Gardening

on an acre (minus the house) of semi-wooded land on the edge of a tiny forest. All but the top few inches of most of my soil is compacted red clay. In nearly every area I've planted, I've had to dig out and replace or heavily augment the dirt.

For the past 4 years or so I've been digging deep and putting fallen branches & twigs, along with bark, shredded leaves & kitchen waste in the bottom of the smallish excavations. In some cases--in the heaviest, most compacted areas--I've ended up with the dreaded bathtub effect (It will be years before the material breaks down enough of the surrounding soil to improve drainage.)

But in most cases, some immediate improvement is apparent. If nothing else, it allows me to utilize the organic matter.

My efforts at vegetable gardening have thus far been thwarted by an overabundance of hungry critters. But I do expect within the next couple of years to have the resources to fence and net in a veggie patch. I plan to prep the beds using Hugelkultur pretty much as you describe using.

I'm also hoping to build a keyhole garden for veggies.

https://www.niftyhomestead.com/blog/keyhole-garden/