Thanks for all y'alls input and replies. So yeah Wallace, we are not using any check materials to hold back the soil because the slope is not that steep and we will have a long non-hugel swale up top above the beds (about 60 feet long, 2 foot deep) with the berm bed about 5 feet max across in spots). We're making them long without breaks in the entire planting area because we're trying to keep it simple for irrigation, because we will still need drip irrigation given the summer temps here in the Piedmont (90's+ May to September), plus we are downtown Greensboro and it gets hot with all of the asphalt and urban heating effect in general.
I've seen these types of contour beds without any check materials (logs, wattle fencing, rocks) in other countries with even a higher rainfall average so I just said the hell with it and we're going for it because scavenging all the materials for a check system for these long beds, with a height of one foot on the downslope, would just take too long. However, we are mulching the downhill of berms/beds with hardwood mulch and planting russian comfrey every 4 feet over time to help hold the soil back and if we see that the comfrey ain't workin' then we'll have no choice but the install a check log system or something like that at a pace we can manage. We're renting the excavator on Tuesday of next week, then placing the fabric scraps and topsoil the next day on at least the first bed, and then installing irrigation and planting on the third day, and mulching the next.... if we have any go-go juice left that week.
This garden is a NAACP initiative and will be used to supplement the lean times that folks can experience during certain times of the year here in Greensboro. We're going with perennial plantings every other bed so the new garden will act as an extension of the already established orchard/food forest adjacent lending itself to year-ish round production.
You can see our trials and tribulations on Insta if you want @blackdiamondgso
