It's a dwarf Alberta spruce. When you cut the branches off you will find there is a pretty thick trunk inside. It being a spruce you will also find the denuded central stem to be pitchy.

I read that Conifer wood (which includes Spruce) is a secondary choice but can be used. You want to use mostly wood from maples, poplar, apple, and oak types.

I believe that with regard to resistance to rot and decay in lumber, spruce is pretty good, but cedar is better. Spruce is considered a good product for exterior siding. It is said that if it doesn't stay wet, it can hold up well. That being said, if you bury it, it will probably decay.

Thank you! Do I just use the trunk in the bed or can I use the branches as well?

You can use everything from the tree if you want. Note that since you refer to cedar planks, the question with those is whether they were treated somehow.

Note all buried wood will 'rob nitrogen' to some degree while decomposing although will eventually reach an equilibrium - when the fungi etc doing the decomposing have 'imported' enough nitrogen to keep doing the decomposing; it's not really robbing but borrowing the nitrogen from nearby. You can bury some kitchen scraps etc in there to balance things out a bit. Greener materials from eg the branches has some nitrogen. Note that how much nitrogen is "tied up" in the short term is probably more about surface area (sawdust having thousands of times more surface area than a log).

But as I understand it, part of the idea is that the buried wood is somewhat below the part of the soil where the plant roots extract their nutrients.

I'm not clear from what you're planning to do with the raised bed and hugelkultur specifics to say whether the cedar/spruce is the right way to go. Buried wood will eventually rot - even cedar - just don't know if it fits what you're trying to do.

Thank you. Raised bed is for my vegetables and I wanted to try hugelkultur. My bed will still be flat and not hilled like a real hugelkultur.

The cedar planks were not treated if I remember right. They are currently being used as the border of my raised bed border in another area of my yard. I am planning on replacing them with stone as they look very weathered. It’s only been a few years and they are very gray and looks exactly like the fence that’s around 20 years old.

Can I also put old yard clean ups like last years peony stalks? Is it anything died can be buried?

We will also be replacing our grass as it’s all weeded. Can I use the sod face down? Or a bad idea because it’s all weed ?

how about watching a few of these .. so you have a better base of knowledge...

https://duckduckgo.com/?t=ffcm&q=hugelkultur&iax=videos&ia=videos

i would stay away from mounding anything near that wood fence ... or you will have that rotting .. and that will be very expensive to replace ...

sod in any kind of compost pile.. can make it very hard to dig into .. since it sod .. an intricate web of plants and roots ...

in its simplest form.. you are just building a fancy compost pile.. with a german name.. lol ... so you should be able to glean a lot of ideas from composting also ... you might want to peruse info on that .. for what works in a compost pile ...

dont fixate on the robbing of nitro .. that is very easy to ID.. and very easy to fix ... no pun intended.. plant some peas ... or anything that 'fixes' nitrogen with its roots ... its really not as dramatic as it sounds .... robbing .. its just a cultural variable in regard to your plants and soil ...

ken

I've never done hugelkultur with the raised berm or mound type, would like to try it sometime, but no time or space this year. Proponents claim you can put sod upside down in there and just about anything in a mix, most say you need to start with a modest trench dug, build it up and then cover everything after with soil. If the soil and compost over the wood is deep enough, the nitrogen tie-up shouldn't be a big issue. Most seem to start with wood that's at least a bit older but give it a try and let us know.

I did do a similar thing once with a part of our yard that dropped off too much and needed filling. Dug it out, filled it up with a fair amount of wood, all of a full compost bin I needed to empty, soil on top. It did the trick for what I wanted (mainly raising that part of the yard) with no ill effects; hasn't been a great spot for growing but that's location (little sun and too many hungry trees nearby).

Thank you Ken for the link. I’ve read up on hugelkultur before and there’s so many different information. they all seem to just say throw old wood in, throw this in and wham you got a great bed to grow stuff on.

Perhaps it’s not the best idea as I don’t live in the burbs. I don’t have a lot of old tree trunks. May be once yard waste collection starts, I’ll drive around to see what I can pick up.

I did do lasagna raised bed and the soil is definitely worth the trouble.

Thank you.

Hi AS, you have a Dwarf Alberta Spruce that many on the conifer forum would envy. Around here chipping sparrows make nests in them. Why not save the spruce and create Hügelkultur on either side. That way you get the best of both worlds.