CLAY SOIL

I can think of two answers to this.
The first one is that they do have a clay soil but that over many years, it has had lots of organic material worked into it which has improved the texture.
The second possible answer is that you are in an area with more than one soil type. Where I live for example, we have London clay to the norh of the town and Baghsot Sand to the south. My garden is on the boundary between the two; I have clay on one side, loam over a clay subsoil on the other, and a couple of patches of sand in the middle!

Should make for interesting gardening for you Andrew.

I think that if Gardenogre is having difficulty with clay (I used to myself) then she should look at the first part of your answer and invest in a whole lot of compost/manure. If the 5 'orribles are going to help I suggest that if it's manure used she gets the pasteurised type.

John.

Is that all over your garden or only one patch? When we were digging our garden we discovered an area of coal over heavy clay, which turned out to be where the coal house used to be. The rest of the garden was much better. I've been digging in compost and rotted bark mulch to improve the soil in the worst areas.

Madmum (Ruth)...
I'm afraid the answer to your question, is Yes... My whole garden, is 75% clay and 25% coal & real soil ?...
I have removed many bags of sticky clay from my garden and where needed (planting areas), I've dug in peat free compost,chicken manure pellets, well rotted leaves, grit and perlite (to aid drainage) and my plants have shown me their appreciation, by growing and indeed thriving.. especially my Clematis's.
Worms are multiplying ; Which is great for the soil i believe.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Ruth, you're a very talented Lady ; I've been to your website and i'm so envious of your talent with a brush...
I can draw, but i can't paint to save my life...
But, when i get a chance, i'm going to follow your tutorial, to paint a 'Dandilion'....
Do you have any more Tutorials ?

Gardenogre_ess - oh dear, I feel for you! All that clay! I would have given up I think. Good news about the worms though, and of course clay is very nutritious soil!

Now I'm going to blush! I'm trying to think where else you might find my tutorials (and others you might enjoy). Look me up on wetcanvas.com (same name) and paintingfriends.com (you'll have to register to see tutorials there, it's a small, friendly art forum) I hope you enjoy doing the dandelion :o)