First ever Hugelkultur...

Hello,

I apologize in advance if these sort of posts are frowned upon.

I am very new to this, and am going to be starting my first Hugel-mound in the coming months.

I have a supply of wood to use since I just took out a couple of pine trees that were close to the house and therefore increased fire risk.  I don't burn soft woods for heat, due to pitch/having a narrow, not optimal chimney, and I was going to use the thicker halves of the pine trunks for the base of my Hugel-mound, (the upper halves are going to become fence material.)

I was wondering:
What is the best time of year to start?  (i live in what will be in the path of heavy rainfall this El Nino, and was thinking of building it before the rains start in order to capture the rain water inside,)  

Is pine a good wood for hugelkultur?

How close to newly started trees (olives on the slope below, figs, walnuts, and Goji berries on the slope above, all are still fairly immature,) should a hugel-mound be?

I am thinking of making the mound 4-5 ft high and 20-40 ft long, paralel to the path of the sun, receiving a mixture of direct and filtered sunlight all throughout the day/year.  (the videos I've seen reccommend 7 feet in height, but I don't have enough wood at this point to do that, and I'm loathe to cut down more trees unless absolutely necessary.)

Again I apologize if my questions are to basic or are not contributing meaningfully to the community, everybody has to start somewhere.


Thank you all very much in advance, I value all of your advice.

I think the best wood to use is the wood you have. And the best time to start is now.

But my own first hugelmound is still under construction, so hopefully people more knowledgeable will come along.