Vermicomposting/hugelbed

So, I live in Houston and have disgusting amounts of fall leaves and other browns with almost no greens. My plan is to vermicompost these leaves, but it gets to hot and too cold here to have a normal worm bin (It gets to about 100 degrees in the summer and 40 in the winter.) So my idea is to take a lot of this rotten bamboo I have, along with a lot of recently fallen wood, and put them in a raised hugelbed. After that, I'll cover them with leaves in between all of them, along with worms. After that, I'll mulch heavily to act as an insulator. Any of y'all have any ideas relating to possible failures or improvements? The idea is that there aren't that many leaves for it to compost bacterially so the worms don't cook, but the mulch protects them from the sun and winter. Plants will be growing in them the entire time. The sides are open for more leaves, wood, and mulch to be put there and have the bed expand.

I wouldn't bet my whole garden on an experiment, but heck, this is how we learn. What can it hurt? I applaud your inventiveness and creativity, best of luck to you and please keep us posted!

Looks like a plan to me. You may need to make shad for them if it gets too hot. A patio umbrella should work for a small pile. That would help limit moisture in the rainy season, too.

You could try a second pile as a mushroom pile to compare results. Or pee on it to get the N.

I agree with both the above posters, try it! Shade will definitely be a plus to help with developing the microclimate. What kind of trees do you have on the property and are you looking to plant more? A mass like that will be more likely to moderate the soil temps from the air temps along with the shade. Keeping it moist but not soaking should help the worms along as well, especially in the beginning couple of years. Keep adding to it over time by extending it as well as building it up.

It seems like you would be fighting the wind to keep leaves on a mound. Perhaps you should do something more like composting your leaves in a valley between two hugel beds.

Edited: Actually, I took another look at your diagram, and I think that is exactly what you are describing.

I think it has the potential to work very well.