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[Clansgian AT wmconnect.com]

> >I know we've discussed before, but your beds are just strategically
> place piles of well developed organic soil, then?
> 

Essentially that is correct.  What more there is to it is this:  The soil 
in the garden is not homogeneous, and especially it was not in the beginning. 
 So I planted the vegetables in the better parts and heaped up every tiny 
bit of organic material I could get on the poorer parts.  When a crop of 
weeds came up, it was not viewed as something interfering with the garden, 
but 
rather the opportunity for more organic matreial.  So the 'fallow' beds were 
heaped with weeds and sod and the dirt clinging to them, leaves, sawdust,. 
pond muck, creek sand, old hay, grass clippings, shredded corn stalks, 
kitchen waste, bean hulls, cow manure, rabbit manure, chicken manure, goat 
manure, 
donkey manure, horse manure, and all the coop/stall/hutch litter involved.  
In some places in the garden this has been going on now for 20 years.

Sometimes these 'in situ' heaps become shoulder high and look like scraggly 
haystacks.  (they too lack sides and I have never yet had one fall over or 
scatter),

In time the fact that the organic material has been rotting right there in 
that spot transforms the soil underneath.  The hard clay turns brown and 
begins to crumble, even my hostile blue clay.  I find that in the beginning 
it 
does a great deal of good to mix the top 10" to 12" in order to mix sand and 
organic material with the clay, but after a certain number of years, this 
becomes moot.   In most cases in the garden at present, when the beds are 
cultivated or reshaped, the spade and rake don't even go down to the level of 
the path anymore.

So, yes, my method is litterally 'dirt simple' in that it is just a 
glorified heap of dirt.  But I don't think it can be achieved by hauling in 
dirt or 
compost and piling it on a spot.  

James