I've had better luck going UP: I built low raised beds, about a foot deep, and filled them with a mix of four parts leafpro to one part sand, not even bothering with the local clay or the unregulated stuff they call "topsoil" in MD. DC Materials in Glendale delivered the stuff already mixed. These beds drained well -- sometimes TOO well; I made sure to mix in SOME clay in other beds to help with water retention in time of drought.

Lynn

Use compost and manure and leaf mold. You can buy all of these in bags if you don't have them. Skip the peat moss, sand, top soil. Not sure what clay break is, but you'll do better with compost.

I agree with both, go up and get a mix of top saoil and leafmold. Should work like a dream. If you want to do even more, dig up the soil, add what you had intended (rototiller) put a thick layer of newspapers down (to prevent weeds from coming up, or use landscaping fiber)then build up, and eventually mulch. You'll never regret it.

Forget the clay-break. I've heard that it really screws up the soil ph. Isn't it primarily some type of ground gypsum? You're much, much better off mixing in peat, compost, leaf mulch, etc., to break up your clay.

What is leafpro? I just googled it and all I came up with is a fancy rake

Google leafgro. It's leafgro not leafpro.

I have purchased a number of bags of "Clay Breaker" (at least that is what I think the name is...sold in bags at Home Depot). The contents are mostly pine bark fines with some gypsum added in. It seemed to work pretty good for me, but after my first bag of LeafGro I have had a hard time justifying anything else. Meadows Farms has a "planting mix" that sounds good, but I have not tried it.

Below is a link and here is an excerpt:

"The composting process begins in the fall of the year when leaves are collected and transferred to yard waste composting facilities where they are placed in windrows. In order to accelerate the decomposition process, the rows are turned and shredded on a regular basis. Beginning in the spring, grass clippings are added and the turning and shredding continues. After the composting process is complete, it is dried, screened and sold under the registered trade name, Leafgro."

- Brent

Here is a link that might be useful: LeafGro

The problem with spending money to have "topsoil" delivered is that this is an unregulated term in MD -- you can end up with anything from nearly pure sand to nearly pure clay, and you'll pay more for screened topsoil than for leafgro. That's what happened to me when I tried to buy a mix of 5 parts leafgro to three parts sand to four parts topsoil -- I ended up with a mix that was more than half sand, and far too lean for my purposes.

Lynn