Mother Earth News is still around, but I let my subscription drop. They got a little too green for my tastes. (Still a lot of good info in there though.)
Starting a garden in new soil can be an adventure. Expect to work with the plot for three years before it gets into prime shape, and even then it will get better every year. Soils vary from sand to clay, from acid to alkaline. Perfect is probably somewhere right in the middle, which we don't have here in the arid southwest. Our soil is alkaline, and where we have been gardening the last 12 years, is heavy river bottom clay.
Soils in the east tend to be more acid and loamy. Acid soils benefit from addition of lime, which just makes my soil worse (more alkaline).
The good news though, is that there is a single fix for any soil problem. Compost. It will loosen up clay soils, cause sandy soils to hold moisture better, balance PH. It doesn't matter what soil you have, compost will help it.
Horse manure is great, except it can contain some nasty weed or pasture grass seeds unless composted. Grass clippings help mulch and add nitrogen, but don't have much organic matter.
I have a huge compost pile. Everything goes into it, manure, grass clippings, weeds, household garbage, wood chips, dead rock squirrels (I'm not kidding), you name it. I turn it occasionally with my loader, and in the spring I spread it and till it in. About three years after I started gardening the spot I now use, the soil finally started looking like garden soil. Every year it gets better.
Also, something I learned from Basic Small Farming; your compost doesn't necessarily have to be 'finished' to use. Partially composted material in the soil will continue to break down, without negatively affecting the nitrogen level in the soil, no matter what conventional "gardening" books say.
