Starting a new Vegetable Garden in Clay Soil

I live in Michigan and once you get below the sod and a few inches of top soil, I am on some pretty heavy clay. I don't think a vegetable garden will thrive in this clay.Instead of digging out 12+ inches of clay throughout the entire garden area and replacing it with a top soil mixture (lots of labor!), I was thinking of taking 5 gallon buckets and planting them about 1/2 way into the ground,like this (the "X"'s represent buckets):

X X X X X X X X X

X X X X X X X X X

X X X X X X X X X

And then planting the vegetables in the buckets.

Is this a crazy idea? Will it work?
I am new to this and looking to plant my first vegetable garden. Thanks for the help!

I have heavy clay too and have really come to regret trying to amend it well enough to plant. SO much work, and some $ wasted, and no amount of compost, etc, seems to be enough to fix it. As much as possible, I'm going with raised-beds and containers from now on. I'm not sure why you want to bury the buckets half way. If it is for aesthetics, and not wanting to see the plastic, you'd want to bury them all the way, or if you are planting perennial plants and you need the soil to insulate them over the winter. If you don't mind the appearance, forgo the extra work of digging and burying and focus on the more fun work of tending your plants. If you want to bury the buckets, you'll want to make sure that they can drain well. If the heavy clay is holding too much water to garden in on its own, the buckets placed in that soil- even with plenty of drainage holes, might not drain well enough either. Try with just one buried and filled with the soil, but no plants, and water it well, then check a few hours later to see if the bottom of the bucket is still water-logged. You could just not bury them at all and use them as regular containers, definitely the easiest way to go! Or, if you really want them buried, and they're not draining well enough, you could dig deeper and put down a layer of drainage gravel (about 3") and cover that with sediment fabric, then put the bucket on top, and fill in around, but that's a lot of digging in the clay- which can get exhausting! i have more experience with that than i care for. good luck!

I go with whatever is cheaper and you can water and take care of. For me that's 4 foot by 16 foot raised beds.

We have heavy alkaline clay soil here and I gave up on it.
It's backbreaking work to dig that soil to work in costly
amendments. If you really want to go that route, it's
essential to put a thick layer of rocks or gravel in the
space before planting so there is drainage. Water just
pools in clay soil and you'll get mold and root rot.

I use 12 gallon buckets raised up on cinder blocks and
have had excellent results with tomatoes, yellow squash
and bell peppers.

I am thinking raised beds are the way to go. Anyone have a link to plans for making them?

I agree. It sounds like a raised bed will be a much better use of your space and will solve the clay soil problem. Here is a great link on how to make a raised bed and the type of soil to use: http://flowergardens.suite101.com/article.cfm/soil_to_fill_raised_planting_bed

I planted my first vegetable garden ever this year as a raised bed, and I am loving it! What fun! Here is a link to my slideshow of the progress so far. Enjoy! http://s75.photobucket.com/albums/i291/kbumgar/Vegetable%20Garden/?action=view¤t=916cfb2d.pbw

http://www.settfest.com/2009/01/a-crash-course-in-se-texas-tomatoes/

I second June's comment about drainage. I spent quite a bit of time and effort working the soil in a small (3'x20') bed determined to grow stuff in the ground this year and so far it's pretty much a bust. Nothing except the sole tomato plant I put there is growing much at all....peppers, cucumbers, basil, cilantro, and squash has been virtually dormant and/or yellowing. I haven't even bothered to dig anything up to investigate since I have plenty of stuff in other areas but I suspect drainage is the culprit. I really think the soil is so crummy here that it's equivalent to growing something in a container without any drainage holes, which never works out very well.

The things I planted in containers and in a raised "lasagna" bed are doing much better in comparison, and both methods were much easier than all the digging, mixing, and turning I did in what I thought would be "the good bed".

I live in northern Ohio and had the same problem. At first I added sand to break up the clay. Then I saved household waste such as potato peels, banana peels, carrot skins, etc and added that to the soil. The vegetables can grow very well in clay soil but the soil is difficult for you to work. Now I have raised beds and it's like living in heaven.

as far as your bucket plan, over here by the shore in ct, we have extremely heavy clay, I grow my horseradish ans carrots in holes with a garbage bag liner(bottom cut out) for the main garden, however i added a 50-50 mix I laid down of compost and peat - probably a 6 - 8 inch layer and tilled it into the clay. I flipped it in some smaller areas with a shovel.. I add composted leaves and straw from the chickens every fall. Working out great, soil does get better over time. A rather inexpensive way, just a lot of labor if you have enough to compost.
-joe-

If I had the best garden spot in the world, I would build a raised bed on top of it. Traditional gardening - hard work - did it for years; raised bed gardening - fun - less work.