I like to roughly dig my clay in the autumn, 2 spades deep for a new bed and leave it over winter to let the frost break it up.

thanks drc, i had planned to expose it to frost this year, although i seem to have a lot less clay clumps in the front than the back garden for some reason!

In the meantime, replace the stone in the beds with a couple of inches of compost, and let the worms work on it. The compost will keep most weeds from getting established, and make the few that do start easy to pull out. By the time you dig it in fall, the clay should be starting to turn into loam.

I've seen a gravel garden planted up soley with echinaceas, grasses and hemerocallis' and it looked absolutely stunning - i would LOVE to have that here.
Having seen that garden and reading the first line of your post made me think "why would she want to get rid of that?" ..... i know we all get fed-up of our gardens but your gravel garden is one that i'd love !!!!!!

I like the idea of a gravel garden, Louise, but anyone who's ever had the ghastly job of clearing off wet leaves from the gravel, like me, soon changes their minds. Not to mention the amount of cat doings present in it, drives you bonkers. If its really heavy clay, Ladybird, you need to dig it when the conditions are right - I have a client with heavy clay, and frankly, there are only about 8 days a year when its right for digging, it either sticks to your fork or is impenetrable without a pickaxe. Weeds are a minor problem compared to actually digging the stuff. If its not as bad as that, then September October would be a great time to start.

Hah ! Hadn't thought of that Bamboo !!!

you could always utilise the gravel and have a japanese theme:-) a lovely lantern some bamboo and a few acers etc, lovely! mind you a front garden, someone may pinch it all, then how annoyed would you be !

If your clay is very heavy might you incorporate some of the gravel into it when you dig if it isn't too coarse? I don't like most gravel gardens either.

thanks for your comments, my boyfriend designed the garden, it does look really nice dont get me wrong.... but its a bit ''dead'' with no character and it gets a bit messy too with fallen leaves ect, id like to keep some of the gravel in the middle perhaps in a sweeping path and make some lovely deep borders on either side :)
il upload some pics for ideas when iv tidied it up a bit :)