trees in a clay garden

Hello again everybody. Its me again with my clay problems. I have three trees i would like to plant in the garden. A Laburnum and two cherry trees. Im not sure of the types or names. How can I plant them in clay so solid that you could build houses from it?
Any ideas would be greatly appreciated. Do I dig a massive hole and fill it with muck and hope for the best or plant them straight into the clay and pray?
Thanks in anticipation.
Lynne x

 

I would prepare the whole bit of land well - breaking it up and adding any organic matter that you have to help break it down. (Just planting straight into uncultivated clay, can cause problems.)

Then dig your planting holes and plant your trees, but making sure that you firm them well in. One of the dangers of clay planting is that in heavy rain the hole unless propoerly filled in can act like a sump and drown the plant.

 

I think the only chance you have is to plant them on top of the clay and build the soil up around the roots in a mound. That way the trees are able to drain and the roots will head out into the uppermost areas of the clay soil and it won't drown
Planting into clay that simply doesn't drain only creates a sump which will fill with water and drown the tree
A similar idea is to plant them into a raised bed ... much the same thing really

 

Thank you very much whis4ey and Fran, I hadn't imagined the sump forming but can now visualise it happening. I just thought about the expansion and contraction of the clay around the roots, so thank you very much for that. I might form small channels of gravel, a couple of inches wide radiating away from where the roots will be and also raise the level where the trees will be so that they can put their root tips into the clay for nutrients if they want to. Thanks very much again.
Lynne x