Hi, Michelle. I live east of Elgin, but used to live in Dripping Springs so I'm very familiar with your soil (or lack thereof) problems. We have been making hugel beds for 2 years now as a way to deal with all the dead oaks from the drought, and also as a way to make organic matter to compensate for the sandy soil (part of the Lost Pines). Getting and keeping the beds hydrated is definitely an issue, but my oldest bed seems to have finally turned the corner. Someone mentioned to me that adding straw might help, so I'm going to try that on the next bed. I have also noticed fire ants moving in on occasion, but fire ants are a fact of life with or without hugelkultur. (I just pay attention when I first start digging in an area). That may also be due to a lack of other critters in the soil. My initial excitement has been tempered somewhat, and I agree that blindly accepting this will work in a semi-arid climate is naive. What seems to work best is combining hugelkultur with swales on contour just upslope of the hugel bed to capture runoff and force it into the wood. My first beds were not oriented that way.
