Making maximum use of garden space whilst minimising, or even ruling out, the need for watering sounds like a dream come true. If you invest some time, energy and thought into what is known as ‘Hugelkultur’ or, to put it more simply, ‘mound culture’, this is exactly what you can get.

Made popular in Germany in recent years but, in reality, dating back centuries in various parts of the world and in a variety of climatic and soil conditions, hugelkultur is a wonderfully simple way of creating a low-maintenance, highly productive garden on the scale of your choice. In some areas of the world where increased desertification is a problem, it is currently being widely and successfully utilised to hold the desert at bay and even to reclaim desert, transforming previously unproductive land into highly fertile, high-yielding use.

The principle, be it applied on a small or large scale, is based on the construction of mounds. These can be small and round, long and thin, short or very tall, and can be in the backyards or used to transform problematic fields. They can even be used to transform steep, rocky hillsides into places where all crops, including trees, can be cultivated over a very long period of time. After the initial construction stage, very little, if any, input is required; and, even better, they are completely organic and can, with correct knowledge and application, be kept this way.

The basics are as follows: You need some logs or branches, dead ones, of trees to form the base of the mound — any type of dead wood, except for black locust and walnut which gives off toxins — can be used. Depending on the size and shape of the mound you intend to make, the branches, etc. can be used as they are or cut to length. This base wood can, if you like, be laid in an excavated hollow or directly on top of the poor ground and can, on a large scale, be used all around the contour of a hill. If logs are being used, they can be put in or laid down either vertically or horizontally to a height of your choice. This wooden base will take years and years to rot down and, in the process, retain water, soaking it up like a sponge and releasing, slowly, during dry weather to feed whatever is grown on top. But, between the logs and the crops there is much more.

On top of the logs, branches, nice twiggy ones — again they must be dead otherwise something might start to grow, willow being a prime example — are laid dead leaves, grass clippings, wood chips, shredded cardboard/newspaper, straw or whatever other organic material you have easy access to. Eventually and once the mound is well raised — it can be quite steep and high — a final layer of four to six inches deep of organic compost/organic manure mixed with soil and your mound is ready for planting.

This hugelkultur mound can be of any shape or size and, in some ways, can be compared to a gigantic compost heap minus any offensive aroma and can be planted with all sorts of crops imaginable, with trees only on large mounds. These will, as they grow and once they are established, gain all the nutrients and water they need from the rotting process going on, out of sight, underneath the mound surface. Such mounds, depending on the size of course, can easily last from five to 30 years and more without requiring any additional feeding or, once seedlings are strong enough, watering either. Additionally, if you don’t want mounds you can make the identical growing conditions in excavated pits or. On a massive scale, hugelkultur can be used to infill quarried areas where the ground is nothing but unproductive rock.

On a small garden scale, mounds can be built tall enough so that disabled people can garden from, for example, a wheelchair, without having to struggle to bend over. As both sides and top of the mounds are planted, productive growing area is increased many times over and a family of, for instance, four people, can thus feed themselves from the area that was previously viewed as a small yard.

Material for mound building is, once you have located base logs which must be completely dead, which should not be as hard to track down nor as costly. Even if it has to be purchased, as people may think, as long as it is organic, it can be used. Even something like an old cane chair, minus the paint or varnish, can be used in mound construction after breaking it up first. Fallen leaves, say from a neighbours yard, can also be added along with any twigs, straw and newspaper you have access to. Avoid glossy paper and magazines as the printing process for these uses too many unsafe chemicals.

Building a hugelkultur mound is, in some ways, akin to building a bonfire, except that you are going to grow food on it — long term — not burn it down in one pyromanical frenzy!

Give the idea some thought, do some research if you like and you will soon see that this method of growing makes perfect sense.

Please continue sending your gardening questions to zahrahnasir@hotmail.com. Remember to include your location. The writer will not respond by e-mail. E-mails with attachments will not be opened.