So my soil is all hard clay, almost no top soil and it's all turning into desert because of the lack of rain.

I start to dig like crazy last year, forgive me for not following the real Hugelkultur from Sepp , here's one example, it was dug in 5 of January 2012

I already have more like that one, the place is sort of a food forest, there are physalis, grapes, apples, cherry, plums, peaches, olives, gojis, quince, aromatic plants, loquats, Jerusalem artichokes, pomegrantes, apricot, mulberry, oranges ...

There's also a lake I made with 6 frogs and at least 1 tree frog near by, planted Watercress on it and aquatic plants (they keep the water from going bad and without algae), the frogs keep some of the pest controlled, it also has some dragonflies and their nymphs on the water controlling the mosquito larvae.

Looks good to me! I also have buried wood throughout my garden and it's made a tremendous improvement.

That looks great, Paulo! It's tough workin' that red clay. Our physalis ground cherries are just about ready, so I'm guessing that the fruits or your labor are too.

Mike Sawley wrote:That looks great, Paulo! It's tough workin' that red clay. Our physalis ground cherries are just about ready, so I'm guessing that the fruits or your labor are too.

Yes it's hard to dig, I do it alone only with my hands and some tools, my trick is working and listening to Paul Wheaton podcast and others similar

Nice photos. Your soil looks similar to mine. Also in a dry climate and only a shovel to work with. The sunken hugel beds have worked very well for me also.