I’ve got red clay here. using triple ground mulch In. all my beds in the yard for 20 years, they are. nice deep black rich soil, but 5ft away in the yard is still red clay… no other amendments but time.
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That sounds like here. The house I bought is 135 yo, and the rose beds on the south side of the house is black gold and full of worms. The north side of the 3 lots is the same. In between is concrete at times.
But, this last year I had volunteer seedlings pop up in some weird places, one in the crack of the dry clay outside of my back porch. I let it grow, all alone with no feed and only one drink later, but by the time I found out it was a male, it was 4 1/2ft. It really opened my eyes.
One thing for two years now, and off subject, was the volunteers that pop up from last years plants, sprout a little early but never freeze and eventually will continue to grow on their own. We’ve had plenty of below freezing nights and they’re all still out there. I met a guy who grew up here in southern Colorado and says he put’s his seeds out in March which is the last month of bad winter but winter. I see why he does it now. It’s amazing the shit I’ve wrestled with the last month sprouting (or trying) with the house too cold, blah, blah, blah… ha. Mother nature is not one to be ignored! 
You may grow the best pot plants you ever grew in that clay… make sure to keep good mulch like cut grass or other stuff to help hold moisture in. I’ll have to see if I still have pics of the one from last year.
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Thanks everyone for all the replies! I know the topic was a little bit oversimplified perhaps, but it seems to have generated a long list of good practices and tips for making less than ideal circumstances work out. All of this is super helpful to myself and other local growers I want to help out.
One hard truth is that really good quality soil can take time to build up. Naturalistic methods like mulching, composting, essentially breaking down herbaceous stuff into humics can take not just months, but years. It’s nice to know once you get back into the cycle of growing and composting and building up soils, it will someday seriously pay off.
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The question I’m still askin is are you planning to:
a. amend your property?
b. amend a small area <200sq ft?
c. harvest the clay?
…because the work required is different for each. 
Another consideration worth noting is that there’s different types of clay & some are likely better than others. I.e. the gray adobe I’m trying to forget was something called a “xerisol” or xerisoil…as in zero, shit value. 
It wasn’t truly useless but it sure isn’t nice to work with. It turns into “rock” in the summer when it’s dried…then forms an impermeable mud layer in rainy/winter. 
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Hell yeah-- the real soil biology books are intimidating. 
But still well worth the exploration & best wishes on your mission.
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If you have a county ag extension agency, that would be a good place to start. We can get basic tests for $3 from April-Nov, when they aren’t swamped by the real farmers. It’s 6 bucks out of season 
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