One word - compost. More compost is even better.

Dave

PS: Oh and did I mention compost. :)

Dave, any more words? Sand, Peat moss? I guess my own "compost" is not fully composted; often contains uplifted turf etc with a fair amount of soil, sitting exposed through a cold wet winter. It can be pretty gluey in consistency. I filled one new raised bed last fall with it and now after winter it's heavy clumpy stuff. Lacking available high quality compost, what would you suggest?

Any organic matter helps - leaf mold, chopped straw or hay, cotton or coffee hulls, etc. Not as effective at compost but helps. Peat skews your soil pH so use depends on your pH. Sand, per all the discussions over on the Soil forum, doesn't help much and it takes a lot of it. Even unfinished compost works and it finishes composting in place. Did you fill the whole bed with only compost? Nothing else?

Your compost contains enough diverse components or just turf. Perhaps it needs more carbons added to decompose. Do you run an active hot compost pile or a stacked cold pile? What is available to you locally?

Dave

If you have soil that is heavily clay and tends to be slow to dry out, warm up, and tends to be cloddy, I think 3 inches of medium/ coarse sand can do wonders to loosen that soil up. For my silty clay loam I also add a good bit of peat moss. I love what this does for my soil. Just today I went out and tilled in the planting rows for a row of gladious and a half row of super sugar snap peas. How did the ground work up here in wetish Indiana?...like a sand box.