It seems that I will have to just try tilling together some sand and clay to see what effect that has on compaction, and the ability to loosen the soil mechanically (using a tractor, most likely). Now if only it would rain, so the soil was workable... FWIW, this is purely a soil structure question, it really has nothing to do with organics. I don't *want* anything to grow in this particular area, I do want the soil to drain well and not be like an adobe brick. At present, there is sand on top of a clay base. When its wet, its actually kind of slick. The sand drains, the clay at the interface holds tooo much water and that clay/sand interface creates slippery conditions. Cheers, Michelle

Lux again, after considering everything, I think the failure of Marachal Niel' to thrive, might be the clone. Because in the same bed, and c. 7-8 feet on- center from M.N. is a 'Mrs. B.R. Cant' that was given to me as a house present in January 2013, it arrived in a gallon pot and was c. 8 inches tall by nearly as wide, now it has grown to be c. 3 feet tall by nearly as wide in less than 7 months. I had planned to keep it in that bed for a couple years until it grew to be about 3 feet tall until I had cleared a strip of lawn to move it to, but it's grown three times faster than I thought it would have done. I'm still moving Marachal Niel' to a rosebed that gets a couple hours of afternoon shade, because two canes are sunburnt at the top of the plant, The yellowing leaves may be due to using Epson salts,this year and last, a tip I read in an English rose book. I should have understood that a method and means used in England may not be a good thing to use in California, because our soil and climate is so different. Thanks again, Lux.

My first garden was created 5 years ago...we took off the sod, amended with compost, tilled and planted and mulched. It was a nightmare. I probably needed 60 times more compost, and never could have afforded it. The following two years I hated working in the garden because it was such hard work with the clay and many plants didn't thrive. I replanted areas many times and each time I would add more compost/mulch, whatever I could get my hands on. I also added a soil conditioner that was very expensive but works like gypsum...breaks down clay. (Who knows, maybe it WAS gypsum with a bigger price tag.) It's 6 years later now and I have to tell you that the garden is just a delight to work in now. I plan to spread gypsum a couple of times each year and continue mulching the beds, but I'm sure I'll never have to do all that double-digging like I did before....just keep on piling on the stuff like everyone wrote above, and before you know it, your beds will be as you need them to be. I also highly recommend that you search out plants that LIKE clay, so that your plantings will be successful. I spent many, many dollars buying plants that needed more drainage than I had and would die...and I wondered why. Some of those plants might do ok for me now in the same garden, but I think it's important to plant things that actually LIKE the ground that they are in today. Good Luck!

When did you transplant your peonies the first time? Is the amended soil in a raised bed? The only issue I could think of is a possibility of poor drainage with a clay base so close, otherwise you should be fine. Have the peonies been in place long enough to tell if the area is going to get boggy? I can tell you from experience they don't like wet roots, they'll rot! Most people do divide the larger roots, they take quite an effort to dig out once they get bigger, don't they? Better to do it once and done with moving and dividing them! That said, as long as there were enough feeder roots kept intact to support the number of eyes on your larger peony it'll probably be okay. A lot depends on how the rootball looked when you dug it up. If the middle was really woody with little or no eyes with all of the healthy looking parts on the outside of the root, I'd dig it back up and divide it to encourage new eye/root formation. Some of them get that way and will just start dying out from the middle. If the whole thing was a mass of fleshy, tuberous roots with healthy eyes then you're fine. I would think 3/4" of soil over the eyes is just about perfect for your zone.