In article , [H]omer wrote:

So you reckon 12" of chips followed by 6" of organic material?

6" doesn't sound very deep. I was planning on planting trees as well.

Is that really all I need?

Most clays are very fertile - all they need is to be opened up
so that water can drain and air reach the roots. So you don't
want to remove the clay so much as dilute it in the soil with
coarse material. This needs to be done fairly deeply, for the
drainage.

6" of organic matter is far more than most soils have. My loam
has 12-18" of topsoil, of which only a small proportion is actually
organic material, and it is nearly as fertile as soils get.


Regards,
Nick Maclaren.