When building a hugelkultur bed, there comes a time when you need to add leaves. I thought that my backyard would be an easy place to get leaves. Unfortunately, there were also many rocks mixed among the leaves. Most people in the city will have leaves that fall on the grass and it is easy to just rake them up and add them to the hugelkultur. I have already shared about adding the leaves to the bed because I couldn’t find the video of this step. Well, I finally found it. I thought I videoed it with my Nikon and it was done with my phone instead. This took place on April 26, 2020.
My first batch of leaves was added to the hugelkultur with the rocks included and I am sorry I did that. I decided to use my metal washtub to sort the leaves from the rocks. I figured that the leaves would float and the rocks would sink to the bottom It wasn’t all that easy because some of the leaves would also sink. This was especially true if I put too many in at one time. Once a good amount is put in the water, the leaves need to be swished around to make sure the rocks fall to the bottom and then they can be scooped out by the handfuls into a bucket. Once the surface leaves are removed, then more stirring will bring the leaves at the bottom up. Besides finding rocks at the bottom, I found bolts and nuts from when the metal building was put up. I found pieces of glass and other trash items. I was so glad that I didn’t get cut on anything. This sorting process was a step that I didn’t want to have to do, but it ended up being a fun easy step that didn’t require hard work.