Even though my husband had planned to finish the basement this summer, he couldn’t ignore the yard.

When we had to cut down our largest Manitoba Maple because it had been damaged over the winter, the whole feel of the backyard changed and our garden had a lot more light. We had four small raised beds (our soil is almost pure clay because we are close to the river) and Ed decided that larger, deeper beds would be a good idea. While he was planning the beds’ build and placement our brother-in-law told us about hugelkultur, a Germanic gardening style where you bury logs and then place soil on top which reduces the need for watering and fertilizing. This makes a lot of sense in the arid climate of Saskatchewan.

So two of the four planned beds have been built, logs from the felled trees buried, and clover planted to help bond nitrogen. The twigs are Ed’s art-school-influenced way of keeping our neighbour’s cats out of the new beds. Because a box full of dirt means only one thing to a cat…