Conceptually I like the idea of hugelkultur swales (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UO303KfdBBU) more than beds. It seems like a good sheet mulch would have most of the benefits of a hugelkultur raised bed, and my large scale raised beds build this year will be exactly that.

That said I made a miniature hugelkultur bed last spring, which I just dug up yesterday. The plants in it (watermelons, zucchini) did terribly, due to a) crappy drought and less than adequate irrigation; b) a month following the drought in which we got somewhere in the region 24" of rain; c) fairly low quality lowes soil which compacted easily. Imagine my surprise yesterday then when I scooped off the most beautiful, worm filled black soil that I've ever seen, and further that the wood underneath had decayed into soft, spongy water retention _machines_. It makes me think that had I left the bed in place that it might have worked quite a bit better in year two.