Layering in whatever organic matter you can obtain - shredded leaves, leaf mold, compost, etc. - will help. But soil improvement is not a once and done thing. It takes years of application and the activities of soil microorganisms and weeding and normal cultivation to incorporate a top dressing of OM down into the soil profile, lightening and improving drainage. So you may not necessarily see a marked improvement come spring. But it will get better over time.

Sorry to hear your first bed didn't work out for you. #1 reason plants do poorly despite best efforts by gardener is wrong plants for local soil and climate. It isn't unusual to have 3-5 different growing conditions in a single state. For that reason I suggest you be specific about soil, climate and conditions where you are. Many places have volunteer master gardeners that hold clinics for gardening. You are off on the right foot buildiing a fenced area to hold upcoming Fall leaves. It's generally agreed that one can use any of a number of proceedures,choosing one you enjoy is important. To save labor and space I gather leaves with push mower and bagger. Shredded leaves are stored in fenced area then pulled in batches to be mixed with higher nitrogen content materials. I recently sowed annual rye seed for a ready source of green material. Supermarkets have crates of waste fruit and vegetable material but due to health regulations and liability most won't give it too you. If you know what day(s) they receive shipments the material can often be retrieved from dumpster. Competition is stiff from people feeding it to livestock.

Gosh you guys are wonderful, thank you for the advice and support! i’m taking notes!

I've started thinking that the contributions from the worms attracted to my mulches is not insignificant. Between their castings and movement in the beds, I think they do as much garden work as I do. Worms come pretty quickly to a moist, mulched bed---around here anyway.

I think a chipped leaf mulch is very attractive if you have access to that, and nothing a neighbor could object to.

Did all the perennials suffer in that bed?

klem, you know about Starbucks, I'm sure. They'll give you little tiny bags of grounds, but I tell them that I use a lot of grounds and is there any way now is a convenient time to empty their trash bag? They never say no, because it spares them a trip to the dumpster.

I inherited a leaf blower/shredder & since my 2 huge maples are the last trees in the area to drop their leaves I tried using the shredded leaves to mulch my raised beds. It breaks down over the winter & helps to improve the soil texture. It looks quite organic-I prefer it to the store-bought mulch that sometimes looks a bit moldy. Since I've been doing this I've noticed more worms in the soil-aerate that soil little guys!

Yes!

Thanks for the comments!!

so far I‘ve added..

black Kow

about 4 inches of mulch from our composting site

coffee grounds sprinked around

the only thing that is making it is a lone hydrangea, which i’m leaving.

i purchased a giant bottle of fish fertilizer, which i forgot to use. Would that help the soil improve or should i hold it for next year?

Pile on leaves--thick, thick, thick. Then top with something to hold them down over the winter--hay/straw works well. If you've already got wood mulch, remove it before piling on the other stuff and then top with the wood mulch. (Wood mulch is great, but you don't want to bury wood--it takes to long to decompose and uses a lot of nitrogen while it's doing so. Great topper but don't bury it.)

It would also help if we knew more about your yard and the bed--zone, general geographic area, sun/shade situation, what you planted. Once we know that, we would have a better idea of why plants failed. And what type of Hydrangea is doing well there.

Knowing what plants you've tried would be useful too.

I'd wait until spring to apply the fish fertilizer. If you have access to more compost mulch, I'd apply that. I apply thick mulches---keeping them from touching the base of the plants.

When new gardeners say their soil is clay-ey, I'm always suspicious. New gardeners tend to think they have every bad gardening situation they've heard about, and then apply all the remedies they've heard about.

That may not be you, of course. I just got worried when I heard it was your first garden.

My objection to wood product mulches---besides being ugly and evocative of a fast food restaurant---is they're slow to break down to amend the soil, that stability is why they're often chosen. If a person is labor adverse, and okay with sub-par soil, wood mulches are the way to go. Beds with near-sterile mulches that take forever to break down can always be nourished with commercial fertilizers. The best gardeners, however, aim for tilth, which is most easily accomplished by applying continually nourishing mulches.

I'm not a great gardener, though; I'm a great mulcher and a great composter---qualities plants like in a human. I hope others will weigh in. I don't dig amendments into my beds anymore, but I do like to fork up a bed a little before planting---enough to break up big clumps of soil.

What plants died?

"... My objection to wood product mulches---besides being ugly and evocative of a fast food restaurant..."

LOL

Not much to add here - I think everyone has given great advice about mulch and shredded leaves etc . I rarely fertilize plants but am always adding compost and I shred, shred, shred leaves and mulch in fall and spring. Most of my beds started as lasagna beds. But I also agree that one needs to have the right plants for the right spot.

Two examples. When I first bought my house my very first garden was a shade bed (well, most of my gardens are shade beds since I have so much shade lol). But it was on the north side of the house. I put it here because it's very visible from my living room windows. So many people - non-gardeners, granted - told me, you can't have a garden THERE. Not enough sun, everything will die, etc. Well, we all know that is hogwash.

Second. I had a gardening business and a then-potential customer called me for a consultation. The back of her yard was a swamp. Standing water many months of the year, her lawn guys always leaving ruts in the grass, etc. I once came right out of my muck boot when I went to walk because the boot stuck in the mud up to my ankles and my foot came out of it! There was a small garden in there that wasn't doing great. I told her I could do something, she hired me, and now there is a beautiful garden there. Not tooting my own horn here, but this is just to show how the right plants can work. I just planted all stuff that loves water, moisture, even standing water. Once she had the right plants there, it took off and was lovely, and I've tended her garden for 15 years.

So it would indeed help us to help you if we knew your gardening conditions, and what you've already tried.

One last thing I just remembered. I once went to a talk by an organic farmer (who was such a great speaker another farmer told her to give up her farm and take her show on the road!). She said how when she first started out, everyone in the business told her to put down leaves. Leaves, leaves, leaves, was what she heard. So she did. And the next year she was like, what, was this a joke? But she did it again. And again the next year. And she said her soil ended up being spectacular and her farm started taking off. So it does take time, and effort, and patience, but those leaves and organic matter do make a difference!

:)

Dee

You said the only thing that grew well in your garden was a hydrangea. Hydrangeas prefer very acidic soil (with a low pH around 5.2). do you know the pH of your soil? many plants prefer a less acidic soil.

Knowing the PH & other aspects of your soil is always helpful & fall is a good time to test to amend the soil & let it settle in. I have mine tested every few years. Your state extension office will most likely have soil test kits available for a small fee. (I think Penn State, my local extension charges around $12) They are easy to use & you'll receive an easy to understand report of your soil conditions & it will reccomend what to use to improve it for the plants you want to grow

Sorry. My misunderstanding. I’ve never grown them. Would the color of the hydrangea flowers suggest the pH?

"Would the color of the hydrangea flowers suggest the pH?"

Yes, but only for H macrophylla. In my area people hanker after blue because pink is the boring default!

"... In my area people hanker after blue because pink is the boring default!...

Interesting. I would love to have a pink hydrangea. My macs are all blue! To me, THAT is boring since everyone seems to have blue hydrangeas lol.

:)

Dee

I have three identical, in fact, related, lace cap hydrangeas planted in a row. The middle one is pink, the other two are blue. I figure the pink one is planted in a pocket of concrete or something.

I dislike pink anything so the bluer the better in my book!! But we have pretty acidic soil conditions so a blue mac is pretty standard here.

It takes time for any top amendments to improve the soil below. So certainly is worthwhile but meanwhile you need to to plant things that line the existing soil below that. I have done lasagne, the top additions and digging some amendments depending on the garden location. So what happens over several years is that I might later be able to plant things, move things, as the soil changes more favorably.

Also I find a spading fork seems useful , though I’ve not “ studied “ it of course, because I can stick it in & create sort of connections in soil layers without a lot of root disturbance, plus many of my areas are rocky & so it’s difficult to do regular spading without hitting rocks, or ive layered/ raised on a rocky- ish area without digging out as many as would be ideal, because… it’s hard.