do raised beds take more water

I have white goey/hard clay that was brought in before this house was built. I am debating on wether or not to contiue to do this or to try raised beds. How much more water do the raised beds require? I'm wondering if I could keep it watered.
Would you put down a weed barrier and then add 6" or top soil?

Since your current soil is clay and the soil in the raised beds would presumably drain better, you might find that you need to water a bit more. But it shouldn't be an unmanageable amount of water...and many plants don't like wet feet and would have trouble thriving in clay soil since it holds onto too much water for too long. So in the long run I think you'd be happier with the raised beds, or else you could work a bunch of organic amendments into the existing soil to improve drainage.

As far as the weed barrier--a weed barrier with 6" of soil over top of it is not going to help prevent weeds (they will have no trouble taking hold in the 6" of soil that's above the barrier) and if you're growing deeper rooted things like shrubs or perennials it'll hurt their ability to get their roots down deeper. If you want to use a weed barrier, you'd put in the soil first, then put the weed barrier on top of the soil in the raised bed, cut holes in it to plant your plants, and then add a layer of mulch over top.

I use some raised beds for some of my growing and i live in Tennessee home of the Red Clay LOL
I do water when it dont rain but late evening no more than normal though since it retains water well .however you might want to add other soil mixtures to your soil to help with water dranage or vice versa depending on what you need.

Here in north Texas it is pretty much all raised beds since clay soils don't hold water & are prone to flooding. With raised beds you can add good planting soil & it will drain very well. With just clay soil you are limited to what you can grow.

Hay Cindy dont give up yet click on my Name and read my blog The Garden Impossable . like I said I live in Middle Tenn. Home of the Red Clay folks round here actualy make pots and bowls and things liks that out of this stuff. throw a lil lime on it and a few hogs for a few months and you have a good pond or lake. anyway take a look at the blog and i'll have some pictures up in a day or two ....it's been raining for the last 4 days so i havent been able to weed it and dont want that mess in the picture if you can understand LOL keep your head up and as always think positive I did and God Blessed My Families Efforts.

Hey SGT... you are quite fortunate to be able to grow such great things.. yes I did take a peek at your page. We have the yucky gray clay here & only TX natives will grow in it..but then we are even advised to have a little bit of a raised bed in order to get them established since clay moves is may kill the roots of the plants. I am going to try my hand at growing TX native plants next year.