Justin Koenig wrote:So does fresh fallen limbs and not so dead or rotten trees make for poorer huglekultur beds or does it just mean
a longer wait time for results?
Fresh (green) and rotten (usually grey) woods have different properties. I believe that a good hugelbed should have both (as well as at different degrees of freshness/rot in between). A bed comprising of nothing but well rotted wood would quickly be converted into soils. It would shrink rapidly. A bed of all fresh material would have very little to offer the soils to begin with, but would continue to
feed the soil for many years.
A green branch will shed
water, while a dried out old log would absorb (and retain) rains like a sponge. I believe a good mixture would offer all of the advantages of both a new, and a mature bed.
If you grow annuals on the bed, at season's end, just chop them off at ground level. Don't pull them out by the
roots (unless they are diseased). If their roots have worked their way down 2-3 feet into the bed, that is precisely where you want them to decay. It takes humans a lot of labor to get organic matter that deep into a soil, but Mother Nature makes child's play of it. Let her do what she does best.