Here are some thoughts and suggestions for you.
1.) Besides Sepp and Bill there is
Geoff Lawton who has many wonderful videos on all the different aspects of
permaculture, including hugel mounds.
2.) Yes hugels can be huge attractors of insects and critters, this is not really a bad thing, unless your mounds are close to your house or other structures that you don't want either to get into.
3.) Yes you can build a hugel uphill, I would try to keep it at least 20 feet away and more if practical.
4.) Swales work very well with hugels, especially if the mounds are dug mounds. Deeper ditches filled with
wood are best, they will hold more water. I strive to never build a mound on top of the ground.
5.) The type of earth moving device you use is very much dependent upon several factors. a. type of soil (rocky clay will take more powerful machines than silty/ sandy soils, etc.) A small tractor with backhoe may simply take more time to do the job of a larger track hoe or backhoe, if there are large rocks involved, the bigger(more horse power) the machine the better. If you are digging trenches for mounds, a FEL will be very useful in installing that soil as the cap. Track hoes have a blade to push not lift with, only their
bucket will lift fill dirt etc. I would almost always prefer a tractor with FEL and BH over a Track hoe.
East to West mounds are good if your water flow is N-S the objective is to have the mound interrupt the downhill water flow, same for swales. There should be a space between the base of the mound and the downhill side of the swale, this allows water to sink in better.
The largest logs go in first and the diameter of wood decreases as it goes up, twigs and small stuff can be crammed in to the voids as well as fine materials (soil,
compost, leaves, grass, spent
coffee grounds, even meat scraps if placed deep
enough in the building up of the wood core).
When building a mound, the fewer empty spaces you leave as you stack the better and faster the mound will age and work as it should. Mounds need to be large, small mounds almost never work as the builder thought they would. Once you get the soil cap in place it needs to be planted with cover crops and other items so it is not left to erode away. My usual mound will be three to four feet deep in to the ground, ten to twelve feet wide at the base and rise 6' above the soil height, they are normally at least ten feet long too.
While fresh wood will eventually work, it is best to use wood already starting to decompose. Mounds should be expected to settle quite a lot if all voids are not filled prior to putting on the cap. When settling occurs, fill in with compost, soil, etc.
If you build up hill, the swale will collect water which will sink into the soil which will fill the hugel which will create a water plume downhill.
1
