I've had very good success with raised beds adding a lot of amendments such as mushroom composte and manure and several years ago learned about biochar-adding charcoal to and course sand to the soil. There are numerous websites. The porous charcoal acts as a nursery for beneficial microbes. I mulch heavily with grass clippings and between the earthworms and microbes the clippings are broken down and feed the soil. My neighbors are always annoyed how much larger my plants are than from their traditional roto tilled patch. I dug my heavy clay soil once as an initial breakup and it is easily 24 inches deep now and very crumbly.
I was also pleasantly surprised after a nasty hail storm that turned my squash & cucumber plants into mush the remaining stems put out new leaves and the squash has even produced a new fruit 3 weeks after while the neighbor's same type of plants withered and died.
Drop me a line if you like.