Hi new permie friends,
I'm beginning the development of our land and I've learned a great deal from the information you all have shared in this forum and others, thanks so much for everything I've gained so far.
Our patch is in Taos County NM, west slopes of the Sangre de Cristos, about 20 miles south of the CO border. Rugged, raw, and utterly beautiful, definitely a "from scratch" project. I want to make a bunch of raised beds on hugelkultur foundations. I have tons of pin~on, juniper, sage, and these scrubby little cacti.
I've read about soil acidity and allelopathic factors linked to conifers, e.g. in Paul W's video where the Missoula folks are piling up cottonwood for a hugel bed, plus other places as well.
What I'd like to know is, have any of you had experiences dealing with less than optimal chemistry in the biomass you've hugeled, such as in my case? What if I leave the woody stuff out to weather for a year? Does it make a difference if I pile in manure, green "waste" (haha, like it's waste), straw, or other stuff? Wood ash to alter pH (but what about the allelopaths)? I guess I could truck in biomass, just gotta find the cache of gold bars at the end of some rainbow... but biomass I got!
Any advice, experiences, warnings, or other info will be happily received, muchas gracias.