My wife and I just started a garden. The soil was incredibly compacted- I exaggerate only slightly when I say I could pour a glass of water on the ground and it would go 10 feet without absorbing into the ground. We prepped the soil (approx 300 square feet) w/ 2 yards of compost and 1 yard of mulch, let that cook for a couple of week, and then worked it in to a depth of 12 inches below ground surface. Got the soil really well mixed and fine. So...

problem I'm having now is that we can't seem to keep the garden moist, and it's not even the real hot part of the season here. I've been watering at night and in the early AM, approximately 4 gallons each time per 12'X3' bed (6 of them), applying 2 gallons, letting it soak in, then 2 more. So I don't think I'm losing too much to evaporation (although there's no mulch cover), and am thinking I have excessive drainage.

Any thoughts? Should I water more (we're in a drought here, so I'm loathe to do that). Kind of at a loss.

Thanks

Get a moisture meter.

You probably have adequate drainage and organic material, but you never really got the soil solidly moistened so you are dumping inadequate amounts of water onto really thirsty dirt and going nowhere.

You need to really SOAK the soil less often instead of dribbling tiny quantities onto it daily. Take a soaker hose of some sort, lay it out on the beds to get good coverage and give them a couple hours of slow soaking ... until your moisture meter is showing that multiple spots at least a foot away from the hose are wet as far down as you can stick the meter. Not damp, WET. Then mulch the heck out of the beds and monitor the moisture. When it drops to "Damp", soak the heck out of it again. Repeat as needed.

As a reference point, I have a 30x8 foot garden area on a drip system that's getting about 50 gallons a day to keep the plants happy. Granted, it's Phoenix in June, but vegetables don't tolerate drought.

I'm in the desert where its hot and windy. Putting a few inches of lawn clippings on top of my raised beds helped tremendously.

I do some drip irrigation and also some hand watering where needed.