I think the bed looks great, but I do have one concern, provided my estimation of your bed height is even semi-correct. It looks like your boards may only be 6" or 8" high, and the soil level is several inches below the top. Since you have heavy duty weed block underneath that looks quite shiny, and therefore possibly impenetrable, I worry about the roots of your plants having enough room. They can spread laterally, but even in sq. foot gardening, they recommend that your soil be at least 6" deep. Your plant spacing looks good though - the recommendation is a minimum of 18" between indeterminates, more if you have the space, and yours look to be at least that. With the plants you have in now, you can easily add in some more soil and you won't have to worry about burying more of the stems. It's actually good for the tomatoes, since they'll grow roots along whatever's underground.

Crystalshoe- Hydrology, not the size of the bed or container, determines whether you're growing in a raised bed (RB) or a container, and by extension, what type of soil you can/should use. A planting of daisies in a plastic or clay pot resting on your deck or patio is a container planting. Bury that pot an inch or two into the ground so there is continuity between the medium in the pot and the soil the pot is partially buried in, and it becomes a RB - no matter what size the pot is. The difference is, the earth will act as a giant wick, and remove water that would normally perch in a conventional container planting, but water movement within the partially buried container would closely mimic water movement in the earth or in the soil below. There is a caveat, however. The area where the pot is buried or partially buried would need to drain properly for things to work. If you were to bury the pot in clay soil that allowed essentially no percolation, the pot would simply fill up with water at every rainfall or irrigating. If you're building a RB over a clay soil that drains poorly - don't amend the clay unless you can drain the area. If you do, water will percolate or run into the area you amended, leaving it saturated for extended periods (the bathtub effect). You can remedy this problem if you are able to cut trenches or use a French drain cut into the clay to drain excess water to a lower area away from where you're growing. Not amending the clay below your beds also allows any excess water in the RB soil to move laterally over the surface of the clay where it can evaporate. If you amend, the water won't move laterally until the amended depression is entirely saturated with water. No matter how you look at it, you're eventually going to have problems with a RB over clay unless you can figure a way to use gravity or a pump to move water from the area. As soil life moves through the clay and increases the OM content of the clay below the RBs, that soil will become more porous than the surrounding clay. The pores will quickly fill with water when it rains or when you irrigate unless you have a plan to remove the water. The end game is, the water that collects below your RBs has to have a place to go. It has to drain naturally in a reasonable time, or be directed downhill or to a sump where it can be mechanically removed. Amending the soil beneath RBs just forces you to face the brunt of the problem sooner (in heavy clay soils). BTW - you don't need to use a highly aerated soil like that you referred to in your OP in RBs. In fact, the highly aerated soils that perform so well in containers are probably not a particularly good choice for RBs because they have a steep water retention curve that will have you watering more than you'd prefer. Keep in mind that the time you spend now, properly preparing, will save a lot of time and frustration later. How many beds? Size/depth? Budget constraints high, low, medium? Ready access to materials you think might work? Al

Skip MG soils & substitute a bale of peat moss instead (more for your $) + more compost from a variety of bagged sources + your leaf mold will be great You'll want at least 6" of material added to the existing clay. Breaking it up is a great idea since you're planting right away. A pick axe or mattock might be useful as well as a garden fork. I love the ease of a fork over a shovel and how it loosens the soil. If you're going to mix some of the soil amendments in & you're concerned about weed seeds be sure to leave 2" or more to layer on top without mixing in so you can prevent any weed seeds from surfacing. Then with your mulch layer you'll be set this year anyway. Will need to be topped off with more compost next year as the compost will shrink by quite a bit. Or if you harvest in fall to leave fallow layer compost ingredients right on top of the bed. Might be able to use bags or buckets to haul fresh rabbit or llama pelleted manure off craigslist. Nice people raising a large amount of animals have more than they need, so give it away free for the hauling. If you're concerned about drainage add perlite or vermiculite. Inquire at a feed & farm supply store or hydroponics supplier for possibly better prices or larger bags. Either work well to keep soil loose. Perlite tends to float a bit and vermiculite breaks down over time. Go with your gut feeling & your pocketbook. Perlite is cheaper and can be used for rooting cuttings. The remainder of a big bag from Home Depot can be stored for a long time without going bad.

I single run of cinderblocks is going to be the cheapest durable option. Cheaper yet is the plastic landscape border bent to hard corners, but its hard to get that deep enough on a new bed. I have tried it myself, and it works in a pinch or where looking good is more important than being stout, but its not a preferred method of mine. 4x4 will get you more bed space per foot (16 sq ft) of edge compared to 5x3 (15 sq ft). Soil mixes are described in the FAQ. The short story is to search around for the cheapest sources of compost you can find, and start making your own compost too. If you rush, you could still get in a fall garden, otherwise, you could get your compost and compostables into the bed ASAP and it will have settled in nicely by spring. Save your best compost to top off the bed after getting the rest of the filler in.