Apologies for the novel. It might be more concise if I didn't have a headache.
- I like all of what Ben wrote above, with the exception of the mulching. Thick mulch (anything that is going to allow water wicking) is a problem. Best to simply read Heide Hermany's "Working With Nature". She covers Steve Solomon's findings on xeriscaping, and elaborates on them. Basically, thick mulches allow water to wick to the surface, and if that in turn is exposed, it basically just allows your groundwater to disappear, making you water again... and then probably assuming that you 'just needed to water more than you thought'. But what he said about 'anything is better than bare soil' is absolutely true. This is why I think the original idea of "garlic beds" is fundamentally disfunctional. Garlic I think should be planted more as a "it's good right here in this specific space" kind of thing, rather than "plant it everywhere and then we'll plant a
polyculture around it" kind of thing. They are better niche plants than many other things. (Admittedly that may just be how I practice, but it seems worth mentioning.)
Garlic, like all alliums, are great xeriscapers, so while they (you) won't like a lot of competition for organic matter and good soil, they won't be put off by a little water competition, especially in a hugel bed. I've polycultured them with Angelica, Parsley-Peas (not "parsley and peas"), even under huckleberry and white flowering currant. Point is, I put them in where the soil was good, but the water was a little questionable. They still need water to 'grow up', but not to mature properly. Just don't let things get so moist as to cause Rust.
I'd probably use clover for the paths rather than for the beds. I like 'walkable' clover in paths, and red clover on the sides, so the
bees can climb up my pant legs un-noticed and with very little effort. Also a good reason for 'boxer shorts', as bumblebess prefer an enclosed area to hibernate.
- To me, 'companion crops' is an oversimplified way of saying 'polyculture'. There's no hard and fast rule about where to plant them, but it's far more nuanced (and generally resilient) if you just plant them where they make sense at the time, which usually means "within", rather than "to one side". Depending on what they are, most things like the chamomile, clover, rue, dill (fennel), and whatever else (mint? heather?), won't compete much, but they might play a vital role in keeping the soil and insect life from degrading or preventing erosion.
- What Skandi wrote up above about wind is what I've read and been told as well - I wonder if the "Irish" stacked stone walls perform the same mediating function, thanks to all the holes in them. SOUND (Ow! Stop that!) is what is stopped by impermeable surfaces (and not at all by hedgey-plants.) Windward sides of hedge-rows will have different moisture conditions as well, so that's worth thinking about.
- (If you don't know already,) Rue is likely to cause contact dermatitis.
- Conventions do say not to water garlic for the last month, but I think it's better said that garlic just needs to be established and mature by that time, so it can handle its own water needs.
Climate change means those raised beds will also get hotter than they need/want to be (although they won't flood!) - I already normally cringe when I see raised beds (mainly in the
city, since urban raised beds usually means wasted space or frivolous use of wood). Sunken beds have equal problems and benefits. Even without climate change, raised beds often become too hot without some taller plants mediating the sun's baking of the soil. They don't damage the plants, but they do damage the soil if it's bare. There are ways to mediate that effect, but it really doesn't solve the problem for an appreciable amount of time. Your hedgerow may help to produce some shade, but learning how to work with the nuances of shade to create microclimates is absolutely an essential skill.
You can get around these problems, partly, and especially in a hugel bed, if you plant things that will take advantage of the subsurface water, but also shade the soil enough to avoid sun exposure problems. Less evaporated water, less desiccation, more insect habitat, more soil biology, and in time, fewer people being duped into bogus ideas like "the benefits of ploughing". You *could* use very light mulch (
straw like... although I find that surprisingly challenging) or constructed woven shade solutions as well, but especially in the case of alliums, thanks to them not needing a ton of water to begin with, you can probably get away with taller companion plants (I love Angelica, but there are plenty of things that would work.) Things that won't overcompete for the water, but also won't cause mildew/rust problems by overcrowding (although you can always prune viciously). If you're good, I imagine you can do it with anything, including biennials and perennials.
I tend to think that this rhetoric applies in all situations involving any kind of raised bed, even without climate change issues. Lowered beds have their problems and benefits too, of
course, which is why I tend to focus on my preferred kind of bed - the rare, endangered 'normal bed'. But that's just me. Lowered beds also provide spider habitat if there's plant debris... raised beds provide and habitat (although
ants do actually do some 'accidental pollination'.)
Hugel beds mediate deep water loss, but not sun over-exposure. It's easy to think that they are better because the plants don't starve for water, but there are groups of people that plant in the desert, with completely exposed soil, to great success, all because they allow the top layer to desiccate, kill off the wicking action, and use the ground water. The Hopi don't water crops at all, in bare desert landscapes. Like I said above, think this not good for the soil, as it shreds organic matter content overall, but it does emphasize the crux of the issue, and I think illustrates why a lot of farmers think they are succeeding, when they are actually depleting the soil for future generations at a pretty alarming rate - that garlic is going to look fine, but the rest of the lanscape is going to deteriorate. What hugel beds *can* allow you to do is mediate water loss while still growing taller plants AND a lower guild of plants. Whether or not that is actually worth the damage done by the excavator is to me still an open question.
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