By next year, my hugelkultur bed (the 2' raised bed) should be starting to settle down. Its a lot of dead wood, layered with bunny gold, composted chicken droppings, peat moss, some of my clay sands, and a few bags of soil from the big box.
All the articles tell you the first year is basically a bust till the microbes get established and your soil nitrogen cycle gets developed. What they don't tell you is that after a major rain in late spring, you are likely to have a termite flight of unbelievable proportions. I worry that said termites didn't stop with eating the dead wood.
Not a complete fail first year, i HAVE obtained a handful of decent carrots (first on the property), some radishes, a few other cruciferous leaf crops with shallow roots. But I've done the latter with equal success in a 3" bed of garden soil, and better results in a 5 gal planter.
I'm stubborn, will keep failing at it till I find a system that works here.
