What I would do is to pile your compost where you want it to go, but wait until before planting, when you're mixing in organic fertilizer, to cultivate. That saves unnecessary wear and tear on the soil, and meanwhile the piles may provide habitat for night crawlers, etc.

Agreed, don't get too hung up on trying to make perfect compost. Compost, luckily, will happen eventually no matter what you do. All the advice for making compost, is usually ways you could speed up the process but the truth is, the best compost is allowed to take a long time. Most important ingredient, patients. My compost is pretty easy. We throw stuff in the bin and add dry leaves over it. If we have a bucket of especially stinky stuff, we dig a bit of a hole in the top of the compost pile and dump the bucket in, then cover with more dry leaves and stuff. When we get a bag of some one else's grass clippings, we dump it on and cover with more leaves. If the bin seems stinky, cover with more leaves. If it seems to be cooling off, add more yucky stuff or water it if it seems really dry when ya dig into it. Once the bin is really full. Leave it alone for a year, or until the next bin is full and I need to empty the first one to have a bin to keep filling. That is about it. No turning, no special layering, no purchased stuff, no fertilizer other than "waste", no stress, just wonderful rotting stuff! Here is a link that might be useful: My compost page

Interesting logic there kimmsr. Of course, considering most E-coli infections come from tainted water sources and not direct manure application, I suppose you also suggest we stop using water just because grandpa did it. Or are you saying we should boil all water before applying it. E-coli and Salmonella infections are rare from manure applications on soil, especially in advance like in the fall. It occurs by spraying it on the plant when the fruit has developed or applying it on the ground where developed fruit lies. It's one good reason to keep the food off the ground. It's usually on the outside of the fruit unless there is an entry point. It doesn't come from the roots, through the plant, and into the fruit. Also, E-coli infections are usually found to be originally caused by contamination that comes from sewage not on the garden or field. Sometimes it's from troubles at waste water treatment facilities. Sometimes it's from flooding which causes huge overflows of our sewage systems and factory farm waste systems. Sometimes it's from farms outside the US that don't have to abide by the guidelines US farmers have to (China, Mexico, all South America) and so they use human waste to fertilize. Sometimes it comes from poop floating in a pool (happened in Indy). It's amazing how very rare you see in the news that the culprit was from using manure to fertilize. In fact, if anyone here is able to direct me to a verified recorded outbreak caused by using animal manure to fertilize, please do so. Everything I find is advice based on potential, not based on real happenings. I was sent an e-mail from another member that doesn't post here anymore telling me to avoid getting sucked into arguments with a few of those on here that spread bad info after some bad info was found in another thread that I chose to dispute with logic and experience apparently shared by others. Only one name was mentioned, though. Guess who? Of course, names of good advice givers were also given. I'm sure I'm not the only one that is wary of anyone arrogant enough to claim you shouldn't listen to someone that uses a different method of farming/gardening. Especially when that method is proven to be quite beneficial. Plenty of people all over the world use the method you (kimmsr) described as justification for not listening to them. It's called no-till. You apply directly on top. You don't disturb worms, unearth weed seeds, break irrigation tunnels made by decomposing roots and worms, you don't release nitrogen or the many greenhouse gases, disturb the "soil food web", etc. Breaking the soil to fertilize and weed also increases drought stress. Had you said "fresh manure" I wouldn't have paused. The fact is there is evidence that no-till is much more advantageous and it has been written of a number of times in books, magazines (Mother Earth Magazine comes to mind first), and is found in various spots on the web. I am not going to cite sources as those sources are readily available to all with google.

bellevett, I do not know of anything you can plant outside now and harvest before spring except possibly lettuce and spinach. You might want to sprout the seeds indoors and then put the plants outdoors after they have minimum one set of true leaves. It depends on what zone 7 you are in. Some zone 7 locations have a sort of micro-climate that can be very mild winter. I have chard, cabbage, kale and collards growing outside but I planted them in September. Perhaps someone who knows more will post. Good Luck, DL