"The potting soil Im a bit lost on. Id like to reuse it. " What's the alternative? Surely you weren't considering digging it all out and buying more? The contents of the beds will sink and all you need to do is add amendments as they do so.

We need to know where you are located to give any further advice on what you should be doing in the Winter. People on this forum live in places from the Arctic to the tropics. Some will have gardens under several feet of snow, others will be harvesting all winter long.

It is not generally recommended to reuse potting soil - that soil mix which is intended for use with container plants. The reasons are that most commercial mixes tend to breakdown and compress during the growing season and the need for frequent watering. And that tends to leave the container mix with reduced/inferior drainage and a lack of adequate porosity. That is why for long term container plantings - more than a single growing season - a very durable mix is advised and those are usually restricted to custom mixes or homemade.

Realizing you may not get the best from your plants, you can reuse the mix. You want to store it (or the soil-filled but now empty containers) somewhere that stays pretty dry. Excess moisture should be avoided. Next spring when you want to replant, dump out the containers, remove any weeds or debris and mix the old soil with at least the same volume of fresh soil. More preferable would be to dump out the used potting soil into your raised beds or elsewhere in your garden and refill the pots with something like the 5-1-1 or gritty mix described in detail on the Container Gardening forum.

Where are you and what was the potting soil used for?

OP says they have a raised bed rather than a container.

I'm afraid I took the word 'soil' at face value and didn't consider they might be talking about a soilless container mix. I am afraid the concept of removing soil from a bed annually is way beyond anything I would consider bothering with. I think we've reached one of those cultural differences between gardeners in the US and UK.

"The raised bed seems easy enough from what Ive read."

" The potting soil Im a bit lost on. Id like to reuse it."

Appears to me the poster has both raised beds and containers.

Putting a garden plot, including raised beds, to rest for the winter could involve adding any soil amendments needed as seen from various soil tests and then planting a cover crop to protect the soil from erosion while it is fallow and help keep unwanted plant growth from happening. Perhaps this episode of Growing a Greener world might be of some interest.

http://www.growingagreenerworld.com/putting-garden-bed/

Most people discard last seasons potting soil, often composting it, and start fresh with new potting soil the next season.

kimmq is kimmsr

Getting back to the raised beds that were presumed a closed matter, in my climate, I amend in the late summer or fall and where cover crops are not growing, I ridge the spring rows up for higher and dryer early spring planting.

I also interpreted the OP's post to mean they had both raised beds AND containers.

If this is not the case and we are only discussing raised bed soils, then I agree that removal each season is uncalled for. But amending heavily each season would be, as potting soil is pretty much lifeless and devoid of nutrients. In fact, I would not recommend using it to fill raised beds in the first place.

If we are discussing both a raise bed and a container garden situation, then I'd accept the OP's contention that he has adequately addressed the winter needs of the raised bed soils but stand by my advice to discard and replace the used potting soil with fresh each season. Or as a second best economic measure, rework the used potting soil with at least an equal volume of fresh.

Yep - we need clarification. And we still don't know where this garden is. Is it frozen solid or still producing crops?

Sorry for the confusion. I'm talking both. Raised beds with garden soil and containers with potting soil. I'm in philly zone 7. Containers were for tomatoes and peppers. I'd prefer to start fresh but as I am doubling beds and containers next year I'd like to reuse what I can.

1. Have a good reliable soil test done.

2. Remove diseased plants but put the rest back where they grew to put nutrients back where they are needed.

3. Plant a cover crop, do not leave soil bare and exposed to the ravages of the wind, rain, and snow.

4. Begin a study program, for the winter, about anything that interests you.

www.growingagreenerworld.com/putting-garden-bed/

kimmq is kimmsr

"Raised beds with garden soil and containers with potting soil."

Dump the potting soil onto the raised beds in the spring and start fresh in the containers, or at least mix in 50% new container soil for them. And fertilizer meant for containers.

For the raised beds, it's a bit late to be doing much except watching the snow melt, and figuring out what to plant this spring.

This coming growing season ... start a compost bin and dump all your yard trimmings, weeds, kitchen scraps and stuff into it. That will be what you add to your raised beds the season after this one (compost lags by a year or so).

Late next summer, decide if you want to extend your season with frost covers for the raised beds ... if so, you can plant cold-tolerant leafy greens in late summer and harvest well into winter.

If you don't want to grow fall and winter greens, mulch the bed heavily with leaves and ignore it in the winter. In the spring, add the compost you have and plant more stuff. You can dig it in or just make layers and plant in the layers.

And you can safely ignore the advice about a cover crop. I can't think of anything that will sprout in January. Those "ravages of the wind, rain, and snow" were used by the farmers of the English agricultural revolution in the 1700s to condition the earth by letting the freeze-thaw cycle break up clods.