Reverse hugel?

During the winter of 2022 a large (24” diameter) dead tree fell into my field, being old and fat the only way I could move it was to cut it into 6” “coins”.  Instead of just throwing the coins into the woods I placed them along with smaller limbs/logs on top of the soil around the dripline of some of my fruits trees/bushes and mulched around and over them.  the trees don’t seem to have cared either way but now I have two more more large trees that have fell.  Can anyone think of a reason why doing this would be bad?  The ones I used last year are rooting away but should last a couple more years, several have mushrooms growing from them.
I know this isn’t hugelculture, but it would seem some of the same benefits could be achieved.

No, it's great! Very long-lasting mulch. If you need to convince yourself, flip one over and look at the fat earthworms proving the soil health!

What you're doing is ideal. It's called mulch. And it is exactly how one builds amazing soil.

Hi Nick,
I did exactly the same. However, I meant to make a beautifull mozaic terrace and pathway out of it between my fruit trees. It looked beautiful, but it was a bad idea. The path gets slippery when it rains, and between the "coins", the weeds started growing so fast, that we eventually decided to let it gow. At the time, I had never heard of permaculture yet, but it was probably the first real good thing I did for my garden soil. Now, about 20 years later that part of my garden is thriving. The ground covering plants are more diverse, than in other parts of the garden. The amount of fruit is at times overwelming. The quality is good! And all that without any fertilizers or chemical input? Every fall mushrooms show me that the "coins" continue to contribute their goodness to the soil.
So, congratulations Nick, with this fantastic solution! You will enjoy the benefits for a long time!
Nynke

When we bought our property the former owner had piles of trees for a fence.  These trees are great for shelter for wildlife.

In no way would they be considered a reverse hugel since there was not dirt involved.

Why not experiment by mounding some of them with dirt to see what happens?

Anne Miller wrote:
Why not experiment by mounding some of them with dirt to see what happens?

Are the benefits of hugel so much better as to merit the extra work? "Mulch mulch mulch" is my mantra!

I visited many hundreds of farms in the last decade. The one's I like the best do not bury wood in the ground, they leave it laying on top. When I observe wood buried in the ground, I notice super low soil fertility, and plants struggling to survive. When I see wood laying on top of the ground, and not intermixed with soil, I observe thriving ecosystems.

In England, they showed me what they called "dead hedges". Basically an area, often between trees, where they piled the woody (and other) debris from the garden. They hosted an abundance of life: pollinators, predators to eat the slugs, wildflowers, fungi, etc.

for me personally it would be too much work to bury the wood.  
I know it's not a hugel but there is contact with the soil, in addition it interacts with the atmosphere and a large number of surface organisms that contribute to the soil food web, probably more than if buried, and definitely more natural.  
From what I read the wood in a hugel will last for years, this will be incorporated/rotted in a couple of years.  I am not knowledgeable enough to say which is better, my guess would be that less carbon would be lost to the atmosphere in a hugel.  
Intuitively I thought it would be good, but I have made numerous mistakes, (sometimes during the same day), often thinking they would be good.

Joseph Lofthouse wrote:I visited many hundreds of farms in the last decade. The one's I like the best do not bury wood in the ground, they leave it laying on top. When I observe wood buried in the ground, I notice super low soil fertility, and plants struggling to survive. When I see wood laying on top of the ground, and not intermixed with soil, I observe thriving ecosystems.

In England, they showed me what they called "dead hedges". Basically an area, often between trees, where they piled the woody (and other) debris from the garden. They hosted an abundance of life: pollinators, predators to eat the slugs, wildflowers, fungi, etc.

Could you expand on that more?  Are you asserting that a raised bed with chunks of wood in it will never perform as well as one that is solid soil, and both covered in mulch?  I'm not arguing, I'm genuinely curious.  I'm about 6 years into raised bed hugels and it's been a mixed bag so far.  My oldest one is finally doing great, but the newer ones are still struggling, even after a full third season.  I've also been struggling with drought for 4 years, and I think it's be very difficult to get the beds fully hydrated, even once.  

I went out before spring started and shoveled as much snow onto them as they would hold (mine are flat for drought resistance purposes).   Maybe I got lucky and put in inch or two of water into them with all that snow.  

I think in discussing the use of wood in the garden the term is used way too broadly. Of course, wood, is wood but there are lots of kinds and all of which can be found in lots of different conditions. The photo below is probably about as extreme as it can get for example. That big chunk there in the center is part of the trunk of an elm tree that died about fifteen years ago. That snag standing beside it is the rest of the trunk, all the upper branches broke and rotted on the ground a long time ago, the stump just broke and fell this past winter. That wood is so rotted that I can almost break it up with my fingers, some of it I actually can. I think it would probably be fine to use this in the garden, maybe even bury it, although I don't really see the need for that, plus I'm old and lazy. As long as I really can grind it with my fingers, I actually use such wood in place of peat in seed starter and the like, it comes with the free fertilizer of bug poo and bug bodies that accumulated over the years.

The firewood there covered with the pretty green lichen and those small logs are black locust, it was cut about six months ago. It can lay on the ground for decades without rotting. I suspect that it would not be good in the garden, especially if buried. That was an interesting idea from above of cutting the bigger sections of trunk from the locust into two-to three-inch-thick rounds and using them like stepping stones / mulch, similarly to the way I have sometimes used large flat rocks. I'm going to give that some thought.

I think as a rule, regardless of the type of wood, if it isn't well on its way looking more like a sponge than firewood, it's probably best not to use it in a garden, and certainly not to bury it.  

I've built 6 raised bed hugels now, most recently 2 last season.  Every time I've done so, I've changed the design.  Most recently, I'd scoured the woods for the most rotted and the mostly quickly rotting varieties.  When i dug up my 2019 model, I couldn't believe the wood was still dry down 3 feet.  The drought was awful.  

Hugelkultur as a method was developed by Sepp Holzer in a very humid alpine climate. My experience is that burying wood can be an effective means of building soil, but only with an abundance of moisture, and ONLY with lots of mulch in top of the system.

Where I live in Africa the method works in the rainy season when it rains several times a week. But in dry season it's a liability for the reason stated: it's difficult to keep the whole thing hydrated. It's often sold as a method of regulating soil moisture by absorbing excess and releasing it during dry periods, but actually wood mulch on the surface does this even better because it also protects the surface of the soil from evaporation and erosion both. Makes sense: that's the way nature integrates dead wood.

Of you bury wood, then you have to baby sit it: keep it mulched and make sure it has enough moisture. If you lay the wood on top of the soil as mulch it's working for you for years to come. I make wood core garden beds because it's hard to mulch an annual garden with logs, and because I keep it irrigated.

Hugelkultur is basically a way to slow compost LOADS of excess wood in a high humidity environment,  while growing stuff at the same time. If those aren't your parameters then just forget about it. Mulch mulch mulch.