My grandfather was a herbalist, not professional,, but very knowledgeable. For stomach problems - and sleeplessness a few drops of tincture of Valerian on a cube of sugar was the remedy - and believe or not, I used it sometime now for restlessness and it works and taste just the way it did whenI was a kid. Hot compresses of vinegar water around the neck, covered with something water-proof and then a wrap of a wool-scarf was the remedy for sore throat - I hated it! That wool-scarf got so scratchy by and by! Chamomile or peppermint tea for stomach upsets. Hydrogen peroxide as first aid for cuts and scrapes - still my first disinfectant in the medicine cabinet. Comfort food; farina (cream of wheat) lightly toasted, thinned with broth (Angebrannte Griess Suppe) I still have it at times. My sister acquired pin-worms once and was treated with enemas of milk and garlic. There was a cough syrup made of hollowed out carrots, filled with brown crystal sugar, the juice was very nice, the winter cod-liver oil not so much. Spring-time Grandfather would gather the whole family for a purifying tea to thin the blood, even my father got caught in that one several times.

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.

It does take a lot of compost and it does make the back ache... but not nearly as much as digging into heavy clay and pulling out rocks with every attempt! That was my step-father's experience of prepping a garden bed twenty years ago. A huge contrast to mine yesterday, of shovelling in spent mushroom compost, wetting peat (man was that ever a chore... NOT!), spreading zeolite and mixing it all up. I do remember you (I was lurking) and I remember the sense of exhaustion and depressed fatigue that came through in your posts. You 'sound' so much happier and it sounds like this is going to be good for your husband's health as well - very gentle exercise that gets him out in the fresh air and sunshine (and eating his veggies ^_~ ) So glad to hear that your garden has brought you so much joy. Reading the story in your posts was about as inspiring as reading Bonedigger's late lamented garden log :) Is mise le meas -==- Katzedecimal

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