Thanks for the responses. To Kimmsr: I may have been unclear as to the drainage time. None of the holes that I dug were drained after 60 miinutes. The test involves filling the holes twice, and I guess the second time is more important (as the first filling of the soil eliminates to bias from the surrounding soil being dry and gives a "truer" indication of drainage). On the first filling, some of the holes were down to an inch of water after about 60 minutes, but that last inch wasn't really budging, so I just did a second fill at that time and waited another hour, at which point the holes all had MORE than an inch of water in them after 60 min. (but were less than half full). The County guide-book I'm using basically says if it's taking over 60 minutes to drain, you have a problem and need to look into augering or tilling, so I did not keep timing to see how long over 60 min. the holes took to drain. Since I'm taking this info from my LA County planting guide-book, I am reluctant to second-guess or ignore it. Hmmm...maybe the rate of perculation varies by area and is "naturally" supposed to be faster in my area, and that is needed for the Guide's recommended plant list, which is why they want 12" per hour or less for drainage? (I'm guessing.) I would also note that the water seemed to go down reasonably quickly at first, but then slowed considerably as the water got below the halfway point in the holes, which I gess means there's reasonable side-ways drainage from the 6" mark and up, and it is below that that the walls and floor of the hole were more like a bowl than a strainer (or more like a brick than sponge). Basically, for all I, it would take over 3 hours or over 6 hours, or who knows, to wait till the holes were totally empty, so I'm not really sure how bad my drainage problem is. To Ken_Adrian: You suggest getting my County Extension's "guide," but I'm pretty sure that's what I'm using, and what I linked to above. Did you look at that guide, and is it NOT the same thing? Note, with budget cuts and a big city and stuff, it's nearly impossible to get a County person on the phone in Los Angeles, at least when I've called to talk about other stuff, like permits and tree trimming and stuff, so I'm not real confident in my ability to find some one in the County to pick their brain my questions... to Toxcrusadr: Thanks for that reply, I learned some stuff. It sounds like I can till and then use lasagna method without fear of grass sprouting everywhere. If we did til, then add the lasagna layers, we'd then be walking over the soil to some extent to do our planting (cutting through all the layers and planting in the "real" soil that the grass is in, as I understand it), so I am a bit concerned this would cause compaction at least in some areas, and even if we till the soil when it's not wet, the lasagna method calls for wetting down the various layers as you add them, so I'm still not sure if this approach would lead to compaction problem. Maybe my biggest concern, though, is that the tiller I saw for rent at Home Depot looks like it'll only go maybe 6-8 inches deep, whereas the 1-man power auger they rent will go 16 inches deep, maybe more. If I've got a compaction problem below the 8 inch depth, I am wondering if tilling will help that issue at all? Lastly, there's a suggestion that the lasagna method, standing alone, should fix a drainage / compaction problem organically, as the right mixture of ingredients in the soil will lead to thriving organism or micro-organism or whatever, that naturally keep drainage good. (Sort of like imagining if you cultivate worms in your yard, and they will dig holes as they move through the earth creating a healthy amount of porousness and drainage for the soil, but on a bigger level since I'm sure the healthy soil has a lot of living stuff going on apart from worms.) If my image/analogy is correct, and the lasagna method -- done right -- will ultimately fix the drainage issue, do I really need to do anything? It would be nice if the answer is "no," EXCEPT for the fact that the County Guide I'm following SAYS to do augering or tilling before Lasagna if the drainage is slower than 60 min for a 12 inch hole. My main concern with doing the lasagna method without improving drainage is that, if water does not drain fast enough from the lasagna layers, will that sabotage the whole lasagna process? Ken

Contrary to common wisdom, putting gravel under the soil will make drainage worse. So save all that labor for a different project. Why do you think it stays so wet? What kind of soil or soil mix is in the planter? How deep is it?

First? why is it poorly drained. Does it need surfaced drained or is it from hard pan causing the problem. Rye and tillage radishes will help breakup hardpan. Does it need to boost up the OM to help improve the drainage. does it need some deep tillage to breakup the soil? I have used a subsoiler running about 15" deep to breakup hardpan or in a small area double digging might help. In my zone rye and tillage radishes would need to be planted around labor Day. Don't know if it is too late in your climate

If you are still reading I have n observation about Amazon boxes. I opened on up and put it in water to soak it because I wanted to tear it up to add to the compost pile. After six hours, I was able to pull apart the layers of the box, but within the sheets of cardboard it was still dry. Twelve hours of soaking and I tore the sheets into about eights and found them still dry inside. At fifteen hours hours I toe the sheets into pieces abut four inches wide and found them still dry. So I let it go to 24 hours and tore it up into even smaller pieces. The corrugated middle layer pieces were well wet, but I could hardly believe, the outer layer pieces still had dry spots. Tore it into yet smaller pieces. I ended up letting it soak for 36 hours. Finally it was probably 95+% wet. But here and there I still found dryish spots. I tore it all up yet again and took it to the compost pile on this RAINY day. Amazon boxes must be tough! I've used plenty of other boxes for sheet composting to start new beds, to put under wood chips when mulching against weeds in an ornamental garden, and to supplement the compost pile. But this has not been a "normal" box! I won't use one again like this. If I were the owner of your new raised bed, I would be out there taking it apart to remove those Amazon boxes.