It will work against you, Larry. It's advantage in containers is that it's so porous that it holds a lot of water internally, and it readily gives up that water. In your soil, because it DOESN'T hold water tightly, it will quickly give up that moisture to the surrounding soil. Here, you need organic matter incorporated. Pine bark would work well because it breaks down slowly and won't significantly immobilize available N.

We have a newcomer to the forum (Bob) who I believe has done a lot of experimenting with building humic compounds for his soils. If he sees this, perhaps he'll add a word. I think it's possible you might benefit from the discussion if you're willing to go the little extra it takes to separate yourself from the pack. If you weren't, you wouldn't be here - right? ;-)

Best luck - I'll watch the thread with interest & help wherever I think I can.

Describing the existing soil type/properties would be very helpful.

{{gwi:871}}

Al

Thanks for the link Al.
Fulton- Al is right, container soils are a completely different beast than regular soils. Just because something is ideal for container, does not mean it will work in regular soil, and in fact it will more than likely be detrimental because the needs of both environments are so incredibly different.
Pine bark (and other barks) are great because they break down slowly and perform the task you desire: the hold a lot of moisture.
Further information would greatly help address specif needs, is the soil loam, clay, sandy loam, etc.? What are you growing: annuals, perennials, both? What is your time frame for improving the soil? These are all very crucial to determining how to address your soil. Without this information we can only make a good guess to what you need, as a guiline you should always add plenty of organic matter, but the amount varies signigantly depending on the aforementioned questions.
Start with a shake test for soil composition, there are a lot of how-to's online.

Grateful for the help.
Soil is currently frozen and snow covered so I'll do my best.
All the soil here in Milwaukee is heavy clay. Except this spot. It has the consistency of sand( at least the top several inches, not sure about deeper). It's under a wide eave, facing south,next to a lannon stone wall, well drained and probably well-worked by ants. Only sparse grass strands grow there.
I'll be working a ton of hours so my plan is to plant geraniums(which seems to handle dry pretty well).
I'd like to do all I can to prepare this spot for neglect during the growing season.
My original thought was oil dri and straw mulch but you two definitely have my attention.
Larry

It's very important to know if there is clay deeper in the soil. You might want to try a drainage test: dig a hole about two or three feet down, fill it with water and let it drain, then fill it again, if it drains in under 12 hours it's good, more than twelve and there's a fair amount of clay, more than 24 and you have a very heavy soil.
If you have a fair amount of clay then you will need a lot of sand and organic matter mixed in, and I do mean a lot, you can't just throw bag of manure and some compost at it.
If you plan on neglecting your plants for a day or two, you need to have a well prepared soil, the healthier and better structured the soil, the less care they will need, but you can not neglect them for long periods unless they are natives.