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raised-bed How do you prep your raised bed?

How do you prep your raised bed for the next season?

When do you prep your bed, at the end of your season, or do you wait until later, like early Spring?

I'm planning on keeping it simple. At the end of my season(October), I will till in some compost and rabbit manure, then cover it all with 3-4" of mulch. About 1 month before plantout, I will throw down some more rabbit manure on top of the mulch, and let the rain wash it in. Hopefully, this will put an end to tilling in subsequent seasons. I'll simply apply manure and mulch to the soil surface at the end of my subsequent grow seasons. That's the plan, anyway.
 
In the fall after everything is done growing, I pull out all the old plants and rake in a healthy amount of Buckwheat seeds to grow as a cover crop.
 
It's great for adding phosphorus and calcium, which peppers and tomatoes love.  I let the frost kill it and then chop it up to compost in the soil.
 
In early spring I cover all my raised beds with black plastic for 10-14 days to kill any remaining weed/seed/undesirables...
 
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