Have you been adding compost every time you harvest? If so, then you should be in good shape. If not, then it gets more complicated.

I'm going to buy an expen$ive load of leaf and twig compost and top off all my gardens this year, but I hope to have my very own compost after that. My daughter just called and she's having her work crew come in and clean up our property before we get back home. I told her to have them bag all the leaves and pine needles and put them behind the shed...I will have compost materials this year!

Granny

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You could add some vermiculite and compost to it....

EG

I topped mine off with some horse manure (next time I will compost it first) leaves, pine needles, UCG, some spoiled hay, whatever I had in the fall and let it sit for the winter.

I would probably top off your bed with compost and mulch the plants through the season to work on building the layer of organic material. Just my .02.

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I put these RB's together during the summer, I had okra, basil, chard, (half done beets) some late squash, a scattered tomatoe, onions, and some of the other greens...What remains is some of the chard, some parsley a few lettuce plants, a scattered green...

Except for the chard and parsley, the rest could be pulled up as far as I'm concerned.

I guess my real question was do people remove old roots, stir things up and add in the additonal OM...or can all that just be put on top of the beds now?

I did add some composted material in the beds that ended up being more shallow than I had planned on.

Just to place a bookend on the "what to do if you want to go overboard" side, I shared half the raised bed with the MIL last season and as a result I bought a yard of wood compost and double-dug it in to the bed.

IMHO, leave the old roots, turn under leaf-stem material and old stuff. Everyone has their own system, I'm sure.

Dan

I was putting in a small shovel full of compost each time I harvested something, then this winter kicked my butt. LOL

So, I just spent most of this afternoon adding Kow Kompost to my beds and double-digging it into the mess. I watered well and then transplanted some seedlings. Hopefully, we're done with the worst of the cold snaps down here.

I fluffed it all up then added compost and mxed it in. Things grew well- I think as well as the first year.