Hard clay soil  

Hello and welcome to Mylot. we have the same problem and we add some pete moss,perlite and a bit of gypsum. We try to add some good soil every year.
that stuff sure is hard to work with and it seems wherever we move we have it. good luck with the garden.

Hi there! There tiller will definately be usefull. There are probably several different things you could do to help but here is my suggestion. Add sand and organic material. Now, you will need to make sure that the sand and organic materials are course. The sand is often refered to as "builders sand". If you get the finer sand you are going to have a whole lot more trouble. Put about 3 inches of each on the area you want to ammend and then till away. Make sure you don't try to work it when it is wet. This won't work well. You can't fix this overnight but you CAN work toward a wonderful veggie garden! One more note: remember to ammend the soil in an area larger than where you want to plant...a plant doesn't do well trying to spread it's roots from nicer ammended soil into clay. Good luck and happy gardening!

This will require a lot of work. You will have to amend the soil with compost, peat and sand. Make sure the sand is not too fine and nothing from the beach. It has salt in it.

WAIT until the soil dries. If you try to alter the soil when it is too wet you will do more damage than good. It will take YEARS to fix it.

You should turn the soil before you till it if possible. If you use peat make sure it is moist or wet. NEVER use dry peat because it will rob the soil of its moisture.

Gradually add the amendments. Till them into the soil. Then repeat.

Make sure you have a good balance of organic materials. If you put too much sand versus organics into the soil you will create a concrete type of soil. Good luck.

Getting the compost incorporated into the hard soil will help enormously. The ground needs as much as you can spare so you might need to buy compost to add to it too.
In the winter ,manure is very good . It needs to be well rotted and dug in .
I use the pick axe for digging when it is hard from the sun.
There is a mattock like tool called an Azada which is popular but I already had my pick axe. Even the tiller will have problems if you havent broken the soil up first.

You have already gotten some great advice, I would add that raised beds will help you maintain the veggie garden. It will improve drainage and contain all that additional soil matter added to improve the clay. You might also want to get some soil test strips (available in any nursery or ardware store) to make sure your soil is not too alkaline (high pH) because that is common with clay soil.