Bless your heart, I have been there! We moved in to a newly built home three and a half years ago and the situation you are describing is virtually identical to mine. I did it both ways. Some areas, I dug, tilled, and amended with bags of composted manure,hauled-in organic mix, and anything else I could get my hands on. Other areas, I dug holes, mixed in some manure and planted back into the holes. Here's the pros and cons I have experienced. In shrub borders where I just dug holes, mixed in about half a bag of manure and planted, the shrubs were a little slow off the starting block, but are doing fine now, and already need pruning. However, they are on a slope, so the water drains well, and I have added 4 to 6 inches of organic mulch around them each and every year. In areas where you will be gardening perennials, annuals, etc., you absolutely do want to till and amend the entire area. Otherwise, you will be fighting that sticky nasty stuff everytime you want to add a single plant. The biggest thing I want to warn you about is the issue of drainage. I lost an entire border of dogwoods, because I didn't set them high enough. If you don't improve the drainage of an entire area, rainwater will settle into your holes and drown your plants, especially if you have a wet winter. So...plant dogwoods, camellias, azaleas, gardenias, and probably more HIGH in the hole. That way, they can get the benefit of the water, but still breathe. Just mound soil up around their roots. They will settle some, their roots will break into the native soil around the hole and will be fine before you know it. On the flip side, make sure that you pay proper attention to supplemental watering in our hot dry summers. It takes two years for new shrubs and trees to be well established, longer if you start with really small plants. I have found that nature is your helper as time goes on. Even though you lost your topsoil and what was left is compacted into nasty sticky clay, if you will keep the area mulched with good organic material, top dress your beds in very early spring or late fall before adding your mulch, the wonders of earthworms and soil organisms will help you over time and your plantings will find the good stuff and grow. Relax and don't kill yourself. Take it an area at a time, enjoy the process, and before you know it, you'll have the garden of your dreams.

i too cleaned up and was thrilled to see a group of crocus in bloom, considering just the week before we had several inches of snow. also, all the tulips and daffs are pushing up the green. i have been out and about any day there was a hint of decent weather to get a head start. i have (terrible) neighbors that allow all their weeds and bushes and whatnot to grow out of control and over the fence and it all comes creeping into my vegetable garden. i finally put my foot down and told them they have to clean it. (i wouldn't mind if it was something decent, but it's ivy and junk). the veggie garden is the last area i have to clean up and will be getting it done this week. i make sure i don't over-do it, although i spend hours out there, but top it off with a good long soak in the tub. i already have many seeds started that i wintersowed and yesterday i would see some of the jugs have sprouts. spring is certainly in the air. gardening is indeed, one of the best remedies for whatever ails ya!

It is all so very tragic and heart wrenching - does remind you how powerless we are as humans against some of what mother nature doles out. I too have been very struck by the way the Japanese people have responded to this adversity in comparison to the American victims of Katrina based on the story the media presented on both. Something I saw on TV showed a petite, older couple in their 70's back at their home cleaning the floor on their hands and knees with a rag. My vision of Katrina was of people walking around complaining about their plight and the fact the government hadn't come to their rescue. I also saw images of the sleeping area in a shelter for homeless Japanese that was completely tidy and orderly. Katrina - shelter looked like a garbage dump. Certainly some very significant differences in culture if what the media depicts is accurate. I visited Japan a while back. Before I left I was reading about how little crime they have and how you wouldn't get your purse stolen even if you left it unattended. Well, I didn't mean to but I did leave my purse sitting by a chair in the hotel lobby and walked away. A while later I panicked of course that I didn't have my purse. I knew right where I'd left it - went back - still sitting there untouched. I loved Japan and the people I met there - so sad that the Japanese people are suffering now.

My mil died at age 99 and never had an ache or pain, she was interested in everything even though, in the last five years of her life, she went blind. She still knew every politician and all the news of the day, listened to music and books on tape. She didn't move around much in her last years as she never adapted to being blind but, prior to that, she was physically active. She started every day off with two espressos and fried hot hot chili peppers, so hot her face would turn red and tears flowed. What was the secret? Who knows, she was orphaned at age 10 when her mother and seven brothers and sisters died of the Spanish flu in one week. Just that fact alone shows she had a strong immune system with death all around her. I think all people who live longer than average believe it's their dna. My Mom was one of eleven children. All of them lived to their nineties and two are still alive!! One is 99 and the other is 100 so go figure. Your friend has great DNA.