[kevn357]

Originally Posted by dice

Use hipped up rows (Google is pretty useless for finding a good
photo of this; imagine the clay dug out of paths up to a foot deep
and piled up between them; you plant in the raised part).

Alpaca manure is great stuff. I would pile it up 6 inches deep by a
couple of feet wide in rows where I wanted to plant, then dig out
the paths between rows 6 inches deep up to the edge of the rows
of piled up alpaca manure, and put that on top of the alpaca manure.
Good to go. Plant in the clay right on top of the manure.

(You can worry about finding stuff to line the paths with any time.
Straw will work. Shredded leaves will work. Etc. Putting down strips
of cardboard or several layers of newspaper in the paths and then
mulching over them with something heavy enough to keep them
from blowing away in the wind will help keep weeds down in the
paths. You can also plant a "living mulch" in the paths and walk on
that, but it needs to be something that will not spread sideways into
the rows, does not get tall enough to shade the crop, and can survive
being waterlogged when it rains and walked on as you maintain the
rows.)

You can consider amending with stuff to correct any deficiencies
found in a soil test or to adjust pH as a long term project that this
year's garden does not have to wait on. You can do that stuff in
the fall, after harvest, or if it is products like gypsum that can rain
in, you can just scatter it on top of the garden any time.

Consider planting tillage radish in between plants that are still
in the beds from the summer crops. It needs to be planted around
Labor Day. (It has a serious taproot that will break up the soil
below what were the rows, improving the drainage, organic matter
content, etc.) The top growth simply gets left in place, turned in,
mulched over, or whatever you do with the rows next spring
(simply covering it with a new layer of alpaca manure is fine).

This seems like a solid strategy. One question though? How will the alpaca manure affect fertilization? I think I remember reading that it is minimal.