Let's see those '11 gardens!

Originally Posted by Scothew

Im not sure how much top soil I really have, i dont think its a foot honestly. Most of it was pulled to the part of the property next to me when it was initially cleared off years ago.

Sounds like what I started with, except our "clay" is a really fine grained sand, like powder, sometimes called "mudstone" here. I finally gave up on it and built boxes. I would go with Jamie's advice, above. That's about how I do it, too.