I am in central Ks zone 6b living on a farm that I am the 4rth generation to live here. I am having a difficult year trying to master a new area of my career and trying to set up a new raised bed garden with concrete bricks. I am battling bermuda grass which has been the most difficult problem here as every root that gets broken off and not picked out creates a new plant. There are also many elm trees on the property which drop several thousand seeds per tree every spring, and a plague of grasshoppers qhich have presently decimated most of my garden plants this summer. I have had heavy losses of plants between drought and grasshoppers and pill bugs. The soil here on the farm is a clay which has some loam mixed in with very little hummus and gets rock hard like concrete. As I soak then dig down a couple spades to dig out the bermuda then crumble and pick out the bermuda roots I have been adding chopped wood branches and paper and a small amt of sand, as much compost as possible and using wood chips for mulch and straw. It is slow going and my health has not been great so does not move along quickly