Soil & manure in raised beds

[Yorky]

Hello all, the soil in my raised beds is heavy clay type and the level has dropped since I put it in (spring 2008) so I topped them up with well-rotted manure last November. I am attempting to operate a 'no-dig' policy and hoped the worms in the compost would do the work for me.

The compost is actually so well-rotted that the worms had moved on so it hasn't really worked in to the soil. Bearing in my mind I don't want to damage the structure of the soil by digging, should I just rake it level and sow / transplant straight in to it?

Also, I haven't sown yet and am considering covering each bed with clear plastic in order to warm up the soil for the next couple of weeks - is this a good idea whether I dig the soil or not?.

Finally, I have one bed for root vegetables which I covered with autumn leaves rather than manure (to prevent forking/splitting). I covered this in plastic garden mesh to hold them in place so it was fully open to the elements but the leaves haven't decomposed. What should I do with these?

[zazen999]

Hi

a - clear the leaves off the root bed and put into a separate black plastic bag, punch holes in the bag and put the bag somewhere for a year or so. They take a good year to rot down.

b - you can't always NEVER dig; no dig is 'no dig in time'; if you have clay. What I would do with your beds, is to [just before you start planting stuff out] scrape all the manure on the top into a pile on each bed, and when you plant stuff out, add it into each hole. If you have any left once the bed is planted up, use it to mulch. This will give you organic in each hole, a top layer of clay to hold the moisture in and a mulch of organic. When things get harvested, it will all mix up in time.]

And yes, you can cover with a sheet of plastic to warm things up.

[BUFFS]

with the weather warming up,the worms will soon see off anything left on soil surface,for a no dig site as i understand it (i may be wrong) cover the bed each autumn and let worms do their work,id turn over the top 4/6ins for first two years,by then the structure of the surface topsoil shoud have changed considerably,when i first started doing this, i had red clay, after 5 years of work, the soil was nearly black ,and crumbled nicely,its just a matter of giving all the soil organisms chance to work,and giving them the fuel to do it....it will come,so just enjoy the crops meantime....

[jayjay giant]

I have been raised bed vegetable gardening for a few years now and once they get going they really are superb. ( For last years photographs follow the link below)
I would suggest ( if you can afford it ) that you purchase some top soil and put a good couple of inches on top of each bed. This will give the seeds or plug plants a bit of something to be getting on with and give the manure a little longer to rot down.
Covering the beds is a brilliant idea, i use frames and plastic sheeting. This warms up the beds and helps things rot down a lot quicker. Remember to water regularly becuse the worms will stay down low if its too dry.

Most of all enjoy your gardening and the whole raised bed experience,

Good luck

James