Autumnlayne, It sounds like your clay is very compacted. From experience I can tell you that it will take an awful lot of organic matter to amend this spot into good garden loam. My suggestion would be that (unless you want more garden space for some reason) you make a simple path through the area - a few flat stones, or if room add a bench or seat, as someone else suggested, maybe add a small boulder or two, or a statue, plants in a big pot - whatever would please you. Try to make a small vignette I would raise the area to the level of the existing flower bed (I assume a few inches), using leaf mold, humus, soil from emptied out flower pots, a bag of composted manure, and lots of organic mulch (as the finishing touch at the end of the project). I would then pocket plant a few spaces right around the flat stones, boulders, statues or bench. Thyme (there are many varieties - wooly, lemon, etc.)would really like the warmth of the rocks, especially if they are raised up a bit for better drainage. (Some Dianthus also tolerate wet clay when grown around stones.) Creeping Jenny, as mentioned would work, if the area is wetter. Add a couple of taller plants for accents, coreopsis as mentioned by someone would look nice, either annual or perennial. You could also plant an edging or a block of annuals in your new bed. They can manage in 5 or 6 inches of soil. Voila - a new attractive space, that can take balls and foot traffic. Now the reason that I suggested using leaf mold, humus, etc. in the bed, but not planting much of it, is that I never have enough garden space. LOL. I'd keep the area in some annuals, a few easy perennials, and I would keep adding leftover bits of compost, soil from pots, manure, & leaf mold to the area for a few years and let the worms do the rest. Now someday - there would be a garden there!

HippoKat, not sure as to your climate zone, though would have thought ground cover conifers such as Juniperus horizontalis Glauca & other prostrate conifers would be suitable. Especially if you added some course sand to the soil to get the plants started? allan

I would probably also go with a mix of shrubs and perennials (with pine straw in between) and avoid the ground-covers, for fear of them being aggressive. You could also make a simple path (bark chip or gravel) to occupy some of the space. I agree that you need to pull out the ivy first. We have cleared now about 1/3-1/2 acre of solid, knee-deep ivy, and if you don't get the roots out, it will come back. My husband "strimmed" the tops off as much as possible with one of those machines, so that we could at least see the root area (he's not very sensitive to poison ivy, which we also had a lot of). Then we've pulled it out by hand. Because the roots are so woody, you can pull them out quite successfully (unlike Mondo, which breaks off and leaves little pieces in the ground that then grow back). Here are a few other possibilities for perennials/shrubs (some evergreen): - Tiarella (Mobot says it needs constant moisture but that wet soil in winter will be fatal). I have some in full shade that is doing really well. I believe it is evergreen here (but not certain). Its native. - Big-leaved architectural plants like Fatsia japonica, Ligularia, Farfugium, Rodgersia (some of these are evergreen). - Actaea racemosa (same as Cimicifuga racemosa or Bugbane, this is native) - Lobelia (native too) if you have a spot with some sun There's also a dwarf form of the Sweetspire Esh suggested (Itea Virginica Little Henry), which gets only about 12-18" high. I bought an Illicium floridanum "Shady Lady" recently (at Pike, and HD has them at the moment too). It says it can tolerate full shade (I'm thinking of putting mine in full shade) and Jeff_AL on this forum told me his needed constant moisture, so that might be an evergreen shrub possibility for you (it gets about 6' tall). I'm linking below to a thread on the Perennials forum with a similar question. Here is a link that might be useful: perennials thread

Whatever your "landscaper" used for "topsoil" was probably about 95 percent mineral (the sand, silt, clay part of soil) and 5 percent organic matter and what your soil really needed was organic matter. Whether cottonseed meal, or any other meal, would help would depend on the Soil Food Web and how active they were. Things like cottonseed meal need to be digested before the nutrients in them are available to plants and if the soil has little organic matter the SFW is not there to do that. First you need to look closely at that soil to determine what it needs and that requires a good reliable soil test for soil pH and major nutrient levels and balance. Then these simple soil tests may also be of some help. 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. kimmq is kimmsr