"chris lowe" wrote in message

My question is, Is there anything we can do like adding sand etc to the
clay
to make it more habitable for plants, even veggies, as at the moment it
just
looks awful!

Add lots of sand and gypsum and horse poop and old leaves and old weeds and
lucerne/alfalfa chaff and straw or anything else that has once lived
(including old woollen pullovers/shredded paper/sawdust etc etc), leave for
a while to rot a bit then stir a bit (you probably won't be able to do much
of the latter in the early stages).

The goal should be to do two things, break up the clay and bring life back
to the soil. If you can get worms and microflora happening, they will do a
lot of work for you by breaking up the clay over time but in order to do
that you need to feed the worms and the other microflora that makes soil
work. And the better you feed them, the better they grow. Think of it as
growing biota and what they need rather than your initial thought of your
need to grow veg. You'll be able to grow veg once you have good soil biota
levels.

I've been working on my subsoil clay (which is vitually all I've ever had to
work in within my veggie growing area) for 10 years and although it is still
far from perfect, I can now grow things and have a worm population. My
advice would be to forget about this being a neat place for a long time and
treat it as an ongoing open/sheet composting site. Compost in a neat pile
takes too long to break down and it can do nothing to feed the mcuh needed
soil biota sitting in that pile so ground/sheet compost it on the site of
the problem and if weeds do grow out of the mess, well see that as a good
sign as at least something is growing rather than the moss which indicates a
sad soil at the present time.

Good luck. It's a big job but one which can be done over time.