i feel your pain. last year i had serious vole problems.. between the voles and the dogs digging for them, i lost60 plants.. my garden is only 30x30 but i plant heavy knowing the hazards.. this year, i planted about 4 weeks ago. has been raining like crazy here in northern california and the water just stop leaching out of the ground long enough for me to plant. then, it has rained 7 of the last 10 days. poor plants are drowning. havent grown an inch. finally sunshine/clouds today. saw a lot of new growth ready to take off as i was brushing all the mud off the leaves from the last inch of rain yesterday. my zen is increasing.. :)

I garden in Ohio clay as well. As stated, it is extremely fertile and if you think about it, this state abounds in its lushness and green. Clay isn't all bad. The fact your rock garden is on a slope is your ace in the hole. I don't care how compact and course clay seems, the drainage issue is solved. It drains! Being in the Appalachian foothills, I can say that there really aren't many level areas on my property and the area in which we installed our rockery is rather steep. It was the dumping area for coal ash and cinder from the furnace and it is also underlain with a spring or two. What was once the problem area of the landscape is now a rock garden, because we knew that was a good way to utilise all the qualities of this area and turn those sows' ears into silk purses. I love how it lends itself to a rockery. Some of the clay soil even gives way to grey horse shoe court material. You could throw pots from it. Of course the major thing to remember with clay soil is to wait the magic number of days after a rain when it has reached the optimum level for digging. Too soon and it is slime and too late and it is concrete. It is hard to be that patient, but hey it develops character in a gardener. Then choose your plant material wisely. Some plants actually do just fine in dense, clay soil and prefer it over the soft, friable and moist loamy stuff where they get too soft and leggy and lank. Good Luck!

"Spiritual Window Shopping " Written by Jalaal'uddin Rumi (translated by Coleman Barks) and now taken from a page of a book written by Robert Beer, "Tibetan Symbols and Motifs" These spiritual window shoppers, who idly ask. "How much is that?"-"Oh I was only looking" They handle a hundred items, and put them down again, shadows with no capital. What is spent is love, and two eyes wet weeping. But these walk into a shop, and their whole lives pass by suddenly, in that moment, in that shop. "Where did you go?"-"Nowhere" "What did you have to eat?"-"Nothing much". "Even if you don't know what you want, buy something, To be part of the exchanging flow. Start a huge foolish project, like Noah. It makes absolutely no difference what people think of you. "Jalaal'uddin Rumi> Reading this reminds me that I am greatfull for simple minded use of the word Zen that have touched my life indirectly leading me to Japan and Eastern thoughts. From Chevy Chase in "Cady Shack" goin Nanananannnana NAaaaananananaaaaa while puting those golf balls to the Link Herb has willingly provided showing commercial enterprises of Zen garden boxes . Read the bottom of this poem again. For I do not know anything. Please excuse my ignorance. I little confused. I am starting to wonder if anything that has the word Zen is good. Maybe its not good for you. But why not just get the word out ? Keep repeating Zen. Let a culture learn and adopt new concepts slowly. Two women claimed an infant. One who riased the infant and one who is natural mother. King Solomon said , "I will solve this, I will Cut the infant in half and give and give each of you half. One women says ,"Noooooo ! She can have him ". King Solomon then knew this to be the real mother. Moral of story is aside of illustrating remarkable intelligence of King Solomon, true nature of love is not intelligence. Wisdom is not intelligence. When the Buddha Shakyamuni suddenly held up a flower and looked at it, Mahakashayapa smiled sharing in the true nature of the shared reality seen in the flower.Essence of Zens founding Wisdom. I have very little understanding of these words . No idea. I think I do. But really deep down inside I know I cant grasp this. Hard to swallow the truth. Wisdoms are complex . Absolute truths are simply amazing. Peak expereinces..now those change me in a huge way.I would like to be a good man. "What Makes a Zen Garden" is teaching me this path. My path started when I picked up a pebble in our backyard when I was around 3 years old. I dropped it when seeing my father. Lost concentration of pebble.. I remember his legs. haha. Thats all I recall of that moment. Another day I picked up pebble again. My father said white. I recall his bending down and taking the pebble in both of our hands. He looked in my eyes and said white. I loved my Dad. dropped the pebble when he let go of my hand. I followed him . Sometime within that week my mother took me outside. I recall finding a pebble and going to my mother white. She looked at me with wide eyes smiling. I dont recall my feeling. When she took the pebble from my hand to look. I went to the ground and looked for white. I do not remember anymore of this learnings. I do recall nursery school. Going to the car with my mother and picking up a Quartz stone . While in the car wearing my Cowboys Footaball leather jacket I held this Quartz in my hand. " White" The thought creeped in and I knew I had not seen a white stone since the week with my father teaching me white. From this thread of thought I came to know of white , quartz . Somewhere in there is pebble and stone. I dont recall. But those were Peak Expereinces. Those are the memories that bring me to Japan. I seek to know who I am. Materials of a garden need words. Without words one does not see. I see white quartz pebbles everywhere now. Zen, Japanese Garden , Kare San Sui , Suiseki ,Zen. How one comes to know a word is more importent than the word itself. Zen will not come untill I know how I became me. I am part of the Flow . Zen and Japanese Gardening is within me. One must have the will , desire to find new words to see with. Keep open heart to see wisdoms also. Dogen. King Solomon. Basho. Three new influences in my life this week. Good thread : )

Joel, I'm not sure if you aware that you have posted this on the Australian site. Dee.