You could plant a cover crop of some sort and allow it to winter kill and work it back into the soil next spring.

Not sure how big of an area you are talking about. We are finishing up planting cover crops of Oats, Tillage Radishes, Turnips and Austrian Winter Peas and Hairy Vetch and Rye.

4 10'x4' beds what do you mean by crop cover?

I put a nice layer of ground leaf mulch over everything in my garden for winter - I actually use it extensively all the time. Helps keep the surface from drying out and keeps the worms in high activity. If planting spring seeds, I can just push aside the mulch to a ready for planting soil surface. When everything gets growing well, I slide the displaced mulch back in place, often adding even more.

Cover cropping is when you plant a sacrificial crop of something (jrslick gave some suggestions, there are more) that will help improve the soil when you till the crop in.

Rodney

Another cover crop example: I've got flax seed and snow/snap peas growing for fall harvest; what ever remains after a few frosts will get turned over (right in place) so it's decomposed by spring.

I used a rye grass last season. I planted in mid October - maybe a bit late, but still germinated enough to cover the majority of my garden. it did not get tall, probably because of the fast and horrible winter. By early spring I was able to just till into the soil. I believe that the roots help loosen the soil and the grass itself adds back some nutrients that were depleted during the past season. I've read that it also helps to prevent nutrient runoff and overall soil degradation.

I can only use a mini tiller due to hardware cloth under my beds (for gophers), so on the beds I'm not using for winter growing, I get the neighbors' leaves and grass clippings, suck the leaves up in my leaf grinder, lay them out and cover with cardboard. I use my spading fork to poke holes in the cardboard to let the rain seep in.
I'm also doing something new and putting the sections of my compost bins (normally 4 sections high, using 2 sections in a 4x8 bed) straight onto the bed! I'm going to turn more often and am hoping that I just have to rake it out in the spring! We'll see! Nancy

Nancy: Your idea of putting the compost right in the bed is fantastic and it definitely works (for me)! I've already moved my compost bin set once this year because I was able to "rebuild" a sinking area of the garden patch.

And there's no healthier way to build back the soil, truly... Do you have photos?

Sorry Persimmons, don't know how to post pics!
The sections I have are about1 ft each, so each garden bed gets 2 ft. It might not be enough, but we'll see! Nancy

If you have a large garden and not planting a fall garden then a cover crop is good. Oats and buckweat are a great cover crop. Their roots go less deep than rye grass. They will produce a healthy layer and keep the weeds out. Both will die at first frost and cover the area. When spring arrives, you can till it under and they both decompose quickly creating healthy nutrients for your spring soil.

Autumn is coming. Leaves are soon to be plentiful. There are a lot worse things you could do than covering your beds with leaves. Shred em and you might find that they even composted over winter.