When faced with the same dilemma I approached it in two ways. I put in a raised garden after finding out (the hard way) that it was virtually impossible for me to dig enough clay out to be meaningful. The raised garden began as a 1.5' deep x 8' x 12' garden, and then two years later it was expanded to 2.5' deep x 12' x 20'. I did all the work myself. When I decided to put in an extensive landscape three years ago, on the back property line, I hired it down. There were scrub trees to take out and their roots to be removed..........heavy equipment. There was clay to dig out, some 40-50 tons of it..........heavier equipment. The clay we have is incredibly dense and heavy. Then there was all the yards and yards of garden soil/topsoil/mulch to be brought in. Then plantings had to be done in that 150' x 8' area.
This is what all that looked like as time went on:
03/2014
07/2015
03/2016
03/2014
07/2015
03/2016
