See if you can find a source for cheap compost. Many communities compost leaves/grass left by the curb and either give or sell it very cheaply to people.

What kind of soil do you have? If you mulch heavily, your soil might be fine for tomatoes.

I built the raised beds because of heavy clay. Two years ago, I filled the beds with a commercial potting soil (very expensive) and everything grew very, very well. Last year, not so much, so I'm looking to enrich what is obviously depleted.

Thanks for your suggestion, I'll look to my recycling company.

LTG

I also have heavy clay and raised beds, but the raised beds have primarily held mulch and compost on top of the clay for the last two years. The mulch I put down last spring was cardboard and leaves. Most of it has broken down, so I have some nice soil on top of the clay with hundreds of earthworms. Last spring the plant roots burrowed through the top layer of leaf compost, mulch, and moist cardboard down into the moist clay beneath and were quite happy there. The no-till gardening method works fine for me! Most clay soil is full of plant nutrients; it's just hard to deal with if unmulched. As you know, it can bake and get hard as a rock.

I also plan to get as much compost as I can from our county composting center. It's free, so the only thing I have to worry about is hauling it here.

As Anney said, any compost additions will benefit your beds. It improves the tilth, water retention, oxygenation, and nutrient levels. Of course the better the quality of the compost, the better the improvement, but the addition of any form of organic matter - compost, shredded leaves, grass clippings, worm castings, kitchen leavings, coffee grounds, straw, etc. will help greatly.

You'll find many, many discussions on all aspects of soil renewal/improvement over on the Soil & Compost forum. ;)

Dave

Thanks all! I located a local composter that has organic compost at about $1.00 a large bag. I'm THERE!

Dave, I'm still floundering around all of these forums.

I've been looking for various things but I guess it will take time to find everything I need.

Just a general piece of advice. If you have heavy clay, (like me) you want amendments that are CHUNKY rather than SMOOTH, so you can get air pockets and drainage in your soil.