I wish I would have found this site earlier. I like the idea of the Hugelkultur. By the time it dries up enough for me to start this I am afraid it will be to late and my time to build it will be limited also. But, planning for next year will give me more time to read more here before setting one up.

This year I am going to stick with the conventional garden. I was at a local green house which is probably a bad place to ask for help if you are trying to improve your garden and keep it as organic as possible. but I have a spot which I have planted for a few years which gives me good results, but it is falling off and the area around it isn't giving good results. s the soil seem to pack just from the rain. we have three horses and 10 years of manure minus what I have put on the garden.

Is aged horse manure a good thing to use? How much is to much?

green house people recommended to till in Gypsum pellets and pine bark mulch

Is the gypsum OK?

Is Pine bark mulch good? I'm afraid of what pesticides may be in it and if it will remove nitrogen plus I have searched the net for tilling pine bark mulch into the garden bed and found nothing

aged horse manure is awesome! I have seen some amazing veggies grown straight in a pile of aged horse manure. Can't help you with the rest.

aged horse manure is great however horse more than others will likely contain a lot of weed seeds..before our housefire we had a huge food forest that was full of aged horse manure and aspen chips and we had the most awsome morel mushrooms come up everywhere !!

the gypsom, I'd find out what is in it but if it is natural it should be ok..some people evey use drywall scraps if they are gypsum..but not sure if this is a good idea or not.

pine chips would be awsome as a mulch on top of the ground..i've used pine chips, bedding and sawdust in my garden, but I am a NO TILL garden here so all additives here go on top of the ground, byu the time the worms work them in, they are well rotted.

you don't need to plant "conventional" just cause you don't have the beds figured out any other way..permaculture is basically begun by using polylcultures rathern than row crops..that will be a good way for you to start this year ..interplanting everything that you plan to sow..rather than row crops..and use a lot of mulch ..throw all your waste under the mulch so it will be incorporated by the worms and you be making a much better start than row crops conventionally

Gypsum is generally used to keep the soil from becoming too alkaline. It is calcium sulphate. The pine bark for the same reason, but on top of the ground so it doesn't tie up nitrogen while it composts. Would probably be very good for blueberries or other acid loving plants, not so much for regular garden veggies UNLESS you are in an area where the soil is already excessively alkaline.