OK, I'm REALLY late to this discussion.
Until recently, I've nearly always gardened on 5000 square feet or more; so composting as a separate step was never practical for me. I would have needed a tractor with a bucket to load, turn, and spread that much material, and a place large enough to handle the process (and have to deal with the rodents which would nest there). Although I have access to all the organic material I could use in the form of fallen leaves, I had no way to collect large quantities. Those were all obstacles to maintaining soil tilth & fertility at an acceptable level - and I refused to use chemical fertilizers as a band aid.
But having observed techniques used by local farmers - who compost in situ - I just started mowing the garden mulch & debris in place, returning kitchen scraps to the garden they came from, and turning everything under in the Fall. Provided all organic material is chopped finely, everything composts fairly quickly in-ground... and appears to benefit from the soil biota which builds up in successive years. Absent the heat of composting, I don't turn under any diseased material, or weeds with seeds; those things are burned, and their ashes returned to the garden. Scraps from supermarket produce run the risk of introducing disease, so I make it a rule never to add them to the gardens... those get dumped into the back lot for deer to peruse. Anything which manages to survive back there has my deepest respect.
A couple years ago we purchased a large-scale lawn & leaf vacuum, that can be run either connected to the mower, or independently with a vacuum pickup. It holds about a cubic yard of shredded material, and can be towed & dumped where needed. When connected to the mower, I set the blade height low enough to mix some grass clippings with the leaves, for a green/brown mix (I delayed my Fall lawn mowing to increase the "green" ratio). With the help of my DD & 2 neighbors who allowed me to collect their leaves, this finally enabled me to spread a 2-3" layer of shredded leaves over the entire garden. I also screened charcoal & leeched wood ashes out of the fire pit, turning them under as well. The gardens in both 2021 & 2022 showed a tremendous increase in fertility... and the greatly improved performance of varieties previously grown in the rural garden made it painfully obvious how depleted that soil had become.
I was unable to collect leaves in the rural site last year, because a big wind storm blew all fallen leaves into surrounding farm fields. There was nearly a repeat of that this year; but between picking up leaves from another neighbor & enough leaves falling later, I was able to spread about 2" of OM on the rural garden. When the ground is snow covered, I'll spread some wood ashes there as well. Hopefully that will improve the plot, should I decide to garden there next year.
modernfarmer.com
You can still compost what they did with the berry skins ... or, eat it
.
