My very first concern is drainage. About 9 years out of 10 my concern is vindicated here in spring moist Indiana. So, I make my beds parallel with each other with foot paths between the beds and down 'hill' drainage for the lower paths.

When I have amended my garden, I have mixed the amendments with about the top 7 inches of existing topsoil [good soil]. My textural amendments have been medium/coarse sand [not fine masonry nor pea gravel...too coarse and local peat moss. I have used about 3 inches of the sand and 4 inches of the peat moss. With the 3 elements mixed well together, they have been an excellent result for me.

Yes, of course those amendments are not much in elemental enrichment, but that isn't their purpose. Their purpose is to provide a loose and well drained structure for the roots. For enrichment I add leaf compost, horse manure, and fertilizers.

This post was edited by wayne_5 on Sun, Jun 2, 13 at 21:25

What is the soil in those raised beds?
If your native soil did not drain very well those raised beds will not either, since those raised beds are not raised enough to make much difference. Where is the water table for your area?
Soil scientists, people with advanced degrees they recieved after spending time studying soils, will tell you that to make much difference in clay soils by adding sand, or gravel, you would need 45 percent sand. That is a lot of sand or gravel.

The soil is a mix of the native soil which is mostly clay based but not heavy clay, peat moss, compost, mushroom mulch, vermiculite. It is the same as in the other beds that drains well. I think is just the fact of the bathtub I created. When it was grass it drained fine as any other part of the lawn given the amount of rain we've had.

Yes, they are not raised enough and I am going to raise it higher also to help the situation.

I don't mean sand as in mason or beach sand but something on the order of 1/8"-1/4" rocks/gravel something to provide a little better aeration and drainage, and not much maybe only 1/2 a yard.

Most soil already has some sand in it...by definition of loam....so it doesn't take as much additional as touted.

why dig down at all, just build your raised beds on top of what is there, that's all we do and we use heaps of gypsum to help break teh clay, too easy really.

len

Here is a link that might be useful: lens bale garden

len, one reason to dig down some is to utilize some good soil that is already there. Adding some amendments into that gives a good and deep soil with less boughten material.

Len, you are correct no need to dig down but that is where I am now and just need to fix my mistake and move on. Filled in about 6-8" today and did my best to compact it as I went. It is now much closer to the grade around it so it has to be better than where I started.

The soil I worked with in the Munster, IN area did not show any sand or silt in soil testing and I always had a difficult time convincing those I was working with there to not toss out the grass clippings and tree leaves but use them instead of the stuff they had to buy at the garden center.
Some years ago I did have a situation where the gardeners had laid down some very good soil on some clay and water would not flow between them so the very good soil tended to stay too wet, too long. The solution that worked there was to till that very good soil into the clay and then rebuild the beds with some more of that very good soil so the interface between the two soils was not so different.

I believe kimmsr is spot on. The native soil where I live is heavy, very expansive clay. When it gets wet it will expand enough to be self sealing. If you dig a hole it and fill it with anything that actually drains even remotely well, it will become a bathtub. The trick for growing vegetables, or about any seasonal annual, is to build raised beds on top of the clay. When you do that, you get the effect kimm notes - water runs down to meet the clay, then moves sideways out along the interface. You can modify that a bit by amending the soil beneath, and that will allow more vertical drainage into a deeper bathtub. The tub is still there, it's just less of a problem in normal rainfall or irrigation situations.

Once you create the tub, it's going to be there as long as the soil below grade within the surrounding tub edges drains significantly better than the surrounding native soil. About the only remedy I can think of for your situation if the problems persists is to build your raised bed higher to move the root zone out of the tub zone.

Thanks for all the help and suggestions.

For better or for worse as I took all 24 tomatoes out and as I said I filled back in to the grade that surrounds the bed. It is close to what it would have been if I just removed the sod and put the bed on top. I tamped as I filled in so it would be as solid as I could make it with 20lb hand tamper and a 15lb patio block dropped from over my head. Some of the fill was a little rocky but I did get a couple some good sticky clay layers in there to fill in the all the voids and make it as impermeable as the surrounding ground.

It was contoured with about a 2 inch drop both along the width and length dumping to the lowest corner of the bed which is above ground so it can drain out. I also put in a drain from highest to the lowest point hoping that would catch any excess and dump it out.

Looking at my soil mix either it had way too much organic material in it or it was just that way because it was soaked, I remixed it with some top soil, agricultural sand, peat and vermiculite and through in a some gypsum in between some of the layers as I filled it back in. I put in some super phosphate to hopefully get some roots going quickly also.

The bed was raised another 4.5" inches also to meet the bed on its right.

The tomatoes are now back in their final resting place, I guess that sounds bad. Hopefully with the grade coming back up to meet the rest, the slope, the drain, the remixed soil, and the additionaly height the bed will drain properly and the tomatoes will come back to life. Some of them took it worse than others but I hope they make it, if not I guess I can sucker off the other 12 I have in containers and use those.