Raised beds are easier to build than raised beds, however, as they do not require a border made of wood, for example.
Creating a hill bed: How it works
The best time to plant a raised bed is in autumn. Then there is plenty of filling material such as leaves for the bed and the stacked layers can settle well until next spring. Any place that is not completely in the shade is actually suitable as a location in the garden. The following dimensions should be observed when putting on:
- Height: max. 1 meter
- Width: max. 1.5 meters
- Length: max. 4 meters
When planting, a north-south orientation of the bed is recommended, as this way the entire surface of the bed gets enough light. In preparation, mark out the area that you want your bed to have. The maximum width of 1.5 meters was chosen so that the middle of the bed can still be easily reached in order to carry out planting and care work. The bed should also not be too narrow or too high, otherwise the soil will slide off the sides. The staked out area is then excavated about 25 centimeters deep. You can put the cut out turf aside, it will be used later. As a last step in the preparations, a wire mesh is placed in the dug pit to protect against voles. Now the layering can begin.
Instructions for building a hill bed in a nutshell:
- Stake out desired area Approx. Dig a 25 cm deep hole
- Lay out chicken wire for protection
- Layer different materials
- Always tap all layers firmly
There are no limits to your imagination when designing your hill bed. You can leave the bed unpaved, but the mound bed can also be fortified with stones or wood on the sides.
List of Layers of a Mound
The secret to the many advantages of a raised bed lies in the five different layers. The bottom layer is 40 centimeters of finely chopped clippings, i.e. branches and twigs. The next layer is formed by the sods that were created when the pit was dug. These are piled up with the grass side down. Next is a 20 centimeter layer of damp leaves or straw. But garden waste can also be used - just take what's there. The next layer consists of manure or young, little rotted compost. It is stacked about 15 centimeters high. Finally, the top layer of the hill bed, 20 centimeters high, consists of garden soil mixed with mature compost.
An overview of the five layers of the hill bed:
- 40 cm chopped branches and twigs
- 15 cm sod
- 20 cm damp leaves or straw
- 15 cm manure or young compost
- 20 cm garden soil and mature compost
The right watering for the hill bed
Watering hill beds properly is not an easy task. There are two reasons for this: the water runs off the sides quickly and the top layer dries out quickly due to its loose structure. A good way to ensure the bed's water supply is to place a rain and watering trough at the apex of the bed. In addition, smaller troughs can be created around the bed to store water. Professionals water their hill bed with hoses between the vegetables. A mulch layer of leaves or grass clippings can also ensure the water supply, which protects against drying out.
An overview of how to properly water the hill bed:
- Create troughs and channels to store water
- Irrigation with hoses
- Mulch layer protects against drying out
Plant hill bed
You can basically plant anything you like on your hill bed. You just have to make sure that the bed does not get the same amount of sun in all placesand that most of the nutrients are in the bed in the first year, which slowly deplete over the years. As a rule of thumb, the sun exposure and the different nutrient requirements of the individual types of vegetables should be taken into account when creating a planting plan. In general, early plants are suitable for the hill bed, as seeds are easily washed away on the still loose soil and the sloping sides of the bed.
What is there to consider when planting a hill bed?
- Sunlight
- Nutrient requirements of plants
- Number of years of use
- Better preferred plants than seeds
You can also check out our planting plan for raised beds for more tips on planting raised beds. After all, the same conditions prevail on the hill bed as on the raised bed, which is why the same can be cultivated.
Which vegetables are suitable for the hill bed?
In which year after the planting of the hill bed which vegetables are grown depends on the nutrient requirements of the vegetables. Most of the nutrients are still available in the first year; therefore the bed is planted with so-called heavy feeders. These are, for example, tomatoes (Solanum lycopersicum), cucumbers (Cucumis sativus), pumpkins (Cucurbita) , courgettes (Cucurbita pepo subsp. pepo convar. giromontiina) and various types of cabbage such as pointed cabbage ( Brassica oleracea var. capitata), broccoli (Brassica oleracea var. italica ) or cauliflower (Brassica oleracea var. botrytis). The middle feeders follow in the following year, i.e. vegetables with medium nutritional requirements. Strawberries (Fragaria), beets (Beta vulgaris subsp. vulgaris var. can do thatconditiva), carrots (Daucus carota subsp. sativus), onions (Allium cepa ), Garlic (Allium sativum) or Kohlrabi (Brassica oleracea var. gongylodes L. ).
In the first two years neither spinach (Spinacia oleracea) nor lettuce (Lactuca) should be grown on the hill bed, since these plants would absorb too much nitrate. From the third year, weak feeders are cultivated on the hill bed. These include, for example, lettuce and spinach, radishes (Raphanus sativus var. sativus), various legumes such as peas (Pisumsativum) or beans (Phaseolus vulgaris) and various herbs such as dill (Anethum graveolens), borage ( Borago officinalis) or parsley (Petroselinum crispum ssp. crispum). After six years most of the nutrients in the bed are gone and it's time to start a new one.
Tip: Potatoes (Solanum tuberosum) should never be planted in a raised bed. Unfortunately, the plants destroy the layers of the bed.
Overview of the planting plan for the hill bed:
- 1. Year: Heavy consumers such as tomatoes, zucchini, pumpkin, various types of cabbage 2. Year: Medium eaters such as carrots, strawberries, kohlrabi, onions, beetroot
- From the 3rd year: weak consumers such as lettuce, beans, peas, radishes, spinach, herbs
- The hill bed should be renewed after 6 years
The hill bed can of course not only be planted with vegetables, but also with flowers or both in mixed cultivation.
Permaculture in hill bed
Mountain beds are often used in permaculture gardens because they combine many of the principles of permaculture: garden waste can be used and recycled and vegetables can be grown for many years without additional fertilizer. Additional tillage is not necessary. An important element when creating a hill bed according to the principles of permaculture is also mulching, which protects the bed from drying out and weeds.
Advantages & Disadvantages of a Hill Bed
Hill beds have many advantages: the hill increases the area under cultivation and there is more sunlight. In addition, garden waste can be recycled and plants are naturally covered with nutrients. Another advantage is that the construction is simple and no additional building material is needed (except chicken wire). Due to the rotting process inside, the bed heats up and thus offers better growing conditions for plants. It also lengthens the cultivation phase. Added to this are the nutrients released by the rotting for the plants. All of this ultimately leads to higher yields. It should also be mentioned that the elevation makes it easier to work on the bed and this way you don't feel like thathave to bend down a lot. The disadvantages of hill beds should not be concealed either. Unfortunately, voles find ideal homes in hill beds and disrupt the cultivation of vegetables. The supply of water is also not very easy with a hill bed. In addition, the soil on the sides of the bed must be regularly replenished as the sides tend to slide off.
An overview of the advantages and disadvantages of hill beds:
The table below shows the advantages and disadvantages of raised beds.
| Advantages | Cons |
|---|---|
| Use of leftovers | Voles |
| Easy to build | Water Supply |
| Increased acreage | Should be filled regularly |
| High solar radiation | |
| Internal heating | |
| No fertilization necessary | |
| Higher yields through extended cultivation period | |
| Better working height |
Another way to create a bed, similar to the mound bed, is a no-dig bed. No digging is necessary. We'll explain what it's all about and how to proceed.