How do I start garden beds? Our soil type, I believe, is clay and poorly drained. Any suggestions on how to get started please.

• Clay soils are rich with organic matter but they are dense and so slow draining in winter and they bake hard in summer. 
• Improving clay soils is a slow process that takes time (years) with the addition of gypsum to break up the organic matter in the clay soil, compost and organic matter to improve soil structure.
• The quickest way to grow in clay soils is to raise the garden beds up to improve drainage.
• Raising the soil level by creating garden beds by placing edging, bricks or timber around a garden bed and filling with garden mix and adding channels for the water to move away from the garden bed
• A more efficient way is to build a raised garden bed. 
• Raised garden beds can purchased ready to assemble from hardware stores and garden centres or make your own from timber, metal, recycled materials or plastic bins - anything that will contain the soil without collapsing.
• Make the beds at least 50cm deep and so there is enough soil for good water holding capacity and for plant roots to grow into.
• The beds don’t need to be lined with plastic, unless you want to do this, but leave the base uncovered and bare soil exposed.
• Place a layer of cardboard in the base to keep invading weeds or grasses out. Earthworms will eventually break this down.
• Start adding compost and any organic garden material to build up the soil structure.
• Suitable filling for garden beds are compost, pea straw, barley straw, lawn clippings (make sure they have not been treated with a lawn weed spray), rotted fallen leaves, clean top soil or fill, animal manure such as sheep pellets or chicken and sheep pellets, aged saw dust, bark, or rotted hay.
• Add a layer of Tui Garden mix on top to plant into, this contains everything your plants need to get the best start.
• If you don’t want to build raised garden beds, and plant directly into clay, make sure the hole for planting is at least twice the size of the root ball diameter and filled with a quality growing mix such as Tui Garden Mix, Citrus and Fruit mix or Vegetable mix.