The great thing about lasagna beds is there is no digging. I use cardboard, grass clippings, manure, leaves and or saw dust, then top soil. . . wet in between each layer. When I get the top soil on I plant in it right away. Then when it's all planted I finish with small bark chips.Then I cut away the excess cardboard and its all done. The finished bed is usually about 8-10 inches high. By the end of the summer it has compacted down. Yes you should be able to pile the bark into a berm, I wouldn't plant in it if there is no soil. Have fun and good luck.

I think the best thing you can do is to talk to people in your area who also practice flood irrigation regarding the in-ground versus raised bed question. In the southwest, waffle beds were often used and you may be able to combine that with some hugelkultur to get good results. My climate is not as warm as yours but it is dry. I am on 5 acres but do not use flood irrigation. I have sunken beds that are lined with wire. When the sunken bed fills up, the excess water flows off to another area where it is trapped by another sunken bed or berm and on and on. Some of my beds are not lined with wire and for those I am vigilant about keeping an eye out for gopher mounds and then we trap them. For rabbits, the best defense I have found is a fence around the perimeter with hardware cloth dug into the ground 8 inches. For the ground squirrels, we have used a trap and a pellet gun and some have been picked off by the local hawks. Raised beds will not deter rabbits unless they are very raised and even then, the squirrels could likely get into them. How much you invest into that will depend on how much damage they cause. Also, anything we plant that is perennial (berry vines, fruit trees, etc) are always planted inside a wire cage, just in case we do not notice the gopher activity in time.

I am taking my yard back from the soil theft that comes with construction. In areas where I do not need to grow vegetables, I am laying down very deep layers of any organic matter that I can get my hands on---primarily leaves, pumpkins, hay, and seaweed. I do the same thing in my vegetable garden, but much less thickly and I also use my compost there---all as mulches. I've pretty much decided, that given the condition of my soil (and it sounds like you have a problem like mine), I will be gathering anything I can get my hands on for as long as I'm able. And I'm good with that. I generally concentrate on yard areas about 20'x 30' before moving on. One of the areas that I deep mulched this past fall will be an impressive pumpkin patch next summer.

I smothered some bermuda a couple years ago with 2 inches of sand and 2 inches of shredded bark mulch. Is that the sort of thing you had in mind for 'abbreviated?' Watch your drainage if you are going to add solids (like sand or top soil). I was restoring the garden after a prolonged construction project. For me, sand was needed to bring the soil level up and keep water from draining toward my house. Can you blow leaves off instead of raking?