For the manure, you may want to see if you can buy or borrow one of those trailer hitch receiver attached carriers. They are quite useful and hold quite a bit.

What is the pH of this soil?
What kind of nutrients are in that soil?
What do you need to add to that soil so it will grow plants?

Mushroom compost, spent mushroom growing medium, is like any other compost something that most all soils need so adding some is good. Just how much to add depends on what is in that soil now.
Composted chicken manure might be something worth adding, depending on the condition of the soil that is there now.
There is nothing wrong with clay soil that adding adequate amounts of organic matter will not help, but other materials may depend on the soil that is there now.

And large-particle local sand will be available as well (driveway work). I want to get one of those tow hitch shelves, just haven't done it yet.

A soil test will be necessary. Unfortunately, the state takes months to give the results. I might do a self-test after making the initial mix, then adjust from there.

This post was edited by tinyfrogs on Tue, Dec 11, 12 at 10:10

Unless you already know that soil in your area is too acidic, I would not add any lime to start with. You can do that later if necessary, but without some kind of data, altering the pH is not usually a good idea.

Easy on the sawdust, it's a super-brown.

Good luck and happy gardening!

Wouldn't add any sand to clay soil, even large particle sand, you'll most likely be making cement.

I added 50% wood chips to part of one of my clay soil beds and it did great. All the organics you mentioned will help, but they might break down very quickly and you'll be back to clay again without enough aeration.

Here is a link that might be useful: Effects of digging in wood chips in clay soil

I thought that with so much fresh pine sawdust the pH might be low. I planned to add lime after testing, if necessary.

The soonest I can do this is January. I'll self-test the soil after tilling the sawdust, hay, clay and mushroom compost and report back.

Thanks!

You should look into some of the straw bale gardens. Most plant in the staw itself, some make a square with 4 bales and fill with compost. Then at the end of the season you can plow it all in to improve the soil. Just google staw bale garden and you should get plenty of info on this is something that will work for you.

In NC soil testing is free if you want a professional lab evaluation, fwiw.

http://www.ncagr.gov/agronomi/sthome.htm