I put down cardboard (or newspaper at least 6 sheets thick and overlapping) and then mulch over that anytime during the year before the ground freezes. Then in the spring it is good for digging into. I have been doing this for years. I till pretty much the whole garden once a year, usually in spring to incorporate whatever grew and whatever I want to add (not much, usually). I only till about 3" deep, max. I have not had a big problem with weeds because a) I plant rather closely, kind of pushing the envelope in terms of spacing because I want the plants to shade out weeds and lessen the need for mulching and b) I hoe. Hoeing is not at all bad if you have a good hoe. I use a stirrup hoe. I actually enjoy cutting their little heads off.:) I don't use raised beds, either. To me that is just extra work and money. I use regular 4' wide rows with 18" between, each row having a double length of soaker hose. Works good for me, especially because my beds can follow the curves of the sun in my yard instead of being straight, but lots of people love those raised beds. Some people would object to my practice because I don't use a lot of mulch once the stuff is planted. I hoe instead ('dust mulch'). It depends on how much water is in the soil and what is growing there. I have a bed that is pretty dry with no mulch that works well because the plants there like that--they're mostly Artemisias, although I also have a bunch of peppers there that are doing well. Those I have mulched with composted manure. Then I have most of the veggies in beds very thickly planted that get a lot of water and no mulch because they don't need mulch--they create their own shade. I keep the space in between rows very small, like 12"-18". I have also tried living mulches, like letting wild portulaca grow and weeding out everything else in between my tomatoes. This worked pretty well, but I think it was actually more labor intensive than having no mulch at all, because I had to hand pull the weeds instead of hoeing. For watering, I use soaker hoses and water only in the early morning, so it has time to soak in before it gets hot and is wasted in evaporation. Yes, people say you have to cover them. I have never covered them and in my highest watering months I think my water bill has increased maybe five bucks. Covering them for me just gets in the way of hoeing.:) I have clay and I think it is great for growing. Everyone complains about it, but I have gardened in sand and I would take clay any day. Clay has tons of nutrients in it. As long as it doesn't get sopping or get hard on top, it is good to grow in, in my experience. I guess what you can use the city compost for would depend on what it was made of. It must be grass and yard waste, no? It might have broadleaf herbicides in it, which wouldn't be good for your garden. I usually get composted manure instead, although the local prison has a program where they give away compost made out of food scraps. I haven't gotten around to trying that yet, but you might see if your local prison, if you have one, has such a program. I think that would be quite safe and you sure can't beat the price. I know what you mean about next year. I am already planning my next-year garden. Definitely going to be more peppers!

Thanks to everyone for your input. I will definitely have a soil test done before we begin anything. I do think it is sandy loam in the area where the house is located. I have a very large daylily bed, and before planting them we added the above mentioned amendments, along with Nutri-Cote fertilizer. After waiting three weeks for the ground to settle in, we planted the seedlings and they took off right away and are just beautiful today, two years later. About the rose selection, the house was built in the '30s. My mother had a large rose garden at that time, so I'm not sure where I can find a list of roses of that era. I do remember hearing her talking about the "American Beauty" rose that she so loved. Given that time period, I wouldn't know how to find out what roses were popular. I have roses growing here at our place, and am amazed at what overripe bananas have done for them. Maybe it's the colder weather we have been having this year, but I haven't seen a sign of any black spot on them, which is unusual in this humid area. Thanks again! Nancy

I'm sorry if I'm repeating what others have said but I have a plot in a community garden and have thought about this. My community garden is 30+ years old so I don't know how they prepared the soil way back then but now when a plot is turned over to a new gardener it is up to the new gardener to till and amend the soil. This turns out really very well although sometimes it means dealing with a garden where the soil was amended very little if at all and the weeds grew rampant or if you're lucky the previous plot holder took care of the soil. In your community garden project, if you want to till and amend the soil for your first gardeners you should get as much good quality non-manure compost as you can afford, till that in then let your gardeners add manure or anything else they want later on. I think this will get the soil ready to plant without a lot of cost. If the individual gardeners want to test the soil in their garden plots and add amendments let them do it themselves; this is an important part of being a gardener and very satisfying. Often landscape suppliers will offer discounts to community gardening projects and, at least in my area, the municipal sanitary service makes cheap compost available made from the garden waste they've pick-up from the green bins... Good luck with your garden project...

i decided to wait a little bit before doing anything, thinking maybe its just first gardener jitters, being jumpy at anything happening in the garden like some bugs running around. theres been a bit of a cold snap here in my region and i havent seen many bugs since to be honest. im attaching some pictures here of the plants. they seem good so far, no sign of nibbling or rot, yet. dave, i see your point with nurseries. i also felt like they were being partially dismissive as well but now i know better and next time will come to houzz to talk to gardeners instead. i wonder, since the seedlings look so nice if i should wait until spring planting season to take out rocks and mesh netting etc. also, does anybody have thoughts on fertilizer at this stage with the seedlings? i sprinkled a tiny bit when i transplanted the seedlings but wonder if i need to be feeding them more (have dr earth)? only the kyoto red carrot (CORRECTION: DAIKON LEAVES) leaves seem wilted at the ends and some of their smaller leaves are dying.(photo attached)