If you can, get local dirt, not Wal-Mart dirt. If the local dirt you get is sandy bottom land soil it likely won't have much for nutrients, so now is a good time to get it and mix that chicken compost it with.

If your compost has a lot of other organic material in it, like yard waste and kitchen scraps, that's even better. Mix a bunch of it in with your soil. If not, find some. Most wood chips work great, I use them and leaves. Save the eggshells from your hens and smash them up and add them to your soil too.

You can use and enrich the soil you have doing this. It takes a few years, but in the end you'll have way better soil than you can buy and you won't need to add any store bought fertilizers either.

12 inche high beds will be plenty deep enough. For my beds, I dug and turned the soil where I was putting the beds, then I dug a trench along side it and put that soil on top of the bed. Then I amended the beds as described above. Then I filled the trench up to the top with leaves and wood chips.

Every Fall, I dig up the composted mulch in the trench and cover the top of the bed with it, I also add more composted manure at the same time. Then I refill the trench with new leaves and wood chips.

I've done this every year now for about 4-5 years and the soil in those beds is amazing now.

The trenches filled with wood chips and leaves do more than just make compost. They keep the weeds down all growing season long with no need to use herbicides, and they hold moisture in. It's amazing how much moisture they retain. This helps keep your beds from drying out deep down, and it makes a perfect spot for worms to take up residence. The worms work on the wood chip and leaf mulch and compost it for you, and the next thing you know your beds will be filled with worms too.

The other thing you can do now is add some charcoal to your beds. Store bought briquets will work, but they take a long time (2-3 years) to break down and start working. If you crush them they will work faster, but this is a slow starting, long term amendment. Once you do it, you won't have to do it again for probably 10 years or more.

Check with your local Farm Bureau and Conservation Dept. They should have lists of crops that do well in your area and planting schedules for each of them. They probably have them online.

As for using the glass to cover your beds, that will work great. You'll get a jump start on summer crops and be able to grow things like lettuce and radishes much earlier and later that without it. In fact, you could probably start growing them right now and have something growing all year long using them.

www.MotherEarthNews.com is a great resource for what you're looking for. Definitely check out their site, and get the magazine too. It's well worth it.

Also do a google search for "Ruth Stout". Almost everything I've mentioned came from her.