We did dig the hole, and build the Hugekultur bed, and put the peas into the ground…but we did not grow the plants.  I think this is one of the most important things about Permaculture and the thinking around restoring the soil…food will grow, and we have to understand our place in this. We aren’t supposed to mono crop fields, strip the already deficient soil of nutrients and replace them with chemicals. Plants already want to grow and just need the right set of conditions to do so. It does take some work in the beginning, but plants want to grow, and we want to eat. It is really a very simple equation that gets way too complicated.

Peas planted in March – frost resistant and restore nitrogen to the soil for the lettuces that will grow in this bed in a few weeks.

We planted four different types of peas – four different beds. Two Hugelkultur and two regular raised beds. All mulched with straw or bark mulch and they are all growing just fine with frosts and not much rain. We water them when we need to and it’s good to know that their little roots are restoring the nitrogen in the soil. Again, we don’t know where this will lead – or what will happen over the next few weeks, but as long as the soil is ready for the kitchen garden (tomatoes, peppers, lettuce, etc) that is all we need. We could just add nitrogen to the soil, but isn’t this way is much more interesting? Letting the plants do what they are meant to do…