kristina summer

Thank you for putting that so clearly. I think I understand it now.

But what about hugelkultur beds? Just earth & wood stuff. People seem to be singing it's praises for the wonderful vegetable crops they get from it.

I was always puzzled about hugelkultur because non-hugelkultur people who grow vegetables on the ordinary earth (with flat ground) work hard to make compost to enrich the soil.

I imagined that the fungi from the leafmold would enjoy the damp straw and happily proliferate in that pile!

I can get hold of used straw easier than I can leafmold and so I was just hoping I may be able to cultivate some of the wonderful fungi supplied by leafmold. It's not a common topic and so difficult to find information - bacterial composting is the general practice of gardeners.

I thought that if I compost straw and farmyard manure with a sprinkling of leafmould throughout it, that I'd get the wonderful benefits of both bacterial and fungal compost.

However, I've read different views on this forum about whether one of them would inactivate the other. I'm stumped now. Does anyone else think this is a good idea or bad idea?

I've noticed that the wonderful spongy ground in the woodland/forrest, that's had years of layers of leafmould developing, has no worms or slugs in it. Why is that?

It makes me wonder about adding it as a soil conditioner to improve clay soil. I know leafmould is excellent for the fungi it provides the soil with (fantastic explanations by Ken Leavy on this site). But the worms don't seem to like it in it's natural habitat. I do like my worms!

Hello - I have a small garden in UK with heavy red clay that had been compacted by machinery before I moved in (what a nightmare).

I'd like to dig a composting pit perhaps 3 feet deep to fill with vegetation. I won't want to access this later - the idea is just to slowly work my way around the garden making these pits to get some much needed life in the soil.

I am stuck on the science bit. Should I get fungal life going first with underground hugelkultur type composting (tree branches/composted bark)? And would fungal growth happen down at the bottom of a cold clay pit?

I thought of putting the branches/woody stuff on the bottom half of the pit and then filling the rest with used organic straw/manure. However, would the heat from the decomposing straw/manure kill off the fungal growth developing (hopefully) on the woody stuff underneath?

I thought that once my pit gets activated and sinking into the ground, I'd top it up with kitchen waste type composting.

It seems that composting wood to get fugal growth is very different to traditional type composting of kitchen waste. In the woods with the deep spongy leafmould ground, there doesn't seem to be any worms amongst the years of falling leaves. However, when I've composted my kitchen waste there are worms and obvious insect life aplenty.

I'd really appreciate your opinions!