From the description of your soil and conditions, I think a raised bed/s would be the way to go. They will drain better, your soil is certainly better. Plus the benifit of not having to bend over as much.
One thing about the canned seeds, I have looked into these quite a bit and found I didn't care for the seed mix variety. I would prefer to select my own types of seed to fit what we like aand what does the best in our area. A lot of the canned seeds are general that may or may not be suitable for where you are. Just my .02 on that.