Hi Tom! Welcome to ATP!
I like your priorities: compost, Compost, COMPOST ... and fairly narrow raised beds.
I would urge you to do as much work as you have time and energy for, right now.
Turn, amend with compost, top-dress with compost, make sure the beds have good drainage ...
then mulch or add lots more top-dress compost.
Ain't no faster or easier way to compost something than to turn it under the soil.
That also captures 100% of the nutrients in the raw compost makin's, whereas a heap or tumbler drips "tea" with the best nutrients.
Well, OK. There is a faster way. Grind it small before turning it under.
If you do as much work as possible now, then you can plant peas and lettuce as soon as the rain and cold abate.
I tend to postpone things, then spring is completely taken up by weeding and I may not find time to plant at all. More mulch = less weeding.
P.S. It sounds like there will be an ATP seed swap some time soon. That's a great way to trade away half of each large seed pkt that you buy, to get in return much more variety than you would have bought for yourself.
This thread is jumping up and down like someone desperate to get into the Men's Room, kibitzing and wheedling as Dave develops a flexible trading feature to add to the website.
The thread "ATP Annual Seed and Plant Exchange Idea" in
Site Talk forum
