Red clay can be formidable, especially if it gets baked in the blazing sun but it could be worse! Actually red clay is quite fertile as clays go and with the help of added organic matter and mulch you can grow a good number of things. I'd recommend a soil test just so you know exactly what kind of amendments you might need and go from there. One of the biggest problems with planting in clay soil is called "the bathtub effect" where you dig a hole, amend the soil, and put your plant in it. The clay around the edges of the hole contains any water or rainfall and keeps it from draining, eventually drowning what you have planted there. To avoid the creating a bathtub you'll have to dig up a wider area or build up instead. A few plants that have proven to be bulletproof in tough conditions are: Russian sage, yarrow, sedum, potentilla, threadleaf coreopsis, asters, vernonia (ironweed), and heliopsis. I lived in Georgia for a short time so I can sympathize with you but I was also amazed at the crops that local farmers managed to coax from that soil.
Red clay can be formidable, especially if it gets baked in the blazing sun but it could be worse! Actually red clay is quite fertile as clays go and with the help of added organic matter and mulch you can grow a good number of things. I'd recommend a soil test just so you know exactly what kind of amendments you might need and go from there. One of the biggest problems with planting in clay soil is called "the bathtub effect" where you dig a hole, amend the soil, and put your plant in it. The clay around the edges of the hole contains any water or rainfall and keeps it from draining, eventually drowning what you have planted there. To avoid the creating a bathtub you'll have to dig up a wider area or build up instead. A few plants that have proven to be bulletproof in tough conditions are: Russian sage, yarrow, sedum, potentilla, threadleaf coreopsis, asters, vernonia (ironweed), and heliopsis. I lived in Georgia for a short time so I can sympathize with you but I was also amazed at the crops that local farmers managed to coax from that soil.