Great minds think alike. I'm replacing my cheap bluegrass (Kenblue) that's doing well with Midnight II, Bedazzled, Moonlight, etc. this fall myself. What I just did was stop watering, cut to 1" (way too short) and ask what I can do to stress it out. I'd rather not use Roundup unless I must (I have dogs).

>>are there problems with mixing too many different seed types in a lawn? If you match color and growth rates, not really. Yes, they'll compete. That's actually a good thing--the one that does best in a given area will dominate. If the colors are the same, and they grow at the same rate, you'll notice--but you won't care. :) My initial lawn, from the builder, was a tri-mix of KBG, fescue (several kinds) and rye. Over time, the KBG dominated due to my care regimen and the fact that the lawn is pretty much full sun all the time. It was never obvious that there was competition going on, and never a problem. >>Are there any organic fertilizers you would recommend for helping to change soil structure compacted soils? Like Yardtractor said, ALL organics will help change the soil structure over time. Without exception. However, some are better than others because you can drop more of them without experiencing problems like the reek of decay. Soybean meal is a great feeding for the lawn, requiring about 15 pounds per thousand square feet four times per year to give a perfect feeding. However, dropping sixty pounds per year isn't going to change the soil at any fantastic rate. The equivalent feeding using cracked corn or corn meal (I prefer cracked corn as it flows through my broadcast spreader more easily) is 60 pounds per thousand square feet. At 240 pounds per thousand per year, it'll change the soil profile much faster. Corn is one of those things you can also pour on, unlike most other organics. One huge source of (frequently ignored) organic material is mulch-mowing all fall leaves. I don't get so many, so I import them from known-good lawns without problems to the tune of 100 pounds per thousand square feet per year. You have leaves in plenty right there. My top flight year (year 2 of organics, after the soil had built up bacteria and fungi to support rapid decay) was over 1,300 pounds per thousand square feet, for a grand total of 37 pounds of nitrogen equivalent per thousand that year. Do that with synthetics and you just sterilized the soil--probably for at least a year. Organically? The lawn flourished, as did the gardens, everything was deep green and grew like mad. Doing that took me from an organically tapped soil in 2005 to a soil with 14% organic matter this year--and most years featured nowhere near the application that one year did!

Agree. Assuming your garden layout is semi-permanent just rake back the straw, punch a hole in the paper and plant. No need to remove it just layer new mulch on top. If, on the other hand you must till/rearrange/etc. the bed then just till it in. Be sure to add additional N fertilizer of some kind to compensate for the tilled in carbons. Dave

When we lived in short-season New Hampshire we had one huge pile that got anything and everything organic, from huge volumes of leaves to twigs to garbage to clothes to whole corn stalks to rotten pears to whole walnuts to my sister's many poor gerbils. Come Spring, once the ground had thawed and dried and we were getting ready to turn under last Fall's cow manure, we'd take one pile and fork it over onto the other spot, starting a new pile. What didn't fork was compost, or close enough. That went right onto the garden. No picky metering it out or piling it up, it just got spread and used, and we then had a (new) pile that didn't get touched (except for the piling-on and for fishing worms) for a full 'nother year. No turning. No worrying about ridiculous green-brown ratios or weed seeds. No thermometers. Just a totally simple, low work, and effective pile. Everything eventually rotted down. We just spread it around and got on with the gardening. In a way there are no bare spots underground, and roots will grow, inter-mesh, and find the nutrition the plants need. What I'm trying to illustrate is there's no need to store anything. Holding it back until you're ready to plant something in a particular spot does nothing for you other than make extra work or cost extra money. All it is (ALL) is adding back organic material you're removing by growing food and grubs. No magic. Use it now, use it all, and there will be more next year.