Hugelkultur on top of scotch broom patch?

Hi everyone,
This is my first permies post. My husband and I just signed papers for a magical 2.3 acres on the White Salmon River in Washington on the Columbia Gorge. It's partly wooded and partly cleared. The land that is open has old decaying stumps, oregon grape, deerbrush, vine maple, hazel, oak and bracken fern. Naturally it has well established scotch broom growing in swaths. Grateful they are perfectly shaped and placed to form a visually appealing hugelkulture. I prefer not to dig, as the old forest floor feels so precious as is. My thought is to gather fresh wood and decomposing wood and twigs and any other debris and food scraps and pile them up. First though, I would want to cut the broom down and make that the very bottom layer of the pile. I hear it is an excellent form of nitrogen. I would prefer not to extract the whole plant, just chop it down fully and then build up over it. Has anyone ever done this with good results? Any thoughts about burying scotch broom? I'm already planning on weeding the fallen seeds for years to come.

Welcome to the Forum. I Incorporated lots of Scotch broom into hugelkultur piles on my own farm. There was a little bit of sprouting, but nothing difficult to deal with.

The stuff on the bottom is not going to grow up through your pile.

Every bit of your soil contains broom seeds. They can persist for decades, waiting for the right conditions, so it's not something you're going to be able to exclude. I would make good use of it. I have often harvested broom a few weeks before the seeds will be viable, and used it as mulch. Next to Red Alder, it's our best nitrogen fixer.

Congrats on getting your new place (even if it's been a year now). I did the same thing as you with the scotch broom. I have a 2 1/2 acre place also. I don't even think of them as a nuisance anymore as I just pull them when I want to use their biomass or plant where they are. I also keep a big patch of them around because my honey bees love them and I have other places that are taking priority to develop first.