My front garden is a bit of a nightmare. It's heavy clay, pH neutral. South facing, fairly wide but not very deep, and shaded by an -eurgh - privet hedge. I live in the north, in an area that gets a fair bit of snow in winter, and hard frosts and snow, sometimes to -8C, are a regular feature of winter.
I have struggled to get anything to grow in the soil. I have double dug it twice, and I have added sackfuls of compost and manure (not too much of the latter!) to no avail. The soil tends to compact in quite an odd way, which I just couldn't understand, and when I gave up and left it, even weeds struggled.
On my last dig, I decided to go a bit deeper to see if I could uncover the problem. I found bedrock just a couple of feet below the surface, which may explain it. The privet also seems to preferentially grab all the water, which exacerbates the issue.
I am putting in a raised bed to grow some herbs, but what could I do with the rest of it? (I don't want to pave). Also, I would love to replace the dreaded privet with some pleached hornbeam (I am one of those weirdos who loves pruning and training things), but am now concerned whether this would cope with the conditions.
Advice much appreciated.