Wildflower Hugelkultur Gets a Wattle Fence

Sunday, June 27, 2021

Having "rejuvenatively" pruned the forysthia shrub by cutting 3/4 of its ancient branches, we temporarily stored them behind the bee hive structure, which was fine until the new bees moved in, and then it was no longer a good look.

So I hauled all the forsythia branches to the side yard, and chopped off all side shoots from those branches, so I was left with a series of forsythia poles in various thicknesses, lengths, and flexibilities. I cut the thickest, shorter sticks into ~16 or so smaller stakes. Sunk those in the ground with a hammer, and then used the longer, more bendy branches to weave between the upright shorter sticks. This made a very rustic wattle fencing, which I attempted the first time I made the stump wildflower bed, but I didn't have enough materials to build a substantially high fence. The fact that it didn't stand out significantly from the surrounding (waist high!) grasses, is likely what led to the neighbor's contractors decimating a third of the stump garden.

So I also took this opportunity to re-hugelkultur the previously destroyed portion of the stump bed. It doesn't really make sense to have a wildflower bed to cover up a tree stump, if the stump is exposed, after all!

The leaf mold and cardboard weedblock were covered up with a wheelbarrow load or two of loam, and sprinkled with the same wildflower mix as the first time, along with a lesser quantity of a new deer-resistant wildflower mix. I wonder if it'll all turn into Sweet William flowers again like last time!

The rehabilitated portion is not the most attractive at the moment, but that weird "C" shape will fill in with mixed wildflowers and look good in no time (hopefully)!