Hi
I am new to forums, so not sure if this is the right place to post my queries on Hugelkultur.
I watched Paul's recent interview with Stacey Murphy on the Garden Hacks summit. Hugelkultur looks like a great idea, but I have a couple of questions:
1. In the short video segment showing people building a HK mound, the soil (or ‘dirt’?) used to cover the tree trunks looked reasonably soft, diggable and potentially fertile. But what if you have hard, dry, compacted, stony clay/shale ground that has very little topsoil and only grows poor-quality grass & weeds? Could you start with that type of soil and make a successful HK mound? (I live in rural Australia on land that was previously used for grazing cattle, in a climate you might call ‘subtropical’ – hot summers & mild winters)
2. Paul described building a mound 3 feet up and digging 3 feet down below ground level. What happens to the pit you have dug? – does it become a moat when you have heavy rain?
