Wow. Lots of good information and things to think about. Thanks for reminding me of the No-Till method, Thompson- a friend of mine years ago did that with his bed of potatoes. When he needed a potato or two, he'd go in his back yard and lift up the end of the straw cover. Cool.

Speaking of cool, compost here in Juneau is not as successful as it is in warmer climates. It *does* work but the heat generates slowly and things don't break down as well as I've seen in the past and in other places.

In Juneau (a long, narrow, linear town that hugs the coastline of the mainland), we have ONE farm, a nine-acre plot of swampy land where they have a number of animals like horses, chickens and turkeys, geese and ducks. They also have a marketing end; I'll buy my straw there. I'll probably get most of the soil/fertilizer at Home Depot.

I'm looking forward to loosening up the bed and working in some good soil. First I have to remove the things growing in there- some of them I want to save, like columbine and bleeding heart but most of it is 'trash talk'. At the moment most of the soil is still frozen; we need a couple of weeks of reliably 40+ temperatures.