HELP Hugelkultur noobie

Heya, very new to all this. My husband and I decided to build a hugelkultur. Before doing adequate research, we built a rather extensive base of fairly green/freshly cut logs all over our medium small suburban backyard. I am looking for advice to make this work-- I've learned that typically people suggest using logs that have already been decomposing for a while. It is spring now, and it's not important to us that we are able to plant on it this year (although of course that would be fun). But how do we fill it in, so that it works next year? And do we need to dig the logs into the ground-- what exactly is the benefit of this?-- I guess it provides you with soil to fill in the gaps? Any advice for acquiring large amounts of soil for cheap?
Thank you

Hi Mary,
In my unqualified opinion, green wood is better than no wood at all, as it will eventually begin to break down. Here in central Texas, I've found it works best for me to bury the wood below the ground level/surface of the land. This helps the wood store/hold moisture, which is needed for the wood to decompose & provide the benefits of a hugelkulture.
I have used, both, green & dead wood in my hugels, and have found the fresher wood beds just take longer to fully take effect, though I still plant on them immediately (if I don't, the Bermuda and crab grasses will quickly take it over). In my experience, the green wood beds usually require some extra irrigation during the growing season, although a thick layer of mulch on the surface helps a lot with holding water in the soil. One thing I've started doing is adding layers of fresh rabbit manure during the development of the hugel, which supplies some nitrogen to support the decomposition, and some organic matter to hold water. I also top dress the plants for the first year or two to help make up for any nitrogen being tied up with the breakdown.
Another good option is to find some wild mushrooms and blend them up with some water and pour that on the wood (though I usually just toss the mushrooms in the bed whole).
Since I'm on the mobile site I can't tell where you live, but your local climate (temps, humidity, precipitation, etc) will impact the speed of the wood breaking down.
Overall, I would say not to worry about it too much, as it will continue to get better every year, and the first couple of years seem to be the least effective, and need the most supplemental care.
One question is what type of wood did you use? Generally anything is fine, but some trees like walnuts have some alleopathic tendencies, some like black locust and Osage orange take a long time to rot, and things like juniper/cedar have antifungal properties which slow decomposition. But, eventually, everything breaks down (we just want it to happen while we're still alive to benefit from it)