Hi there: I didn't want to hijack the other soil thread here, so started a new one for my own questions. I'm preparing a vegetable bed now for planting next year. I'm considering adding some not-yet-composted manure and dead (brown) leaves (in the fall) among other things. My questions are as follows: 1. Is a year enough for these things to break down and be ready for next summer? 2. Is it okay for my ingredients to age in layers or should I till it this year (and a few times before next summer). Thank you
July-August is a good time to till things in because the soil is as warm and dry as it is going to get. You don't want to till when the soil is cold and wet, nor do you want to keep cultivating the same spot over and over as it pulverizes the soil particles. You can leave leaves etc. sitting on the bed to decompose and integrate into the soil, the same as in the woods. You just don't want to have a lot of debris on a vegetable plot that is being used for warm season crops, while these crops are present, because you want the soil to warm up. And you don't want material like spent maple leaves or cardboard that would harbor slugs around vulnerable kinds of plants. Slugs can be quite destructive to certain edible crops.
