posted 10 years ago
Joan, I guess you don't want to use it for firewood? Sounds like a good supply.
However you decide to decompose it, getting wood to rot means keeping it wet, and keeping nitrogen in the water you use to keep it wet. The wood has to absorb the nitrogen, and nitrogen dissolves in water. That is what breaks down wood, which is also carbon. So nitrogen/carbon is what you are trying to create. Fresh manure is good for nitrogen, but take care yourself getting it on shoes and hands and eyeballs. It splashes around more easily than you'd imagine.
If you want to plant on the mound that it is decomposing in, the best way is to dig a pit about 18" deep and cover the bottom of the pit with the limbs, then fill in with manure and whatever else you've got, and soil. That's a hugelkultur pit. It might seem like a lot of work, but it's a one-time thing, and it will last for years. Then you build layers of soil amendments on top of the hugel pit, and that's very easy to do, then plant right in the layers of straw, leaves, manure, mowed grass, etc.
But if digging a pit isn't good, you'll need tons of soil over it, with lots of manure in that soil, to keep it wet, keep it covered. Rodents love to get into mounds of dirt, and when they find the air pockets in a pile, they have the perfect house. They practically removed the soil from my mounds by digging in them day and night. That's why the pits are a sure thing. I also found that the thick mulch I like to use to plant in kept sliding off the mounds.
Mediterranean climate, hugel trenches, fabulous clay soil high in nutrients, self-watering containers with hugel layers, keyhole composting with low hugel raised beds, thick Back to Eden Wood chips mulch (distinguished from Bark chips), using as many native plants as possible....all drought tolerant.