To some of the garden that is cleared early, I grow a tillage radish cover crop. Other places I add some partly rotted horse manure that has a lot of hay in it. Then later I add very finely chopped leaves. In the past I have added leaf compost.

Finally, I tend to ridge up rows on some of the beds where I want things to be warmer and drier come spring.

Great advice mentioned above.....I do the same. The main goal is to have the beds warm and dry in early spring for planting early.

Any good organic matter is needed. In addition to the manure and shredded leaf compost the hay/straw is important. I also add straw to the base of each row. Makes a nice way of being able to walk in the garden early spring.

I love my raised row gardens. They produce better/sooner than regular rows. Plus the yield is higher per square foot.

Do you all have any tricks for keeping the raised part raised? We had some very heavy rains and there was some erosion down the sides. Is there a way to keep this from happening? This was early before planting. during the growing season the plant roots held everything in place

Many use wood or block edging. i don't use anything as i have amended heavily and the water is soaked up like a sponge.

wayne_I like that idea much better than using an edging!