Is the soil truly untillable? Even if you water it down for a while? Is it solid rock?
If you really can't break it up with a shovel and a pick-axe, it will take longer than you can wait for natural processes to do it.
I'd consider a delivery of top-soil to fill the bed, or something like Mel's Mix if you can go that route. Google "Mels Mix" if you don't know what this refers to.

I would top dress the entire bed with compost and mulch around the plants. I too do not use commercial fertilizer, I instead am blessed to live on a cattle farm and each year pile up the previous winters feeding areas of manure and hay. I try to flip these periodically through out the year and after about 4 years load up on the free compost. This is not typically a hot compost so I do contend with weed seed from the field and from the hay. I am trying to get my system down so that I can till the hills of compost and let the weeds germenate in the filed and till them under when they are still small before they flower and seed out. It is a work in progress. Ihope that helps for what it is worth.

Carl Edwards

tcstoehr- I can't till the soil because of the plants that live in it... My regular vegetable garden is no problem because I pull the plants at the end of the season. The strawberry bed is a different story. Thanks for the reply.

i would just top dress it, it will work it's way down on it's own. if you just MUST mix it in, then something like a garden claw that works in tight spaces is the answer.

just work it in around the plants and use it as mulch. I just dig it in where I can...

There's no need to till at all. Mulch the surface and the earthworms and other insects will do the tilling for you.

Sue

Yea what she said. I haven't tilled in quite a few years now. Read up on the not till method. Compost & mulch for me too.
Good Luck,
GumbyCT

You can try to add composted manure and humus. I added and till it into the bed and then mulched and I had a banner crop last year.

This fall use a leaf blower/vac with a bag, and vacuum up the leaves around your property (and your neighbors if they would let you, I do not see why they would object)and put the chopped up leaves on top of the raised bed. I did that this past fall and I have about a dozen worm per square foot in my beds. Very beneficial, worth the work.

Good luck!

if it is working then why change what you are doing?

by the sounds of it the plants are happy, we only mulch our gardens never fertilise or worry about hands on amending we leave that to the worms etc.,. we use green spoilt hay type mulches and we tuck our rottable kitchen scraps under the mulch almost on a daily basis.

our gardens get some grey water including dish washing water and wee water all contains some sort of nutritional value for the worms.

if you realy wanted to you could say once a year tuck a handfull or 2 of those pelletised chook manure pellets around the base of each plant, but hey that means work.

so i'd say "keep it simple" like you now have it.

len

Here is a link that might be useful: len's garden page