Does anyone have clay soil?

[SecondaryBurnzzz]

Hi there, I am working in our new garden and have spotted a huge variety of different soil in different sides of the garden. Bottom of the garden, soil is the yellowy orange and thick clay, nearer the house it is normal brown soil with large lumps of clay dotted around.
When digging it over there are masses of worms, so I think it's in good condition, but I have no idea how to deal with it.
If I dig a hole to plant a plant, the soil that I am scooping in is similar to rock hard pebbles of soil. If I try to break them down the just dissapear to dust.
I have gone ahead and planted anyway, but am not sure how to deal with the soil. Do I buy compost and mulch now, digging the compost in each time i plant something, or do i fling a handful of compost in the hole before I plant. It almost seems that I am better buying bare rooted plants, and letting them do their own thing. Poor plants setting foot outside of their original pot compost are going to get a nasty shock!
Bear in mind that I don't have access to any online gardening shops, I won't be able to do much for a while, but what should I be doing?

If I am going to be mulching, what should I use? (we live in a cat area)
we're new to the house, so no compost heap to plunder sadly.
Also! the lawn is rock hard where it is dry, but quite wet in the shade. Do I need to aereate the soil and brush compost into the holes, or will the grass just get on with it.
I do love gardening, but don't want to have spend a small fortune on bags of manure etc, and spend hours doing back breaking double digging. My idea scenario would be a thick layer of mulch now, and the worms do the rest!
Thanks everyone!

I also have heavy clay soil and every year I mulch and mix with lovely new soil to no avail. I still do this despite reading numerous articles which all basically say the same, work with what you’ve got and find plants that like that type of soil.

So far I’ve had success with daffodils, snowdrops, tulips, bluebells, azaleas, geraniums and roses. Apparently roses really like this type of soil and I have a couple that only require rose feed once a year and happily grow away.

Realise that you can’t get any of these right now but it may save you a lot of unnecessary work in the meantime.

Mulch and don’t dig in as this damages the structure of the soil and is also backbreaking with clay! The worms will do the work for you.

Thankfully, there are lots of lovely plants that like clay so start thinking up some dream lists for when shops reopen. Examples are:
Peonies, roses, bleeding hearts, viburnum, lilac, hydrangeas, Solomon’s seal, rodgersia (for damp spots), rhubarbs, camassias, snakes head fritillaries, primulas, irises.

Once you’ve enriched it, clay soil is good at holding on to nutrients so you will have good, rich soil after a few years of mulching.

we're new to the house, so no compost heap to plunder sadly. So the first thing you need to do is start a compost heap! Stuff you compost now will be ready for use as a mulch in the autumn. Remember as well as garden stuff, you can compost veg peelings and cardboard.

My garden is clay - beautiful black soil on top from years of mulching, pot-ready lumps of yellow clay once you go down a foot. I don't water stuff in the summer, and I don't feed anything, so it's got its advantages.

If you're going to aerate the lawn, brush sand into the holes, not compost. I've solved my lawn problem by stuffing it so full of plants (wild daffodils, crocuses, primroses, cowslips, fritillaries, dwarf species tulips, followed by natural growth of buttercups and meadow cranesbill and planted campion, Sanguisorba, hoary plantain) that the only time I can mow is from August onwards. I just mow a path through it and aerate that - the path is now mainly clover and daisies, with a bit of self-heal.

Thanks everyone. It appears that our local Wickes is still delivering so I can buy a few bags of compost to start mulching now. and I have started a compost bin already. No deciduous trees over hanging the garden though which is a shame, because I love leaf mould.
PapsofJura thanks for your reply I love roses, so will browse the David Austin website for bare rooted plants for next year I think.
I like a lot of the plants you listed pigeonofdoom especially peonies, and brought some roses with me from our previous house. Sadly I don't think my lavender is going to be very happy here. I have never heard of Rodgersia before but am quite keen on this one.
MereDintofPandiculation I think the lawn was laid quite recently, so not very springy (looks a bit like hair plugs!) so I hope that some daisies and clover take up residence soon. I don't need a bowling green, just something comfortable to lie on from time to time.
Thanks so much everyone!

Lavender will grow quite happily in clay if it’s dry spot- buy the traditional varietieps rather than the fancy tufted ones

I have a massive rosemary bush growing in my clay soil. I mixed loads of sand in it before planting it when it was much smaller. About year later I dug around it and the soil was back to thick clay.

The best suggestion I can give you is see what is growing in neighbouring gardens and if there is any form of local gardening club join it, as you will be able to work out what can grow in yours.