Welcome to Texas Gardening, thomfoote! You might be interested in checking out the link below to Dave's tutorial on making a hugelkultur raised bed. It's a great one! Just click on the highlighted link.

http://garden.org/articles/vie...

Welcome thomfoote!! they say great minds think alike! Bubbles, I immediately thought of Dave's tutorial too, when thomfoote mentioned hugelkultur!

I've been trying to talk my dh into starting one but he's not convinced----yet! he thinks it will attract snakes and other varmits? what do you all think?

Although the drought is over this way, we are still awaiting the results from last summer and wondering how many trees made it or not.; we will find out this spring!

I started in a very small sunny area after reading Dave's article. I have a subdivision size backyard with mostly large shady oaks, and I also have varmits and the occasional snake. I don't have a dog or cat anymore. I have a "grand dog" that visits frequently, so I figure he keeps anything that might hiss or slither out of my yard. I remember that you have dogs, so I would think they would keep anything wild out of your garden area.

Right now I have a huge screen on top of my pile, held down with pots, to thwart the possums and armadillos from possibly digging in it for food scraps. If it wasn't so wet out there, I'd go uncover it and take a peek. Dave would probably be better to ask about varmits, but I've not had a problem. I was worried about rats coming in from the greenbelt, attracted by food odors. That hasn't happened, that I know of.

I used some downed and rotting limbs from the greenbelt and from the lake that have seemingly disappeared into the soil. I made a couple of limestone paths so I wouldn't have to step on the garden area soil. Mine's a mini experiment! Just waiting for spring now.

I never had any varmint problems with our hugelkultur beds.

Thank you Sandi, Dave, this really helps my cause.

A bit of drizzle last night and into the morning, but sun is out now. Our forecast for the coming week shows real good chance of some actual rain!

Fingers crossed!

I hope you're right; they are predicting rain here too.

Christine- if I thought I'd find snakes out there every time I went to play in my Hugel bed, I'd never ever do it!! *shiver*

It does "attract" termites (they help break down all of that wood), and I do get beds of fire ants that try to move in. Because I'm always playing in the soil, the ants move out as fast as they move in, so I've never had to poison the ants or anything. I leave the termites alone.

We had a long rainy spell. It started at 5pm yesterday and just stopped around 9:30 this morning. My rain gauge is cracked so it isn't correct, but figure we had 3 or 4 inches at least. I know the creeks and ponds will get some much needed water for wildlife. Now if this happened about once a month we might break the drought!

We're just getting cable again. Had a heck of a storm overnight. At least 3" of rain, high winds and flooding in some areas. We're sending it on to Houston now. Just hope it doesn't flood them out. It seems like every time we drive through Houston, we're in a rainstorm that floods the highways.

We are finally getting rain here. I've been watching the weather radar and seeing it all go north of us, as usual. Glad it changed course!

Glad you're getting rain, porkpal! Maybe Dave's getting some also.
Bastrop got 7.7" of rain, the airport had over 5", and we had a little over 3". It smells so clean outside!! Lots of thunder and lightning last night.
Austin has some roofs off, lots of flooding, some metal bldgs. blown apart, and some water rescues by helicopter. What's that old saying?
"Be careful what you wish for."

Our rain gauge is currently not setup so I can't say how much we've had, but our swales are overflowing and the pasture is nearly completely underwater!!

How's the barn? Are the cows warm and dry?

I've been meaning to update the barn thread. I'll do that soon.

To answer your question, though, everything is very wet today!!!

We only had one inch of rain. But at least no tornado...like San Antonio had.

Austin had a confirmed tornado on the NE side of town. They had to go up in a helicopter at daylight to determine if it was a tornado or straight line winds.

We need a permaculture thread. I want to know more about those swales!