In my other garden I had heavy clay so had to add gypsum. Here I have some elevated beds that were here already and I am creating more with a few berms so that the iris and other plants drain well. The soil seems nice and loose. One area is lower and looks like it may retain more water so I need to add more soil. (Did you ever see my blog where we added tons of dirt already?)
This winter will be my first here so we'll see. We have our rainy season Nov. through about March or April, then dry all summer. That's where the sprinklers and hand watering take over. At my other house we averaged 15" of rain a year during that rainy season, here it's supposed to be 40", we are closer to the coast.
We have tons of nurseries here, it's ideal growing conditions and I recently got a resale license so can buy wholesale too, dangerous! LOL!