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I'm not sure what their logic is for planting in hills but I've done them in rows with excellent results. In fact, hubby always drives two T-posts and hangs rabbit fence on it (about a 6-foot-long section) for me to grow my cucumbers on and it works great. These days I do grow my cantaloupes in hills but I used to grow them in rows and just trained the vines the way I wanted them to grow. I'd say it's a matter of preference and how much room you have in your garden.
When growing up, we used to put EVERYTHING on hills, one way or the other. Even stuff like carrots would be sown in rows, but then, once sprouted to a half decent height, my father would run the tiller down the middle and mound the dirt to either side into a hill.
I noticed that hilling would usually create some seriously strong root and stem structures. When we put in the tomatos for example, we would mound up to the bottom leaf, and then do the till to a mound thing about 2-3 weeks later, and mound up again. We actually had tomatos that were strong enough not to stake in some years.
It's definitely a matter of preference, but I think the logic is to add strength. Personally, as long as you get what you want from your garden, do what makes you happy.
I think the logic for planting in hills is that some folks have shallow prepared soil, so mounding up like you do with potatoes keeps the light off the roots, helps with drainage as the rain/water run off the hills sends the water down to the roots, also plants like asparagus grows best when you dig the trench, then make a little hill at the bottom of the trench to place the roots spread out on top of the little mound, this keeps the roots from growing into a tangled mesh and protects the growing roots from sitting in the bottom of a wet trench, it also helps some plants send their roots deeper down into the sub soil for more moisture, as for the tomatoes being earthed up, tomato plants have little root nodules at the base of the stems and when this part is earthed up bu tilling, these roots start to grow offering more support to the heavy fruit filled stems, also with carrots and say parsnips, when you earth them up it helps keep carrot flies away from tunneling into the roots and keeps the light from getting to the roots to make them turn green, so it all really depends on preference, soil type and the type of plants you are growing, but it dont mean you wont have a good enough crop if you dont hill plant, good luck and happy gardening, hope everyone has a great gardening season. WeeNel.
