You could certainly amend your soil to create a more forgiving environ. Having previously fought that battle on the western side of the Chesapeake Bay (before moving to the giant sandbox which is the Delmarva peninsula) I speak from experience. I had a market garden of about two acres that was amended with many tons of sand, compost, bio char, various minerals, and gypsum, over the years. I finally managed to get it juuuust right... about two years before we moved.
Living and working with the equivalent of a giant hydroponic bed presently, I now pine for the fertile clay soils that I spent the last several decades cursing. At least with clay you are starting with some good existing fertility. Your challenge is to find the correct compliment of soil amendments to help make that fertility available to your plants. It all starts with a series of soil tests. You may want to visit the Rodale Institute web site or check out one of their many books. There are plenty of resources available on the subject but their guide to organic gardening has probably one of the simplest to use guides that explains the effects and application rates of many of the available amendments. Not much mention there of bio char, or some of the latest work with basaltic rock dust, but the bulk of organic standards are pretty well covered.
The bio char potential is I feel one of the greatest of all, whether dealing with clay or my now ubiquitous sand. There are limits to just how much you can use, but I've experimented with as much as 10% by volume in raised beds with fantastic results. Helps hold nutrients that would otherwise simply drain away, while also working as a host for all sorts of wonderful humates and beneficial microbes. Haven't been able to find any specific targeted research as yet but there also appears to be a positive relationship between its presence and the incidence of pink pigmented-bacteria, amongst others.
Other than that, we previously had a fairly close neighboring commercial vineyard that shared our caliginous soils, and they explained that there vines had taken decades to establish, but now their deep rooted vines had pretty well drilled and spread to a point where all but the very worst of droughts would ever cause them to have to irrigate again. Beyond that their regular reapplications of organic compost as a mulch was also keeping moisture in while replacing spent fertility. The effect of regularly reapplying compost is especially helpful in creating good soil tilth.
