[Russell Atterbury]

A while back I toyed with the idea of converting a piece of lawn into a veg bed, and got good replies from the site. But after doing exploratory digging around in the area, i have had to conclude that there is just too much rubble/broken bricks etc in there. It is a legacy of the brit bombers flattening Kaliningrad. So the new idea is to make a raised bed or three, but there is absolutely no way to fill with good earth as it is near non existent in the garden anyway (and too expensive to buy). So, the question is, does the hugelkultur idea work with normal flat beds, and if it does (knowing that you start with natural logs/branches) what can be used to get me up to the top of about 18" depth.

[snowdrops]

Hi I can see your reasoning behind your decision, but do you suffer there with lots of slugs & snails? If so I think you might just be building them a lovely home for the day & to come out at night to eat your seedlings? I bow to anyone with actual experiences of using huglekulture. As I understand it you build up with branches & twigs etc & the higher you build the finer the materials become, so fallen leaves being one layer, household veg peelings etc, garden prunings with a final layer of compost of rotted mulch that you plant into.

[Russell Atterbury]

I hadn't thought of that snowdrops. I wouldn't say there is a big problem with slugs or snails.. I seem to be trapped between the devil and the deep blue. I can get plenty of branches etc, cardboard is normally around at the refuse places, and we get quite a bit of leaf fall in the garden, but shredding it is the problem. But i have to come up with some way of filling a raised bed, because the garden is just too full after the war bombing.

[hasbeans]

I think you basically need a lot of organic matter, a compost heap on top of the wood.  Do you have neighbours whose garden/kitchen waste you could add, parks with excess leaves and grass, farmers with hay and dung? 

As for the slopes, like Sepp Holzer does, there's obvious benefit to the slopes when it comes to space and light.  As I understand it, flat hugelkultur works just the same you just lose those benefits.

[Russell Atterbury]

hasbeans, I think that asking neighbours, particularly one who has a very large lawn, might be a good way forward. Neighbours generally don't have much to do with each other around here, but it seems like a good time to start a chat.