A modest hugelkultur bed, just waiting for its turf and humus layer.

It might have looked like a lazy afternoon in the garden as the Gardening for Health Group ate pizza and chocolate cake together with visiting park users... and some fruit... but we actually got quite a lot of work done too.

Initiated by someone who had done a Google Images search on hugelkultur beds and supervised by someone who had looked them up in a book, we converted a very large pile of dead and crossing branches and big logs (both from the tree surgeons on Monday) into the start of an unusual type of raised bed.

Hugelkultur beds were first developed in Austria and use the power of slowly rotting damp wood to bring fertility to the plants growing above them.

Lots of barrowing of logs, branches and twigs... on our Waterbeach Recycling Centre wheelbarrow.

We haven't quite finished but it was a fun way for about six of us to spend some time tidying up in the sunny garden.

We can post some photos of the final layers soon - and hopefully some happy plants too.