We had the worst red clay you could ever imagine when we moved here. There was not one tiny bit of good soil at all. My husband found out very quickly when he tried to plant stuff for me that if you add good stuff to the hole, the plant roots don't want to leave that good stuff and you create a bowl of water that won't drain underneath it. We had many, many plants (including expensive trees) that died due to that. I know how hard it is to wait, but we have found that adding the organic (good) stuff on the top is the best. Yes, it has taken a long time and no our soil is not gold yet, but it has improved a whole lot. We also do trench composting and have found that for us, it is working really well.
