Leromeanswered grow question 2 hours ago Water carefully & slowly in multiple small doses, use living soil (the living biology like bacteria, fungi, insects, worms,... etc will keep your soil fluffy and spongy), add topdressing as food which will leak saponins into the ground, which act as a "glue" making your soil crumbly and fluffy together with the microorganisms, use a watering agent like "Yuccah BAC" or Aloe Vera extract which also works through saponins.
Also adding a mineralic/inorganic structural component like pumice or perlite to your soil helps with reducing shrinking of the soil. Technically a substrate made out of 50/50 peat/pumice can not significantly shrink (if the pumice has a chunkier size) because the pumice is persistent and if the peat decomposes it will just fill out the pores that are there anyways in between the pumice...