I often mulch my tomatoes, potatoes, and peppers with compost or unfinished compost in the spring. I put some around my tomatoes just last week. I will probably add a thin layer of grass clippings over the top of the compost as well.

Might not do your current crops much good but it won't hurt and it should keep the soil a bit cooler like any mulch.

No harm, compost is a soil amendment not a fertilizer so any effect on the plants would be minimal. But No gain in side dressing over just mulching and just mulching with it is easier.

Dave

Thanks guys - I really need to get this compost out of the way so hubby can mow! Thanks also for saving me work, Dave. :-)

The nitrates in compost are water soluble, so when you irrigate the surface, they'll just leach down into your bed. Good stuff. Enormously easier than "compost tea", which has always struck me as a crazy idea exactly because of this.

Absolutely nothing wrong with this and you are basically just doing it the way nature does, amending the soil from the top on down. Whenever I have the extra compost and can afford to do it I sidedress with it.