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.

Thanks. :) Things are looking good. Everything is potted and moved for the winter. I was so excited I even started a new garden out in the yard. It's about 150' x 30' at its widest curve. I began with the traditional layer of ... cardboard! :)!!! Granted, this won't be a raised bed, but it'll be nice and healthy dirt. Christine (Also a fan of the casserole type and someone who is suddently aware of how hungry she is!)

I'm so with you, if there's a lazy way, that's what I'm doing. It's hot out there and I get on avg, 5 mosquito bites per minute when I step outside. I've done smothering/lasagna a bunch of times in both clay-ish soil in OH and sandy soil here in south AL. It's so exciting when you see the results of your efforts, when you stick a shovel into the dirt and it goes twice as far as you expected, into moist but not muddy material that's dark and rich. My fav part of gardening isn't even the actual plants, it's the 'dirt,' and decomposition, and all that interesting stuff that leads to having 'great plants.' I try to have no organic matter leaves our property unless it has urishiol (the stuff on poison ivy/oak that gives people a rash,) is a bone, large quantities of something thorny, or salty kitchen stuff. Instead of more glowing encouragement, which I could babble about for a couple pages before even breathing, I offer you my fav link about soil science. Just the facts, ma'am: 15 minutes about soil microbiology, without a bunch of technical jargon. Knowing how to make roots happy, growing from the roots-up, and preparing for that in advance, should help you get off to a great start!

Sujiwan, there are mentions of this all over the Hugelkultur sites. At least those that feel the need to instruct. :) From what I remember, cedar, treated lumber, walnut, locust and a couple more weren't good. Things that decompose very slowly or that have antibacterial properties such as the cedar. This was so easy. Somehow easier than the lasagna beds I made when I first moved in here, around 2002-4. Perhaps I'm braver and trust common sense that I didn't at first. ha! Either way, I'm having all the building materials moved out of my front yard, where they've been since 2005, stacked out behind the barn, and building another long bed in front. I imagine my yard as a future courtyard area, with my Japanese maples providing some shade, but definitely beautiful visual interest. Check out the resuse centers for lumber: Community Forklift in Edmonston (off Kenilworth Ave) or 2nd Chance in Baltimore. I got 12"w, 16' long unfinished pine for my kitchen floor at $0.25 a foot and 2nd chance. I'm going to check there for longer treated deck boards or just treated lumber. As a matter of fact, I think I've talked myself into going out there today. Got nuttin' better to do!