Party foul in my new raised beds - What now?

[Melissaatthecircus]

Earlier this summer, I added 3 raised beds to my existing garden. I misinterpreted Huw Richards' advice, and layered the beds in this order:

Bottom - Organic matter (pine shavings w/chicken manure, leaves, etc.)
Middle - Top soil
Top - Compost (from my local nursery - orchard waste, leaves, etc. but NOT what they call "super compost," which includes dairy manure)

But I left them as layers, such that the top 12" are compost alone.

Interestingly, I've had mixed results in their success:
Bed 1 - Pumpkin seeds + broccoli starts = growing very well, but no other seeds will grow in the remaining 1/5 of the bed
Bed 2 - No seeds will grow
Bed 3 - Champagne tomatoes have overtaken the entire bed. Previously planted 9 strawberry starts; unclear on their status under all the tomatoes.

No dig gardening revitalized my other 4 beds, so I'm partial to that approach. But ... how do I move forward for productive harvests next year? A couple of ideas I'm pondering ...
1. Do I rip out the remaining plants + roots in beds 1 and 3 and mix in ... top soil (?) to those along with bed 2?
2. Do I layer top soil on top of the existing compost now that the beds have settled and I have about 3" of room at the top of each?
3. Absent those approaches ... what the heck do I do?

Any thoughts greatly appreciated. Thank you for reading!

 

[oneeye]

Earlier this summer, I added 3 raised beds to my existing garden. I misinterpreted Huw Richards' advice, and layered the beds in this order:

Bottom - Organic matter (pine shavings w/chicken manure, leaves, etc.)
Middle - Top soil
Top - Compost (from my local nursery - orchard waste, leaves, etc. but NOT what they call "super compost," which includes dairy manure)

But I left them as layers, such that the top 12" are compost alone.

Interestingly, I've had mixed results in their success:
Bed 1 - Pumpkin seeds + broccoli starts = growing very well, but no other seeds will grow in the remaining 1/5 of the bed
Bed 2 - No seeds will grow
Bed 3 - Champagne tomatoes have overtaken the entire bed. Previously planted 9 strawberry starts; unclear on their status under all the tomatoes.

No dig gardening revitalized my other 4 beds, so I'm partial to that approach. But ... how do I move forward for productive harvests next year? A couple of ideas I'm pondering ...
1. Do I rip out the remaining plants + roots in beds 1 and 3 and mix in ... top soil (?) to those along with bed 2?
2. Do I layer top soil on top of the existing compost now that the beds have settled and I have about 3" of room at the top of each?
3. Absent those approaches ... what the heck do I do?

Any thoughts greatly appreciated. Thank you for reading!

That is so interesting. Is the garden finished or can you post a photo?

 

[oneeye]

Seeds will germinate at higher rates if the substrate is topsoil and not compost. It's very important not to let the compost content get higher than the topsoil
content.

Yes, I would say to go to the topsoil layer now on top of the compost. Lastly when the pile cools down, go back to the original layer(pine shavings w/chicken manure, leaves, etc.
Thanks for sharing your hard work, it's very interesting friend keep us posted.