Do the soil jar test to determine your soil's composition in terms of how much of it is clay/sand/silt. That will help you know if it needs something added to it to improve its tilth.
You don't need to add peat because peat is "dead" and all it does is improve drainage.
Add compost because it is biologically alive. You can add manure, but the manure should be composted before it is tilled into the soil because composting at the right temperatures will kill bacteria (like E. coli) that's in the manure which is very important. Composting manure also should kill weed seeds which means less weeds to worry about during the growing season.
Also, you can almost never go wrong with adding any sort of organic matter like compost, manure, chopped-up or shredded leaves, grass clippings, etc. to the soil. In our climate it is hard to have too much organic matter because the summer heat causes all organic matter to break down pretty quickly. A common gardener's catch phrase that sums up that process is this: "Heat eats compost."
Most of the information that will be in the "garden" posts are from different books, blogs or forums that I read that I think will help "ME" in my garden - it is not "professional" advice just more or less notes that I would like compiled in one spot.
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