Your responses are a great help. I think I have resolved my own confusion about what I am asking or think I need to know. The clay soil debate is very interesting and amusing. Who would have thought it? The mushroom soil is a real suggestion I have forgotten. We have lots of mushroom farms around here and that soil has been recommended to us before. I'll duck on this one, but this garden is my wife's passion of long standing. I like fresh veggies but otherwise am pretty disinterested. I do have a soil testing lab, mostly to determine mineral fractions and permeability for septic systems. So I am more interested in other aspects of the ground than she, and I don't know if either of us believe the other knows what's happening. My concern with all this is the garden drainage. With shallow silt clay with heavy mottles, there are obvioous shallow anaerobic conditions conditions to inhibit plant growth. I have no idea what garden plants thrive under what conditions. I wanted to drain the garden plot of excess water and then work as you all have suggested to improve the friability and fertility of the native soil. My wife now wants a raised bed garden, more for looks than for avoiding the water situation, which still bothers me with the possibility of wicking and saturation or at least of creating a fairly impermeable horizon in the beds. Of course, I worry too much and tend to over-design (and poorly). So the plan now is for me to drain a 10x10-foot plot using perforated drain pipe to a cistern that can be pumped out easily to my pond. That should ease the water problem. Then the beds (four 4x4) with mushroom soil and whatever else she knows we need. We each get to play in the dirt and hopefully not to have clay wars! Simple and reasonable? Dry out the ground, forget the issues with clay soil structure and organic content and just enjoy. Am I missing anything, any longer-term effects anyone has experienced? Thanks for helping me get my thoughts together and for the value of your experiences. Great forum, very nice people. Mike

Make sure you are probing the root ball. While clay soils hold lots of water, the planting mix from the container has no clay at all and may dry out quickly. It's important to keep the root ball moist (but not soggy) until roots have chance to establish in the surrounding soil. This summer you will probably need to water at least once a week. Applying a layer of mulch on top of the soil will slow evaporation and keep the soil cooler.

Hi Azura, Hardy sweet peas (Lathyrus latifolius) can take the sun. Do you know they have little to none of the wonderful fragrance of the annual sweet peas? IÂm planning to plant some along my "privacy" lattice panels (in sun) for one of my perennial vines so I donÂt have to start all over each year with annuals. Foxglove isnÂt going to like the sun at all out hereÂotherwise it would be perfect. I planted some in mostly shade a few weeks ago that I started from seed this spring, and theyÂre not very happy with the heat either. If you manage to get some of your other plants big enough to cast some shade, you might try planting them right next to the bigger plants. When I posted yesterday, I looked over a couple of the toxic plant lists, and had never realized before that most of the toxic plants are shade plants. Aconitum, monkshood is another very toxic plant that would be great for your purposes, but itÂs for shade too. If I come up with any toxic sun plants that might work for you, IÂll come back and post. Too bad the foxglove wonÂt work! CanÂt you just see all the little buggers laying around having heart attacks! ;-) I almost forgot! I have Campanula glomerata too, and mine isnÂt spreading at all. I love the stuff. There have been different threads on the campanulas in the past, and IÂve always found an amazing discrepancy between which ones will spread for some people, yet be very well mannered for others. The Campanula punctatas are invasive for everybodyÂbut I canÂt seriously recommend you put that in! I think youÂll come back to haunt me some day if I do! Skybird

I'm not sure what I think about posting a question like this to multiple forums simultaneously (I see it also in at least Perennials, Shrubs, and California Gardening) but this forum is definitely not the place for questions about plants that are not native to your area.