[NedFlaymer]

Hugelkulture is great. It will jumpstart the soil in even the most degraded of conditions. It provides time release moisture, the right combination of fibers, sugars, and micronutrients for fungi and bacteria, and plenty of spatial complexity for insects and such, which also accelerate the nutrient cycling process. It all combines synergistically to provide better conditions for the propagation of biotic life, in general. Though I've run into some problems with early beds in Brazil. As there are a lot of ants that live in old trees and love to much on leafy plants. The important thing in this case is to make sure your wood is completely underground, with no interface aboveground. If you're patient (as you should be) A healthy soil will, over the long run, prove to be protropic. Which means that soils improve, and this can happen because of, rather than in spite of, intensive cultivation. Important names: Sepp Holzer is an Austrian most responsible for popularizing this technique. He's known for using macroelements like rocks lakes and cliffs to create the climactic conditions capable of growing cherries and lemons (in the Swiss Alps). He also has a very interesting of cultivating (my favorite way) that is most likened to companion or guild planting, but he doesn't organize his plantings into neat little rows. He takes a patch of wilderness and tills it under, then goes out and throws out buckets of seed blends and leaves it alone. I personally prefer covering it with a banana leaf grass clippings or mulch cover, during the germination phase. Depends on where you are and what you are planting. Geoff Lawton did an incredible experiment in Israel. He greened the desert. He took a bulldozer and built a really long swale along the slightest slope and mulched it. Then the project ran out of money so they abandoned it. After a few years he managed to make his way back and checked on it. He found the mulch was teeming with fungi and mites. Species no one in living memory had ever seen. There were ducks and chickens and all kinds of interesting shrubs and fruit bearing trees. He built an oasis where everyone is running out of water, and resorting to using desalinated seawater and massive greenhouses to grow food. Check out the video on YouTube. Geoff Lawton Greening the Desert. Emilia Hazelip has done some interesting work with raised beds and mulching. With that she manages to keep out the weeds, control temperature, contain moisture, and accelerated microbiotic nutrient cycling. I like her work a lot, and have found it most effective. Another Important people of note is Bill Mollison. We need more people like this. Following through with their work. Sorry guys but throwing concrete dust on fields is not a good idea!!!