Growin' some grass

[USAFpj]

I have this 40'x30 patch of 'grass' that refuses to look as decent as the front and sides of the house. Red clay/sandy soil, but am surrounded by 150acres of topsoil and loam.

I'm thinking I need to recover about 3-4" of topsoil from other parts of the property, throw it into a trailer, then till that in into the current clay soil? Then maybe topcoat that with another 2" of top soil?

Plant winter rye and fescue, cover with straw, and water it periodically? A lot of the guys in our area like to add lime as well...

What say you guys?

 

[snymat68]

Good topsoil is a given. As far as anything else that may need to be added (such as lime) you can send a soil sample in for testing for a few bucks, instead of guessing.
Collect and prepare the sample as directed, tell them what you want to grow in the area, and they'll test the soil, send you a full analysis, and tell you what, how much, and when to add anything that may be needed to grow what you want to.
My dad had this done for his yard and it worked great.

Soil Testing

I'm sure other places do this too. Obviously you would take the samples AFTER you've added the topsoil to the area.

 

[jaxs]

What he ^^^^ said,possibly except testing after adding topsoil. Before adding soil,decide if grade need's to be changed. If the answer is yes,by all means being in more soil. If the answer is no,have it tested and amend existing soil as required. When requesting test,as 68 suggests,tell them what you want to grow. There's usually 3 levels of tests. Go for the most extensive which include's micro-nutrents. Before doing anything,make certain your choice of grass is well suited for growing zone and amount of shade. In my area,it's not unusual to find different grass in different areas of a yard due to amount of shade. I suspect additional organic matter will play an important role.

 

[USAFpj]

Yes, sir! Grade will be modified, as a lot of water collects right in that sandy area after a heavy rain. And with Carolina Summers, we get a lot of it!

The goal is to control the drop angle and width of the current swale, but then build up that entire yard with grass to slow the rate at which runoff collects.

Thanks for the reply.