A top dressing of manure (Black Kow or something similar) will do your bed a world of good. It will greatly improve the texture of your soil. Put down about two inches over the top of the entire bed. If you do this annually, in two or three years, you'll never know it was clay to begin with. I say amen to the mulch. It will prevent the clay from hardening into bricks, not to mention keeping moisture in and weeds down.

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!

Um, no, I don't think ON the driveway would look nearly as good as NEAR the driveway LOL! You are so right about actually picking the dang thing up... When I finally managed to loosen it from the ground (mind you, I was by myself and rapidly running out of daylight), I tried real hard to remember everything I have ever heard about picking heavy objects up the "correct" way and proceeded to do my best to lift it - and was unable to budge it! OMG if anyone had caught the sight I must have made - Miss Grace, I am NOT! I almost fell over, head first right into the middle of the hosta it was so heavy!!! Thankfully, after carefully picking the soil away from the roots for about 6" all around, it lightened it up enough that I could finally get it into my wheelbarrow and move it to the front yard. Man, if I had just thought to have someone videotape me, I might have made the that TV show about the planets funniest videos and made some money to buy more hosta! BettyLu

Irises shouldn't fall over after being transplanted as long as you cut the foliage back to 6-8", If they have no roots at all, you may need to stake them until they grow new ones, but typically the trader will have left enough root on to hold the plant upright with trimmed leaves. Assuming these are bearded irises, they prefer very well-drained, friable soil (raised beds are ideal) in full sun. They are tolerant of a fairly wide range of soil pH, from moderately acidic to moderately alkaline. If your soil is virgin to irises, chances are it doesn't need much in the way of fertilizer to keep them happy. It wouldn't hurt to have your soil analyzed through your local county extension service, though, to see exactly where your soil stands nutritionally. The soil test will tell you exactly what, if anything, you need to add for optimal plant performance. Avoid use of high-nitrogen fertilizers or amendments. High nitrogen can promote rapid, soft growth that is particularly susceptible to bacterial soft rot. It also promotes leaf growth at the expense of bloom. Plant beardeds so the tops of the rhizomes are level with or slightly below the soil surface. Be very careful not to overwater bearded irises. One deep soaking after planting should be all they need to get going unless you live in a very arid or drought-prone area. Overwatering is another almost surefire way of promoting rot in beardeds. It's also best when watering to use soaker hoses rather than overhead watering. Early next spring just as the irises are starting to grow, you may want to consider applying Merit, since you do live in iris borer territory. Happy irising, Laurie