Too bad you live so far off..I have two bags of ironite I'll be dumping in the trash soon.
Depending on what you plant, you might not be needing that iron.
If you're in full sun you might want to plant your tallest on the west side of the bed (like tomatoes or sunflowers)and it will depend upon if you want short or long rows how you configure your garden.
In a smaller garden, drip irrigation is preferable and you can reconfigure it over the years as you change your crop locations. Weep hoses rather than the perforated type and put them on a timer with a manual setting also so you can adjust for natural rainfall.
Too much water is worse than too little.

Clay (not red , right?) and sand you'll want to incorporate with maybe some bark fines (what's called soil conditioner). In time, you can make your own compost to add tilth to the soil.
Relying on some guy's opinion what constitutes topsoil or garden soil leaves you open to getting weed seeds you might never get rid of so I'd work with what you have and give it time to settle before planting.
Till and retill with bark fines and bagged composted cow manure. If you can get down to 8" , better deeper you'll have room so the plant roots don't cook in the shallow loose soil.

First though, dig a hole to the depth you plan to till and fill it with water twice and see how long it takes to drain.
Roots can grow to find moisture but they can't swim and they can't live without some oxygen.
Initially, you'll want to add some lime (check the pH of your soil test) and some basic fertilizer 5-5-5 or 5-10-5.
Resist the urge to use stronger fertilizers right away or you'll have lush plants and fewer veggies.
That gets tilled into the soil before planting rather than side dressed.

I'm sure your local paper has some kind of gardening column that can tell you what you can plant now and expect it to hold through the colder months. Fall planting I have always found joyful without the mosquitoes but you're also without a lot of the pollinators so keep that in mind with what you choose for a fall garden.

The first question is WHEN do you want to plant vegetables? If you are thinking you will wait until spring, as opposed to planting a fall and winter garden now, you can do this the easy way, which in the forums is called lasagna gardening.

Lay out your planting areas (rows or beds?) and pull or spray or scalp whatever is growing there now. Then cover it with either cardboard or a ten sheet thickness of newspaper. Cover it completely so that no light can get to the soil. With newspaper, it helps to lay it and then spray with water so it doesn't blow around. Then cover all the paper layer with as much organic material as you can lay your hands on: leaves, grass clippings, kitchen waste from veggies, fruit, etc. You want a minimum of twelve inches on top of the paper layer. Eighteen inches is even better.

Then, just wait out the winter. Earthworms will move in, rain will fall, and by spring, you'll be ready to plant with virtually no digging. (If your soil is so hard that it's highly difficult to dig 3 days after rain, it's not a bad idea to loosen it up some first. I just stand on the shovel and rock back and forth, working the blade all the way into the soil, then pull back to break. Do this about every six inches all over the area. No lifting, no turning, just breaking. Then proceed with the paper and organics.)

If you are wanting a fall and winter garden, then you have to do it the hard way. Either dig, or rototill, or bring in your friend's heavy equipment. Personally, I would wait until spring.

Throughout the winter, READ. Square Foot Gardening by Mel Bartholomew is a good one. Also Warm Climate Gardening by Barbara Pleasant is great for southern gardeners. (There are some MAJOR differences in how we have to do things here as opposed to up north.) Growing Vegetables and Herbs that is published by Taunton is another good one. And by all means check out the Vegetable Gardening Forum here on GW. There are some incredibly knowledgeable people on there.

I have an irrigation system and I love it for ornamentals, but I don't want it in my vegetable garden. It's too easy to break lines when I am digging with a shovel. And, I rotate my crops every year so the garden is never planted the same way twice. Just food for thought.

Foode,
I also live in Aiken, SC.
I'm going to have a veggy garden next year in the spring and will be working on my soil over the winter.
The soil is really poor here.
I am not going to have a very big veggy garden, so I am going to do what I know works for me at my place.
I am buying cinderblocks and lining them up for the shape of my garden.
Then I am buying that Garden soil for veggys that you buy at the big box stores. I am filling the area in with that to start with.
Also, I am mixing in a nice amount of Alfalfa pellets that I buy at the tractor supply store. It not only has a growth hormone, but also iron.
Composted manure is black gold down here, so that will also go into the soil mix in nice amounts, and contains the little "bugs" necessary to eat the alfalfa.
I am not watering my veggy garden with anything other than drinking water. Right from the hose.
I am eating those veggys, and it is better to be safe than sorry.
You have no idea what is in the lake water or pond water that you are watering your food plants with.
They sell the flat drip hoses at the bog box stores if you want to try them, they are pretty good.
Good Luck to you.

I hope your veggy garden grows good for you.

http://www.clemson.edu/extension/hgic/plants/vegetables/gardening/

I would lay out the rows or raised beds on a North/South orientation, that way you don't have to be concerned about tall plants shading the shorter plants.