Welcome to the forum!

First off, I'm not much of a gardener so take this for what it's worth.

Unless your soil is severely depleted, I see no reason to add compost twice per year. Once ought to be sufficient.

As to timing. If the compost is mature, spring application is fine. If the compost is immature, then fall is better, or if applying in spring, a period of time for the material to decompose within the soil prior to planting/seeding should be strongly considered.

If you were close to me I'd offer you a couple of yards of mature compost to get you going. I enjoy helping people with their gardens and especially those that grow food.

Lloyd

If possible applying compost to a garden in the fall is preferable since it can take the Soil Food Web time to convert that compost into the nutrients plants need to grow. Tilling in the fall is generally preferable since timing in the spring can be quite iffy and it can take time for the soil to settle down afterwards to grow the plants. Tilling does incorporate quite a bit of air into the soil that needs to dissipate before planting and that is why the recommendation to wait a week or two after tilling the soil before planting exists.
How much compost needs to be added to soil depends on many factors, all about how much organic matter is there in the soil.
However, if you missed applying the necessary organic matter and tilling the soil in the fall spring work can be done, just understand that the garden may be later then necessary. There have been a number of years that the soil here (sand at that) could not be worked until the first part of May because it was too wet and planting had to be delayed until early June, late for many early plants. Planting beds prepared in the fall, however, could be planted by the end of April with frost hardy plants.

I agree with the above, fall is ideal. However, a lot can still be done in the spring, so don't sweat it too much.

Don't buy compost! Cover the ground with thick layers of dry leaves, wet it thoroughly and then cover it with some branches to hold the leaves in place. In the spring, either till the leaves in or rake off the leaves and put them on your compost heap.

It's better to have a small plot that's properly amended than a big one that is skimpily done.

I agree with kimmsr that fall is best to prepare beds. I have some highly amended beds that work up fine in spring, but any beds that are not highly amended are better off prepared and ridged a bit in the fall in my area which usually is wet in the spring.

I agree with kimmsr that fall is best to prepare beds. I have some highly amended beds that work up fine in spring, but any beds that are not highly amended are better off prepared and ridged a bit in the fall in my area which usually is wet in the spring.

I think a lot depend upon the current condition of the soil. If it is turf or has a lot of weeds, then I would say it needs to be tilled. Once a garden bed is established, I don't see the need for tilling.

From what I read, roots get nutrients two ways. Roots in the upper 1" of soil, and deep roots that form mycorrhizal relationships with fungi. Finished compost can be mixed into the top 1" of soil and then covered with a mulch. Tilling destroys fungi, so if the soil is not needing tilling, I'd just dig holes for the plants and leave it at that.

Because you live in a zone that gets snow, I'm guessing you will have a decent soil to work with.

Thanks everyone! It was nearly 50 degrees here today, so if I can get a hold of a tiller before more snow hits I will definitely get a move on it! We have fresh chicken manure right from our backyard that I really want to get in the ground, so I better get a move on! I am looking forward to using this site! :)

If this ground is currently sodded, I'd just lay down a double layer of broken down cardboard boxes, weight them down so they don't blow away, and let that kill the sod. Tilling it up at this point won't do a thing to kill the rhizomes and you'll be fighting grass come spring.

Compost everything else and add compost to the bed in the spring when you till everything over at that time - with a lot less muss, fuss and bother because you won't be fighting live sod.

Covering turf grasses here in the north country (USDA Plant Hardiness Zones 5 and 6 and colder) with anything will do little to kill it since the grasses we grow here are used to being covered with snow for several months with no detrimental affect.
I have covered these grasses with newspaper/cardboard and shredded leaves (before they went dormant) and have had the planting bed ready for planting in the spring, but that must be done before the grasses go dormant.

Well its true that its a bit late in the season to be doing this. Of course starting in early fall will work better than starting in the middle of winter. But tilling without first killing the sod will leave you fighting grass in your planting beds. Either lay down the cardboard and then build raised beds on top of it - which will work to kill the sod and still let you plant in early spring - or put off planting that area until after the cardboard cover has killed off the sod.

There isn't a lot that is more frustrating than trying to till up live sod and then fighting the grass the rest of the growing season. When you chop up live grass rhizomes, every little piece wants to sprout more grass.

"But tilling without first killing the sod will leave you fighting grass in your planting beds." Maybe, maybe not. It depends on the grass. The KBG, Fescues, and Perennial Ryes are fairly easily killed off by smothering while the more invasive species, Quack Grass, Johnson Grass, Bermuda, etc. will not be so easily dissuaded from growing there.
I have numerous times started new planting beds by simply covering the existing grass with newspaper/cardboard and a good mulch and in 6 months had a good clean planting bed to work with. But something must be done at the edges to keep the outlying grass from reinvading, a barrier of some kind to stop the roots, rhizomes, stolons, etc.