I started my first vegetable garden this year and it went ok. Tomatoes were great and lettuce was good too. Broccoli and carrots not so well. I live on the lower cape and it's sandy soil (actually it's just sand). This spring I dug up an area and added about 2-3" of soil from Bayberry gardens. I didn't mix it in, just laid it on top of the sand. I then built it into mounds. I was pleased with the results from my first try and now want to create a permanent vegetable garden.

Next year I'm going to do a flower bed and move the vegetable garden to a different spot. I have an 20'x20'x6' foundation for a cottage that was never built that I've decided to turn into my vegetable garden. The foundation has been there for about 10yrs without being used and I have no plans to have the cottage built. Since I don't have the money to fill it in, I figured it'd be great for a garden. It doesn't have a floor and gets full sun.
So far I've thrown two pallets side by side in one corner and have a lot of compost material on them. I took a mower (with bag) and mowed up years worth of leaves leaves and dumped them in the compost pile. I've added kitchen scraps (no meat or bread), coffee grounds/filters from D&D, a lot of horse manure/shavings from a neighbor and today I added a bunch of fresh seaweed from the beach. I'll be adding more of the same and will make another pile in another corner soon. I turned it a little today and added some lime. It's about 6' tall right now, but it's fresh.
In the spring I plan to spread it out as much as possible while still being at least 3" deep.

Now my questions are, should I till it in? Do I have to? If I don't, how deep should it be? What do you think of my compost? Will the foundation help keep the garden warmer in the spring/fall?
Any advice or suggestions would be greatly appreciated. Thanks!

You could also start gathering animal manures (not dog or cat, though) and seaweed for composting (unless you know your seaweed source swims in polluted water). You can use it to make up a compost tea for watering your plants and feeding them - and then adding the materials to your soil.

Wild thought - as there are foundations in place - could you use part of them as a base for a tunnel house - and thereby extend your growing season? (They also make great retreats in winter - particularly if you created a 'sittery' and work bench inside:-)))) )

So two weeks ago I spread out the compost and today I mixed it in with a shovel. Most of the compost looks great, but there's a lot of leaves etc that hasn't composted fully. Think that's going to create a problem?
Also, I've got a LOT of worms : )

So the south wall (or what used to be south, now its se) doesn't get full sun, think peas would be a good shade crop?
thanks guys!