Each of those 26 beds is an individual plot, so rather than look at the whole 45 x 45 area as one bed look at each plot and work on those you can this year, some more next year, and so on until you are back to the beginning. What you do depends on what you can get, so a 5 year plan to work on 5 beds each year will see you amending and improving the soil in every bed over 5 years.

The greens I use include bunny manure from a friend who raises rabbits (but I only use manures on my non-root crop beds), stale flours/crackers/cornmeals from the cupboard (this is an infrequent addition but occasionally something in the cupboard goes off, and it is a fine green), used coffee grounds, kitchen scraps, and shredded green yard waste. I occasionally bring in free rotted manure from a local ranch, but only for the non-root crops, as mentioned. Manure is low on my list of materials, but can undeniably provide bulk and nitrogen.

Whether you layer weeds or not depends on what sorts of weeds they are (no to anything like bermuda grass, possibly yes to things like dandelions that have not gone to seed). I do purposefully let some good weeds grow, at the community garden, because they are ones that are easily controlled, and they have tap roots, so I know they are bringing nutrients up from several feet underground. We have a mallow that I partiucularly like, for this purpose. If you layer them directly, remember they will turn to a brown if they are just sitting exposed to the sun.

I put most weeds at home into the compost, in the middle of a hot pile.

Some people layer their actual garden *plants* at the end of the season, although I prefer to compost them a bit first.

I agree that doing a few beds at a time is a good way to go. You can learn what works for you on one or two beds, this year or next year, and then scale up from there.

I just remembered, that another resource we have (and you might have) is city tree trimmings. They have a "free mulch" pile that they put (chipped/shredded) trimmings on, and occasionally what they put there is freshly trimmed green materials with mostly leaves and not much wood.

You may find that your city/town has resources like this? Earth day is often a good time to learn what is available from your city, if there is a local earth day celebration near you.

i like the idea of looking at them as individual plots. but is amending them every 5 years enough? and again, do you think it's somehow better to add lots of compost to the top, or just as beneficial to throw weeds and straw, maybe kitchen scraps, etc, on top and let them compost in place?

i'll try both this year and see how it goes. but in the meantime, i'm wondering if both work out about the same. if so, omitting the compost making process makes it one step easier...

thanks

Throwing directly on top has the advantage of acting as a mulch, and more vermicomposting action (the ingredients don't heat up).

Composting has the advantage of killing weed seeds, being less attractive to pests (if kitchen scraps are used) and encouraging a different population of microorganisms (thermophiles) which means more diversity of endproducts.

Ideally, you'd probably find that some of each (some direct layering, and some composting) would be best, although I am sure that either approach would work.