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My garden is thick london clay which means in the summer the lawn cracks and in the winter it is like a swamp and I can hear water trickling through it.  However, every year I mulch with compost and everytime I dig anything, I encorporate as much compost and leaf mould as I have.  Bulbs are the hardest in the garden.  Daffs seem to do okay, but they are planted on a thick layer of grit.  Fritiliarias take one look at my garden and rot!  Now, anything I worry about starts life in a pot to stand on the deck.  Hostas do great so long as they are in dappled shade but astilbes really struggle as it is so dry in the summer.  I have now created a bog garden so they can thrive.  Shrubs seems to do really really well in our soil, photinia, pyracantha, lonicera, buddlia, and anything else you can think of ending in a  ;D.  We also have bamboos, and they love the wet ground and grow like the clappers.  Day lillies love it also.  I have only ever gardened on clay, so am used to it. 

we've got a buddlia and a 3 potentillas so there's another a that likes clay  :)

Azalias, rhodies, camelias, all love clay, There are loads of minature varieties about now. We had to plant up a bed made from tractor loads of wet clay on a site, planted 400 azalias, 300 rhodies and a 600m long border of francoa. Never lost one of them

I'm so glad I posted my question on the forum, everyone's suggestions are great, especially since a lot of them are things I was hoping to include in the design :-)  Really looking forward to designing the garden now rather than dreading trying to find things that will grow there!

SP xx

There are plenty of things that flourish on clay, as has been said, and as for things that don't, had you thought of growing the in containers?

Thanks Robert.  Yes.  She want's a veg garden, so I'm planning to make that raised beds.  And probably use a lot of containers for the area near the house, with gravel, I like the idea of creating an area with an oriental feel to it. For the rest of the garden I'm thinking of creating a woodland/wildlife friendly space, and as it seems that shrubs are the way to go, I think it will be perfect.  and she already has a small pond, so I'm going to add a bog garden to it. 

Quote from: sweet-pea on January 11, 2007, 10:55:16
She want's a veg garden, so I'm planning to make that raised beds.  And probably use a lot of containers for the area near the house, with gravel, I like the idea of creating an area with an oriental feel to it. For the rest of the garden I'm thinking of creating a woodland/wildlife friendly space, and as it seems that shrubs are the way to go, I think it will be perfect.  and she already has a small pond, so I'm going to add a bog garden to it. 

Sounds pretty much how our garden was planned. :)

If she wants a veg garden, then sprouts are meant to love clay. I find camellias work quite well in oriental-style gardens, as do things like Ophiophogon (black grass). And harts tongue ferns. And did I mention Bleeding Heart? Bog-garden-wise, siberian or flag irises, drumstick primulas. Arums.

The only group of plants I really have trouble with are alpines and carrots. (But even then, aubretia manages and snow-in-summer romps, so it's still worth a try.)