hugelkultur with bad soil and raised order?

Hello. I'm learning more about hugelkultur and trying to plan how I'm going to apply it to my situation.

I live in a former mining area and my soil has very little nutrient and no nitrogen. I'm in the, many years, long process of trying to reconstitute the soil over time. But, in more of a hurry when it comes to the garden as you might imagine. LOL

Additionally, I'm on a relatively steep slope. The bottom of the slope, across the street, is a lake. So all my water runs down the, mostly clay soil down to the lake.

Currently, I have raised garden beds and have had slightly more success with them but watering is tedious and extremely time-consuming. The beds compress and lose a lot of soil over the year and have to refill every year.  I am older as are my parents, so this is quite difficult for us.


***
So, I'm wondering about my idea here. I'm thinking to replace my standard 6x3 garden bed with a hybrid of that and hugelkultur by digging the trench 6x3 or better, then put the raised bed frame on top of the filled trench/ wood.  Then continue filling with compensated soil. Also using hay to mulch, which I haven't done previously.  I'm also considering a hugelkultur trench uphill of the garden and/or a berm to slow and collect water prior to it running down to the lake.

These adjustments would create the hugelkultur benefits under the garden beds & help with the loss of soil over time.., I hope.

Thoughts?

Berms and huegels would certainly help if the problem is rain washing away nutrients and soil. Can you give us an idea of your climate, maybe someone can help if they have more info.

If you don't already, I'd suggest getting legumes started everywhere. they will help hold soil in place and gradually improve the nutrient levels. Rows of trees and shrubs across the slope can help as well. Lots of avenues to try.

Build your soil or dirt with lots of organic matter.

Leaves, veggie scraps, wood chips, coffee grounds, and of course tree limbs, twigs, etc.

Compost tea is another thing to consider.

If you can, trap all run off into a sunken hugel/s that is on contour and then add another hugel down slope also on contour-not necessarily sunken. The goal is to ensure that no runoff every escapes down slope. If the grade coming into the area is steep you may need to slow it all down with stone, like contour bunds or one rock dams.

A great guide for the low profile stone structures is the Quivira Coalition Erosion Control Field Guide

Once the flow is slower it is much easier to control, Hugels can be incorporated with stone features like filters, situated down slope from the stone features where the water flow is slow.