If you went crazy for the full 3" depth - about 18 yards... which is a good size dump truck full... An alternative (If you have a pick up truck) is to just bring in a couple loads of fine ground mulch or compost and spread it on top of the soil as budget/time allows... just sling it evenly across the whole thing... The absolute minimum you really need enough to cover it with 1/4" -- but that's probably only 2 yards worth... It will go a long way towards getting it softened up and bringing life back... While you are at it -- get a soil analysis done by the UGA extension office... You will probably find that the reason nothing grows well is that your soil is Mineral Deficient -- not that it is solid clay.... The next thing you can do at home is that is a soil structure test (The test with your dirt in a mayonnaise jar full of water...) You will find that a *Little* clay goes a really long way towards making what everybody calls "Georgia Red Clay" soils... and that for the most part, the USDA actually considers our soils to be "Loam" and "Sandy loam" and "Sandy clay loam" -- which are mostly a mixture of Sand + Silt + a little clay... NOT mostly clay with a little sand and silt as you would guess by looking at how it packs up your shoes... The good news about this is that our soils can be very fertile if we can get the Organic Material and minerals back into them... The bad news is that they are Ancient and Heavily Eroded (Leached out)... and so they won't grow anything right if until we do... Thanks John

I don't think you can unless the area is very small. I pick areas of my yard throughout the year and just start dumping stuff there---seaweed, pumpkins, straw, leaves, etc.---deep layers. Then I move to another area. While it may be possible to overamend a small area, I've never seen any evidence that my yard is overamended anywhere. I guess I'd stop if I did. My vegetable garden gets at least eight inches of (loose) seaweed applied overall annually. I use it for mulch. I have used tons of seaweed in various gardens for 34 years. This year I had so much seaweed, I gave my last haul away to a friend for Christmas. Rockweed is not difficult to access here in Maine. I go to the Deer Isle causeway, drive my truck along the beach, and fill it up. Then I put bagged seaweed on top of that. I tried to singlehandedly clean up the causeway this fall, but I couldn't do it. I'm a little annoyed with myself because I buried the clover on my side yard under seaweed this past fall. Now I'm going to start beekeeping and wish I had that clover.

Well, IMO "luck" doesn't play a part in creating fertile soil. Many of us have spent years and a lot of work to have healthy soil with lots of worms. I've never seen an earthworm in my compost tho, even when it's not very hot. I started with heavy clay soil with only a very thin layer of topsoil and by amending it with cattle/horse manure, mushroom manure, sawdust, and even 'topsoil' I then grew cover crops which can greatly improve the soil. We didn't have large rocks in our garden area but I've handpicked a ton of smaller ones. The best way I've found to increase the population of earthworms is to bury raw kitchen trimmings between plants. The worms find them, enjoy their banquet, and reproduce. I think one might have worms in a raised bed unless you have used landscape cloth under it for weed control. However in a hot climate it may be too warm for worms depending on the depth of the raised bed. If I had a yard with all those rocks I'd hire someone with a skid steer and scarifier and rockhound attachments to remove those rocks. Otherwise they'll be a continuous problem.

Wavering on replying, trying to be polite and stay on topic. I think a lot of regulars here have already read about NPK and know what a soil test is. You don't really have to reinvent the wheel, there's a balance between writing your own content and simply reading/sharing what has already been explained. Regarding the 'chemical push,' in short everything is case by case devil in the details in my view. It would depend on what soil test, what is measures, who does it, what they are recommending, have they demonstrated examples of their work, are they benefiting financially from what is happening, and so on. It's not that there is a chemical side and an anti-vaxxer side, it just actually depends on what it is. The science and scientific process is extremely important, but if you are getting so mired in the details and big words that you don't even understand what all the terms numbers and graphs mean, and it's blocking your view of just looking at the dirt, crumple the paper and bin it IMO.