This forum is intended for discussions regarding the Master Gardening program and other volunteer gardening opportunities - it is not meant to be a general "answer" forum. Rather, there are dozens of other very specific GW forums designed to offer answers to your specific questions. I'd suggest you take this to the Soils forum for a very thorough and detailed explanation.

Here is a link that might be useful: Soils, Composts and Muches

Hi!
I live in UT too, and the quality of our soil can be poor.
What you need to do to amend your soil depends on what part of UT or even what part of SL Valley you might live in.
When the weather warms up, take a fit full of your dirt and make a fist.
Then see what it does.
If it clumps together, you need to add more organic goodies, ie, compost(I will tell you how to do that in a minute)
if it falls back into your hand, you probably have too much sand.
Your ideal would be a nice loamy mixture that neither clumps or falls apart.
This is a fine balance we all are looking for, nature rarely makes for us.
Another thing to take into consideration is what is the Ph of your soil, here in UT, it tends to be more alkiline.
This is fine if you are just going to grow native plants or those that favor alkiline conditions.

To compost, you can find a nice secluded, but easy to access area of your yard to put your composted materials.
THis would consist of just about anything from your kitchen that does NOT have fats or meats in it.
So all your veggie and fruit left overs, egg shells, coffee grounds(if you drink coffee). I have rabbits and chickens, and since rabbit are vegetarians, I put their litter from the cages in it, I put a scoop of chicken poop in once in a while too. Shredded leaves and yard clippings, as long as you do not put too much to throw off the balance. Also make sure that everything is small. Banana peels compost horribly slow, and tend to get hard and dry if not chopped up before being added.
every 2 or so weeks I turn it a few times and get eveything mixed better.
This helps the bacteria that is breaking everything down get the needed air.
Make sure that your compost pile is moist, but not wet.
The internal tempurate is real important for the breaking down process.
Another thing that you can do is compost with worms.
Same composting things are added to a box(I have in the past used a huge, long plastic rectanglar shaped box) with small holes drilled in the bottom. worms can be purchased at most garden centers or online.
They work incredably fast in breaking the material down, and is kind of fun to do, especially if you have kids that like creepy crawly stuff!
Another thing tha you can do is call the local extention office and ask them for more info.
USU-- home of the Aggies(as in Agriculture) would be a great resource to you also, even if you do not live in Cache Valley.
Good luck and happy gardening!