Gardening Garden box questions

[wildgroundcreations]

Sir, My name is George and my wife Wendy and I love your Youtube Channel in the States (North Carolina). We've made two boxes already but were wondering...can Pine trees/logs be safe to use in the Hügelkultur boxes? We're wanting to build several more and most people around here have never heard of Hügelkultur so we're at a loss on this question...and I'm not wanting to "trust" the internet. I've also attached some pictures of the boxes we currently have from last year (2021). Thanks.

 

[t4ms]

I have a similar problem to you. I've had to bulk up my raised garden beds with stuff I've foraged and which includes eucalyptus. I think it'll take the best part of this year to get the soil nice and sweet as I've had to use cheap potting mix which I've added compost etc to. I think (in my humble opinion) it does take a while for raised garden beds to get going as there's all kinds of goodies in soil (if you don't ship in top soil). I'm going to plant green manure in all my raised beds next autumn in preparation for next spring.

After putting in two of my beds (I have four) I decided to separate the eucalyptus stuff from everything else with a couple of layers of cardboard. These two beds seem to be doing better than the other two (where I didn't) but there are so many different variables it's hard to tell if that's what made the difference.

A couple of US universities have good articles about pine. Here's one from the University of New Hampshire:
https://extension.unh.edu/blog/2019/10/do-pine-trees-pine-needles-make-soil-more-acidic

And one from Oregon State University:
https://extension.oregonstate.edu/n...-truth-behind-some-common-gardening-practices

 

[Mandy Onderwater]

I am no expert on this but I believe pine specifically is recommended less for it's acidic features. I know that when pine needles break down they naturally release acidity, which is great for plants who love that; not so great for those that don't.
People love using pine for decorative mulch as it naturally "kills" weeds. Sadly it can also kill what you intentionally grow.

There are of course people that use it and never see a problem; perhaps this is after aging the wood.

I don't know enough sadly to really be a good influence here though.

 

[Grandmother Goose]

I had this exact question regarding pine and eucalypt and asked people that knew what they were talking about from a science perspective. Apparently yes, they can be rather acidic, but once composted down they neutralise. Many Aussie natives prefer acidic soil, so do things like blueberries, so acidic soil isn't all bad, it just depends on what you're trying to grow. If you need to bring acidic soil up to closer to neutral or even make it base (alkaline), you can just add some wood ash, lime, or even baking soda. In the bottom of a deep garden bed for the sake of filling the bottom of it, it's not going to make diddly squat of a difference unless you're growing something that has roots deep enough to reach down that far into the bed.