I read two separate suggestions that you work soil while wet. If this is so, don't, but just smack (while dry) those clumps with a shovel and don't worry too much about them. Digging is way overrated and one can USUALLY do all that is needed with a trowel at planting time..

Thanks for your response. I'll do that while wet, when we till in some mushroom compost and a bit of sulfur to get everything more acidic. Home tests showed soil samples at 7.5+ ph.

Speaking of raised beds... We're using raised mounds (raised soil with no frames around them) this year for gardening. Tomatoes, egg plant, squash and various types of peppers are planned. Just how wide and tall should our mounds be?

Pressing the soil down defeat the purpose of digging it up in the first place. This is actually a very good chance to incorporate some compost and well rotten manure into the soil at suitable depth that you wish to encourage your plants root to grow(ie. 10 to 18 inches depend on plants type). Mere deep-watering can only do so much to encourage deep root growth with nothing down there for them to get nutrient. Only when coupled with plant food(compost/manure) at the suitable depth can deep-watering encourage deep roots efficiently. Plants are a kind of organism that react purely to stimulants:light, temperature, soil nutrient, water, mean altitude and/or latitude etc. Take care of their growing conditions and their growing conditions will take care of them.