New house....new garden

There's nothing wrong with incorporating some elements of your previous garden. You're obviously having to adapt your ideas to suit the soil type and landscape. Quite a challenge !

I look forward to photos and progress reports.
Does the garden get waterlogged ?

waterlogged....hmmm now I was thinking about a wee water feature :-) I don't think it does as its on such a slope..and I'm hoping that the addition of lots of compost will help with the drainage.

You put "empty clay pit" and I was imagining some sort of sunken garden, rather than a slope. Lol.

Sounds like the plot has lots of potential.

Ooops sorry, I meant empty of anything green and living...apart from the lonesome helebore of course, and the few wee things I have now moved in. I suppose I should be grateful of the chance of working on a blank canvas, and it's about 3 times the size of my old place, so if I make mistakes i can always look the other way!!
Will post some pics soon, tho there isn't much to see!!!

i would be lost an a clay site as i have a very free draining sunny windy site. at first this was a huge problem with the salty wind. i put in loads of plants that just keeled over and died. after a lot of trial and error, i have since found found loads of plants that thrive here. there are lots of plants that will thrive in your garden too.

http://www.rhs.org.uk/advice/profiles1002/clay_soils.asp

i just found this RHS link it tells you about clay soil. ;-))

Great advice from Sandra....
.. and blank canvas is GOOD.
When I moved to my current home the back garden needed so much work, removing old diseased trees and junk, before I could even start planting new shrubs etc.

Can't wait for the many pics. of the clay landscape. Lol.
...oh, and the hellebore. That sounds wonderful with all the flowers. They are really pretty. :o)

Let's get down to the nitty-gritty - (Awful pun..see no.4 below).

There is no reason why you should not end up with a fragrant fantastic fabulous floriferous garden again - with some VERY hard work first! The plants you grow may well be different, though.

1) Test the soil's pH. you need to know if it's acid or what.
2) Improve the soil to make life easier for your new planting plans.
3) Get digging! It's probably too late to dig and leave for frosts to break down the clods of clay, so your job, unfortunately is that much harder.
4) Get hold of lots of well-rotted manure (you are) AND horticultural grit.
5) Dig that in - if the garden is big, do the bit you'd like to plant up first and then some more later etc until you've done it all.
5) Every time you plant anything, make the hole a lot bigger than you normally would, and back-fill with compost.
6) This should have been at the top of the list - but as you have already tended a successful garden, you've probably already started a compost bin/heap.
7) Don't bury the Hellebore in manure...LOL.

Sorry if you knew all this already, I was just a bit concerned that you had not experienced clay soil before - and worried that your plants are not looking happy.

BTW, roses love it!! :-)

Well Spritz has covered it all....well done, nothing to add, lovely blank canvas to work on, the only advice I would give is get your hedges in, boundary shrubs for privacy and shelter, (unless you already have some in place). Good luck, looking forward to seeing your progress.

Ok, update.....
All advice has been taken on board, and I have been and gone and got LOADS of dung...is that the correct horticultural term??? Maybe I should say manure.. :-) Tomorrow (if it doesn't snow) I will begin the mammoth task of digging it into the newly created and rotovated prospective veggie patch.
Planted some seeds indoors today as well, I needed a reason to come in and thaw out!! Fingers crossed the glae force winds and driving snow ease off tomorrow....

PS The helebore has 2 babies hding underneath it, so I have rescued them and potted them up, nce and safe and snuggly till they get a bit bigger!! Wouldn't want them to drown in horsey poo!!!

...and the horticultural grit?

Glad you saved the family of Hellebores!

Did I forget to mention the grit?? Sorry, got 3 bags of that at the ready as well...every angle has been covered...
Next question..where is the best place to get a massage for the backache which I am bound to suffer from tomorrow night?? Oh the joys of gardening....

Well - you need to do limbering up exercises before you go for it! ... so I am told, anyway. :-)