100 foot by 100 foot is a good sized garden. If you are starting a fresh plot with little to no organic matter i would recommend bring in 15-20 yards of compost to mix into the top 10-12 inches. For a plot that size i also recommend renting a tractor or hiring a service to come in and rip the native clay to break it up initially, then disc it (breaks soil into finer chunks), then have your compost delivered and till it in. If you intend to do garden this large plot year after year you should also invest in a good rototiller to help the process along. Some people are anti-till, but that is pure hogwash. Without a tiller you have no hope of enriching your soil in a garden of that size in YOUR LIFETIME. Sure earthworms and microbes will do a lot of the work but you need to mechanically mix in signficant organic matter which is not practical by just dumping it on top and shovel mixing it in without breaking your back or taking FOREVER. You will have to repeat the importing of compost for several years in a row to build up the soil. Clay is not bad assuming it has sufficent organic matter mixed in. Clay is good for holding moisture and has signficant nutrients in it. Don't be dismayed. I did what you are hinting at 10 years ago in a garden i started from scratch.

I read somewhere that one way to get rid of wild onions would be to dig the dirt up and pass it through a screen, then you can toss the bulbs that get screened out. I'm thinking this would be best done when the soil is dry and crumbly. As for improving the soil tilling is one option but be aware that it can bring weed seeds to the surface and next thing you know you have a weed plantation. Clay is usually quite fertile, and if you have or can attract earthworms they will do a great job of breaking up the soil. In your place I would just put a layer of wet cardboard or wet newspapers as a weed barrier, then put organic matter or mulch over that. Then start planting, pushing holes through the cardboard/newspaper. I like to put a bit of one of the Espoma Tone fertilizers in each planting hole since they are slow release and also have good bacteria in them. As for plants, I have clay soil, and all sorts of plants love it. Perennials: In the sun I have purple coneflowers and black-eyed susans, sedum, lamb's ears, bachelor buttons, lily-turf; in the shade there's hollyhocks and astilbes. There's really a lot of choices, it would help if you knew if your soil happens to be acidic or basic. In any case, for now avoid plants that say "requires excellent drainage" or words to that effect. I love my peonies (but wait til fall to plant these -- they are tubers but shallow planted ). You can plant bulbs in the fall too but don't plant them one by one in clay or your arm will fall off. Reserves a part of the bed for them (maybe plant annuals in it now) and in late fall dig a wide hole and toss the bulbs in at the right depths (pointed in the right way LOL). The lowest planted ones first, then cover with dirt, followed by the shallower pointed ones, etc). It will be really nice next spring. Shrubs - red-twig dogwood? In NJ I'm guessing also azaleas & hydrangeas (see if they grow in your neighborhood). Roses are supposed to thrive in clay but this is the first year I am trying a couple after researching hardy disease resistant kinds. Don't make my mistake and not have any evergreen plants with your perennials, btw -- looks desolate in winter. Speaking of not spending an arm or a leg, did you know that lowes will put torn bags of mulch and amendments in clear "product recovery bags" and sell them for 50% off? I didn't know this until last week -- now I keep checking for new goody bags. :) Here is a link that might be useful: one of the

I did a few years of pottery and ceramics competition back in high school. I have no idea what clay "ends" might be, as it's a malleable material rather than a stock block like wood, but everything gets recycled. You have leftovers- it gets thrown into what's called a "pug mill" which kneads the air bubbles out of the clay and incorporates it back into one mass (or you can do that by hand- which is what we did in class). Dried up pieces- just add water. That can be made into "slip", which is just watered down clay that is used as a glue of sorts when joining pieces, or it can be reconstituted, but in general- you don't let much get to that state unless there's cracking before it's fired (which you reduce by wrapping in dampened paper towels, controling temp and humidity, etc.). Once it's fired... well, then it's cerami and useless to you anyway, I guess.

I don't quite follow what you mean when you say your compost has broken down into clay soil. Compost is organic matter, humus, and clay is mineral-based soil. The two may be mixed somewhat, but for sure a compost pile cannot become clay soil. It may be just a very finely grained humus, which when wet can be a little slimy like clay. It's still quite usable. Scoop it up and dig it into your garden. Red Wigglers are used for indoor worm bins and do not survive well in the soil anyway. It sounds like your pile decomposed just fine with out any help. In fact, you shouldn't have to add anything to a well balanced compost pile. Worms are actually not the biggest decomposers in compost, either. I have clay soil too, and I move my bins around between batches because the soil underneath is improved by the compost.