Kev, clay can be hard work and you will get many ideas for making it lighter but my way is this. Stop looking at it as one whole section. Decide what you wish to grow. Either buy or grow your own plants and then plant them. Do this as a separate entity. Dig a hole larger and deeper than the pot, put plenty of grit in the base and bring to the correct height with good compost, put the plant in the hole and back fill with a mix of what you dug out and compost mixed then water in.
The idea of making the whole garden friable will take years planting as each separate item takes little time but works as in time the whole garden will get the treatment. A friend of mine lived with solid clay and had a good garden in the end by doing things that way.
For vegetables make a slightly raised bed so that a good compost can be spread on only the sections you need to grow in this will in time become friable as the compost works down into the clay, that is where occasional double digging comes into its own.
For the rest one of the suggestions above is good make a rough green waste mulch, a shredder comes in handy, spread that over the sections not planted up and let the worms do the rest. It is a long term project as is all gardening but killing yourself trying to make the whole area good at the same time will put you off gardening for life. Fancy pots full of flowering plants trays or any container put on the bald sections will give colour and can be moved about mean while your planted up areas will come good given time. Good luck.
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Kev, clay can be hard work and you will get many ideas for making it lighter but my way is this. Stop looking at it as one whole section. Decide what you wish to grow. Either buy or grow your own plants and then plant them. Do this as a separate entity. Dig a hole larger and deeper than the pot, put plenty of grit in the base and bring to the correct height with good compost, put the plant in the hole and back fill with a mix of what you dug out and compost mixed then water in.
The idea of making the whole garden friable will take years planting as each separate item takes little time but works as in time the whole garden will get the treatment. A friend of mine lived with solid clay and had a good garden in the end by doing things that way.
For vegetables make a slightly raised bed so that a good compost can be spread on only the sections you need to grow in this will in time become friable as the compost works down into the clay, that is where occasional double digging comes into its own.
For the rest one of the suggestions above is good make a rough green waste mulch, a shredder comes in handy, spread that over the sections not planted up and let the worms do the rest. It is a long term project as is all gardening but killing yourself trying to make the whole area good at the same time will put you off gardening for life. Fancy pots full of flowering plants trays or any container put on the bald sections will give colour and can be moved about mean while your planted up areas will come good given time. Good luck.
Frank.
Good advice about working the soil piecemeal. I wonder what KevT was asking? About soil improvement, planting or both? I wonder how he got on?