South Jersey

Starting my first Hugel mounds wish me luck.Prob about 100 feet long 5 feet wide I am guessing. I am wondering if anyone else has tried this in or around south jersey? I am bloody excited. I understand the basics but any input would be greatly appreciated. Pictures etc will follow.

How south in South Jersey? I am in Jackson, northern edge of Ocean county. I did a small hugelbed last year that was very successful with watermelons and cantaloupe. I am working on more for this year. All small suburban yard scale, nothing major.

Where I am, the ground is one hundred percent sand, so everything I can do to add organic matter and hold some water is worth doing.

I am in Vineland. Sounds great. A buddy of mine has a huge yard and we are going to go crazy. I hope to so watermelons too. Which kind did you grow? I know us northerns dont have as much good luck with watermelon. There is a funny story to go with that. My neighbor when I was growing up plowed a field behind my house. I just ate a whole watermelon and saved all the seeds. I then planted every seed in the whole field. A few weeks later it pretty much grew over and after a few months it was full grown. I chased a ball into the field and BAMB my foot went right though a huge watermelon and I notice the whole field was full of them. It was awesome and never watered manually. My soil is all clay but there is a bit of pine everywhere and then mostly maple.

I believe we grew Jubilee. One of the bowling ball variety. Wanted to go Everywhere! Had some problems with fruit rotting on the ground, but the plants grew well, which with my sand is a major achievement

This is the start. dug about 3 to 4 feet deep and dropped a ton of wood. Then, covered with twigs and then grass clippings from my friend that owns a mowing business. Finally topsoil compost etc on top and then some straw. Just finished planting about 80% of it.more pics soon. They are about 35 to 40 feet long and 6 feet wideish.