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Insect management doesn’t have to be toxic. Plant flowers and herbs that attract beneficial insects.

Why build this garden?

  1. Cinder blocks don’t rot like wood.
  2. The blocks warm the soil and extend your growing season, great for high altitude gardening. This one was built at 9,400 feet in altitude and produced very well.
  3. Discourages burrowing critters. (Don’t care for shoplifters in my garden.)
  4. The Hugelkultur element conserves water and self fertilizes as the logs decompose.
  5. You can build this garden affordably. I bought blocks for 50¢ to $1.00 used.
  6. Provides a nice sitting area in your garden.
  7. Easy to cover with hoops and plastic. Simply push tie rods or rebar into soil next to blocks. Use irrigation pipe/black poly pipe to create hoops. Cover with plastic and weigh it down with more pavers when the weather gets cool.
  8. Easy to maintain. Add a layer of manure in the fall and the worms will mix it in for you. Add a layer of compost in the spring. That’s all, no need to till!
  9. Easy to work for old folks like me.

You will need:

46 cinder blocks
23 pavers
14 foot long x 4 foot wide length of 1/4 hardware cloth (found a great price online)
A truckload of composted horse manure
Some old cow hay
Lengths of aspens in various stages of decay (some green, some dry, some well rotted)
Soil from your yard (native soil)
The native soil provides the microbial activity you need for the health of your garden. I used a screen to remove the roots of perennial grasses and had very few weeds in this garden.

This garden can be built in a weekend, with a little help from your friends.