thanks for the info, and yes most of it is new garden space this year. It is the first time I have planted something else in the same space, in the same year. So I am worried that the soil is "worn out" or something. The buckwheat sounds like a good idea, I have been wondering about cover crops. It is hard to keep track of the timetable for "when" to do "what." Here it is mid August and it is just now starting to set off alarms in my brain that I need to get stuff planted! Unfortunately I am using the back of a church lot for my garden-- I mean unfortunately because there is a big hotel/apartments next door, to the south, 4 stories with a peaked roof on top of that, and that is on top of a 10-15 foot hill up from the garden space. So when the sun goes south, the church backyard does not get *any* sunlight for about 3 months in the winter. I had ideas of planting a cover crop to occupy space in the winter and become fertilizer in the spring but not sure if it would even survive. Although spinach did survive last year... when the sun hit it in March it went crazy and turned into this towering spinach jungle. So maybe a cover crop would survive...

I have the same clay crud you have. It takes about four or five years from starting to amend an untouched bed to getting workable soil, and it's always going to be a "heavy" soil, so you're not going to have a whole lot of success with things like blueberries, lilies, salvias or certain lavender species, all of which require sandy soil. If you absolutely must have these plants and don't want containers, you can always play gravedigger for a day and dig out everything to five or six feet deep and replace it all with topsoil, but that's not the most practical of solutions - and I do speak from experience! Here's what we did to deal with the clay: Year 1: Rototill beds and dig out any offending plant roots (you'd be surprised how much of this you'll have to do, especially if you have lots of trees or shrubs). Till in several bags of Clay Buster (a soil amendment you can get at most garden centers) and/or peat moss or pulverized pine bark (clay is also highly alkaline - ours tested out at pH 8.0 in places!) Add a 2" layer of composted manure on top of that and tamp down; mulch after planting. In fall, remove or till in dead plants and mulch. Add as many fallen leaves as you can rake up to beds. Year 2: Your bed should be double-diggable by this point, so you can avoid the Rototiller. Add several more bags of peat moss or pulverized pine bark (both are good soil looseners) and dig that in. Add more compost on top of that. Plant, mulch, add leaves and dig under in fall. Year 3: You'll probably want to pH test your soil before adding anything more acidic (unless you absolutely must have blue hydrangeas or other acid lovers). Otherwise, same procedure as the first and second years. Year 4: Don't do a lot of spring digging in this year unless you have to, as you're looking to build soil structure now. Just add a thick layer of compost to the top and tamp it down. Plant, mulch, dig under in fall. Year 5: Done! You'll want to add compost or your choice of organic matter yearly to maintain the beds, and of course, mulch is your friend! Hope this helps!

i wouldnt till it. tilling opens up a whole other can of worms. (get it ?:) not knowing the exact site, i would recommend this... keep the dead sod inplace to help protect from erosion. dont over spray thru the summer, let the stuff grow before u kill it (not letting them flower ofc.). dont spray just to kill out annuals, spray to kill the longer lived stuff. mow/ weedwack the annuals and general growth back. put in hay bails where u think u have water flow issues. and in the fall, throw the seed out and drag the soil with a drag (some ppl just drag around an old bedspring, i happen to like to get a bit more mixage. i have an actual drag. a hard rake will do the same cept it sux to hardrake a 1/3 an acre of soddy soil :) froggy

What is your native soil like? Black gumbo or sand or something else? Topsoil is such a crap shoot, there is literally no standard so it could end up being worse than the native soil. I would err on the side of using 'landscaper mix' or some sort of composty mulch in the beds. That will help loosen clay soil or provide organic matter to hold moisture if you are in sand. You might not even need that depending on how rich the select fill is. I really dislike landscape fabric. I have used it in a few places but it doesn't seem to deter weeds or Bermuda grass. I prefer cardboard beneath the mulch. At least when you pull weeds it doesn't leave black 'flags' all over the garden. I think that 2-3 inches of mulch will be safe for the tree roots. There is my 2 cents worth of advice :-)