What gg said.

Avoid digging clay when wet, it just makes the clods harder.

Adding sand to clay is similar to adding gravel to Portland cement to make concrete. Unless you are adding as much as 1/3 by volume, it's worse than none at all. A little sand is OK - sometimes bags of compost come with some sand particles mixed in - but I wouldn't recommend trying to amend with quantities of sand. Silt, on the other hand, or sandy silt, is good if you need to raise the elevation and you can find it.

Compost and mulch will help the soil eventually, even if you don't dig it in. I used free shredded yard waste mulch for years and the soil below is much better now. You can even lay compost on the soil and mulch over it. The worms and microbes will do the work for you. It takes time though.

If your goal is to minimize the deaths and the reworking, selecting plants that prefer clay soil would be my first thought.

It's easier to do than than to turn clay into well-drained garden loam, espexially for a perennial bed.

Dig down to one foot or more at planting site. Go out and pick up well rotted wood, esp the soft kind. Fillw the hole. Cut to fit if u need. Fill empty spaces in planting site with rotten twigs branches leaves compost. Pack it like a puzzle. Put some thot into it. Water it in very well filling the hole. Wait for it to drain. Back fill carefully first filling in gaps. Keep back filling while adding some compost occasionally. You'll need to backfill time a min 6 inches of top soil. Make sure there is no wood sticking out. It needs to be sealed with the backfill dirt. The wood will slowly break down into rich organic matter while providing air to the roots.

Warning this can be a snake magnet but it also is a magnet for the ground dwellers who will feed you soil and plants

Bon

Clay soil particles are small, flat, and slide together with ease to keep moisture, air, nutrients, and plant roots from moving around easily. Working organic material into clay soil will open it up so those things can move around with more ease. It takes about 10 tons of organic material to raise the level of organic matter in soil 1 point, that is a lot but is well worth the effort.

Do not add any soil to that clay, just organic material.

And when all those leaves come down in the fall - leave as is or shred on your beds. FREE and THE BEST organic material from Nature.

chickencoupe, what you're describing is actually something I'm doing on another part of land. Hugelkulter beds. I never even thought of doing this by the house - but it could work. As of right now, I checked the soil yesterday and it's VERY muddy / claylike. The plant roots are no doubt, suffocating as I type. Im planning on digging back up the perennials I planted and re-potting them for a few days while I acquire some compost to mix into the soil. I put a few inches of unscreened mulch on top which I plan to incorporate into the soil with the compost. I may even get some brush that's in a pile near by and stack into the bottom - if I can convince my husband to dig it up enough for me!

It does take a bit of work, but I find it worthy. I've done shallow hugel beds for immediate use and also at the bottom of small planters. I used old brush with some compost for inoculating. I only dug down about 10-12 inches under the area where I wanted my spinach.

My garden beds are flooded. We've received a near-record amount of rain over the last two weeks with more headed this way. I mean, my pepper plants were already yellow and most are probably goners.

But my in-ground hugel-bed and my hugel-bed that is half in-ground and half above... I don't even think about it. They're FINE. And all that water soaking into the logs will be there in sweltering summer for plant roots.

bon

htwo82, perhaps these simple soil tests might be of some help in determining what you have now and what you need to do to make that soil into a good healthy soil.

1) Soil test for organic
material. From that soil sample put enough of the rest to make a 4 inch level in
a clear 1 quart jar, with a tight fitting lid. Fill that jar with water and
replace the lid, tightly. Shake the jar vigorously and then let it stand for 24
hours. Your soil will settle out according to soil particle size and weight.
For example, a good loam will have about 1-3/4 inch (about 45%) of sand on the
bottom. about 1 inch (about 25%) of silt next, about 1 inch (25%) of clay above
that, and about 1/4 inch (about 5%) of organic matter on the top.

2) Drainage. Dig a hole
1 foot square and 1 foot deep and fill that with water. After that water drains
away refill the hole with more water and time how long it takes that to drain
away. Anything less than 2 hours and your soil drains’ too quickly and needs
more organic matter to slow that drainage down. Anything over 6 hours and the
soil drains too slowly and needs lots of organic matter to speed it up.

3) Tilth. Take a handful
of your slightly damp soil and squeeze it tightly. When the pressure is
released the soil should hold together in that clump, but when poked with a
finger that clump should fall apart.

4) Smell. What does your
soil smell like? A pleasant, rich earthy odor? Putrid, offensive, repugnant
odor? The more organic matter in your soil the more active the soil bacteria
will be and the nicer your soil will smell, to a point. Too much organic matter
can be bad as well.

5) Life. How many
earthworms per shovel full were there? 5 or more indicates a pretty healthy soil. Fewer than 5,
according to the Natural Resources Conservation Service, indicates a soil that
is not healthy.

Not a vote for biochar? I would buy crushing lump charcoal and soaking it in fish emulsion or a liquid organic such as Jobes fertilizer and amending it in as it would not rot, would attract oxygen to the level and would moderate moisture content while improving the biota in the soil.. And it is permanent.

Update: A few of the plants are strangely thriving right now. I've got 2 beautiful scarlet canna lilies blooming here right now. I dug one up with the intentions of moving it and to my surprise, the roots were healthy and extending down into the dirt. Clearly, they like it there, so I plopped it back in the hole and asked it to pretend it never happened. ;) There are some grasses that are doing "Ok". They're not thriving, but they're not dying either.