RoseBlush1 said:
I also didn't know what was under the snow ... 
I thought I was going to be removing lawn. When I came up for the closing of the escrow, this is what I found:
I also didn't know what was under those rocks .. 
The native soil under the rocks was/is what we call glacier slurry up here. Tightly compressed small rocks with clay and silt between them. Although it has perfect drainage, I couldn't dig a hole even with a pick. The soil was dead.
Methinks that is a Call and Raise ya 10.
Under our "soil" (which is a layer from 1 - 3 inches or so of wonderful topsoil ripped off from some farmland somewhere) is, depending on moisture content at the time, pure clay or gumbo. The latter after a heavy rain. When it has been dry for some time, the clay is so hard that it is near impenetrable. Jam your shovel into it? Bounces off. Jump up and down on it? You might get the blade in 1/4 inch - if yer lucky. I have on occasion had to use a hand sledge and a coal chisel to get thru this drek.
Digging in a single planting hole can take an hour or two easily. And you always go a few feet deep and several feet wide - cause you have to fill the planting "hole" with something a plant can survive in (Note that planting bulbs is a bummer). Last year I made a new bed (football shaped ~ 30 feet long and at widest ~ 12 feet and 2 1/2 feet deep) in our front yard and I planted a Franklin Tree at one end and a Contorted Filbert at the other. I dug the holes for the two trees 4 feet wide and ~ 8 feet deep using drain tile in bottom 5 feet filled with stone. The other 12 cubic feet was filled with Davids Sooper Sekrit recipe.
It took me over 2 weeks working about 6 hours per (every) day to make that bed.
The clay here can be anywhere from 4 feet or so to 20 or more feet deep. Usually by then you have hit bedrock.
Drainage?
Surely you jest. A 1 ' x 1 ' hole can take an hour or so to perk.
I just Called you and raised you 10.
