We have some clay soil here. We fought it for a while until I learned to leverage species that prefer the environment to improve and utilize the soil. I believe the next step is to integrate meaningful food crops into the established flora web, a food forest. It’s brilliant. Thank you for sharing your thoughts. 

 Exactly forests grow through a process of succession so there are phases with different plants that create the proper environment for the next phase of plants and development to take place. It all depends on the specifics of the situation of course.