New garden bed preparation & problem

[Lee]

Since moving this past winter, I've been slowly preparing
the new garden beds. I got one completed in time for using
this season, and am now working on a second one.

For the second one, I have removed all the sod and began
digging down as deep as possible to prepare the soil.
The minute layer of topsoil (from the sod) quickly gave way
to a powdery rock like layer and then a dense red clay. I
plan to get rid of most of this and replace with good top
soil, compost, leaves, etc...

However, last night we got a thunderstorm that dumped about
an inch of rain. When I went to look at the hole I had dug,
it was full of water from the rain. Needless to say, the
clay is acting like a pot and not allowing very good drainage.

So I figure I have a couple of options:

1. Dig deeper and hope the water drains down out of the root zone.
2. Keep as much of the clay to mix in with the top soil as
possible to minimize the bowl effect.

Have any others encountered this problem and sucessfully
solved it?
What are some other good options I could try.

This area is on a slope, so there might be a possible solution there....



Thanks,

Lee