Q: I collect leaves from my trees for my 20-by-80-foot garden. My township (Hampden) also will deliver 3 yards of leaf compost for $30 or 8 yards for $50. Should I wait till spring to rototill this in or do it this fall? Also, where can I get horse, cow or chicken manure?
A: I'm a fall man when it comes to prepping the vegetable-garden soil. The ground is usually drier in fall, plus fall-added leaves, compost and/or manure have more time to break down before you plant again in spring.
One of the worst things you can do to garden soil is till it when wet. You'll compact the soil and squish out those important air pores when you're in there mucking around in a wet spring.
I'd add all of the good stuff you mention sometime before the ground freezes, work it well into your existing soil and rake smooth for winter. If your soil already is loose and in pretty good shape, just add a light layer of compost to the surface and don't even bother tilling it in. It's also fine to let a light layer of chopped leaves on the surface as an erosion-protecting organic mulch over winter.
If you do leaves on top, hose them down to keep them from blowing away. Once wet, they'll mat down just enough to stay. Earthworms will love this as a treat. And come spring, you don't have to till in a light leaf layer like that. Just plant right into your loosened, leaf-mulched beds.
The only consideration would be places where you're direct-seeding small seeds such as carrots or lettuce. For those, just rake off any remaining too-thick layers of leaves in spring to plant these crops. Then use that removed mulch around vegetable plants such as tomatoes or peppers.
Those leaf-compost prices are excellent, by the way. I live in Hampden and have taken advantage of this beautiful black gold twice this year. They also offer wood mulch to residents at the same price. It's a great service to residents and very environmental forward-thinking.
As for manure, most horse stables are more than happy to get rid of all the horse manure and spent bedding you'd care to haul away. Check the yellow pages under "Stables" for a listing of places closest to your house.
Two precautions with that: 1.) sometimes you'll get weed seeds with animal manures, and 2.) be sure to wash well any produce grown in manure-fertilized gardens. Manures are excellent sources of nitrogen that should make your garden thrive next year.