you ought to try old filter pads as a planting medium. lay it out, put your seeds on top and cover it with dirt. Even better if you are starting seedlings for transplanting into pots. Put it in a shallow tray, poke the seeds into it, cut it into sections with scissors when it's time to transplant. Fantastic rooting medium.

Also a newbie here. I have been at my property here in northeast Ohio for 3 years this summer and have extremely hard clay. I don't know they type, but it will break your back if you try to double dig it. I started out doing the dig a hole amend and plant (bath tub) routine the first year and haven't had much success, obviously. What I have been doing, last year and currently, is digging at least a shovel and a half deep and removing the hard thick rock/clay casting from my shovel blade. I leave the top 6 inches or so that is darker, however will still mold into whatever shape your heart desires. I have been throwing the rock hard clay in the back yard near the woods and will grade it out later while enhancing it with leaf mold from my yard. To the remaining soil I add several bags of cow manure and peat moss. I then work that in with a small garden tiller. Just bought a honda fg1100 and turn about 8-10 inches of the soil together. I keep doing this until the soil becomes really dark and I can see some of the clay forming small little round balls. I also take some in my hand and squeeze it to see if it stays formed or falls apart. I may have to wait a few days and come back to add a few bags more. I just bought a bag of pelleted gypsum and will be giving that a try this week with the method I described. I don't know how this is going to work in the long run. It could end up reverting back to the sculpture-like density clay it was when I started, but I am at least going to give it my best.

hello Jorgen, How about getting a couple of pots filled with this soil and planting a few different seeds in it to get an idea of what will grow. Beans should sprout in a few days. Try some seeds or plants you are interested in growing and see how they do. Also try soaking this soil in a few changes of water to see if that helps the soil rid itself of excess salt or to see if it will make a difference at all. This should give you an inexpensive and relatively fast idea of what you are facing before committing to massive amounts of the soil that may or may not be viable in the future. Best of luck

thanks guys! Barry, yes I admit, I have become obsessed with ponds! This makes 2 or 3 depending on how you look at it. I have 2 preforms, but they are joined together..so is that considered 1 or 2? I don't know, lol. But they just werent enuf for me. Workout? LMFAO!!! Thats a good one! I'm too lazy. I just love to dig :) But, thank you :) I'm leavin the butt kickin comment alone, lol! SJN, I WISH I had some frogs and toads! I havent been able to get my butt down to the creek to get some. DH said the spot he knew of was too grown over now. Argh. Hey, the less clothing the better. Normally I am just in a bathing suit top and shorts. Last year that's how I dug all my beds. Got a good tan! Outdoor showers are cool things..If you do it I hope you don't get stung by any bees or wasps..ouch! lol. Thank you very much EL, I am proud I did it all by myself, I can't wait till it's done. If it doesnt look good at the end..I'll tell everyone DH did it not me, LMAO!!!! Shawn, the fish love it! I can't wait to see it finished either! Been searching craigslist every day to try and get some free stone..no luck so far. I wanna know why stone is so dang expensive? Collielover, the digging took me aprox 9 hours..maybe 10. I took breaks to jump in the pool and have drinks. DH did the cooking & watched the kids for me, but of course they couldn't NOT bug me, lol. I told DH I coulda set up a carnival out front for them, and they'd still bug me every 5 mins,lol. I didnt do anything in the house I was so busy outside..of course noone else did either. Wed night I came in, and said "This place is a disaster, it's terrible" DH said "Yeah but the pond looks good" lol Theresa, I was gonna email you today..was a lil worried you hadnt been on in a couple days & you didnt answer my email I sent the other day. Glad your here! Hope all is well! Yes, I am going to keep the ponds seperate. DH wanted me to connect them and everyone wanted a long winding stream connecting them..what do they think I AM???? LMAO! I dont know if you can tell, but this one is in front of the other ones..really just in front of the larger preform the fish were in before. I really wanna put the lotus into that larger preform, I just cant lift the damn thing. I never shoulda sunk it into the ground. Wanted to put the whole tub into the pond, I dont want to transplant it right now, I am scared it wont bloom if I do. And I def dont want to kill it! I need to give you back a bunch of it! Eventually I will just fill in that pond with compost & manure I guess about 8" deep or so? And put the lotus in there. LOL, I'd have room for more if DH would get his crap outta the yard, lol..that's not selfish is it? AT least my stuff is pretty :) Thanks again everyone :) So glad I have you all to share this with.