In my years of dabbling in permaculture and growing I have made many a raised bed in many a style.  There have been double dug beds, complex spiraling beds with mow-able pathways, biodegradable plastic mulched beds, and their cheap cousin the cardboard and wood-chip mulch, but I have never heard of a hugelkultur bed until yesterday when I read this awesome article about the Crop Mob in North Carolina.  Aside from making me want to start my own band of roving carhartt-ed volunteers, I was immediately curious as to what a hugelkultur bed was.   Well its a raised bed that has as its base (or a large component) a great deal of rotten wood.  The wood sort of works as instant compost, trapping and releasing nitrogen into the bed, and also retaining moisture, a plus in a dry environment. Like adding woodchips to your compost pile the wood helps will add structure to your soil as it breaks down.  This fellow explains it well, and with photos.

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