Don't add any gypsum unless you have a current soil test which specifies a gypsum type product and how much to apply. Most people who believe they have clay have almost no real clay. They might have very hard soil, or they might have soil which mimics clay, but true clay is rare. If you don't have a brick factory nearby, then clay is even less likely. There is a test called the jar test to determine what the components of your soil are. It's easy to do. You'll need a clear glass jar with straight sides. Usually mayonnaise jars work or olive jars. 1. Fill the jar half way full with soil and take a picture of a ruler next to the jar. That will tell you how much soil you started with. 2. Fill the jar with water and a drop or two of liquid soap (shampoo, dish soap, or liquid laundry soap). Shake the jar making sure all the soil is wet. Set the jar down. 3. After 2 minutes take another picture with the ruler. (sand and rubble measurement) 4. After 2 hours take another picture with the ruler. (silt) 5. After 2 days take another picture with the ruler. (clay) The measurement at 2 minutes will tell you the proportion of sand in your soil. If you started with 6 inches of soil and have a measurement of 4 inches of material after 2 minutes, then you have 4 inches divided by 6 inches to get 67% sand. The measurement at 2 hours will give you a silt proportion. If it measures 5 inches after 2 hours then you have 5 inches of silt minus 4 inches of sand all divided by 6 inches total to get 17% silt. The rest will be clay, organic material, or very fine material. The measurement after 2 days will allow the fine material to settle but the clay will remain in suspension. The organic matter like dead roots. twigs and leaves will float. If you can see anything through the jar after 2 days, then you don't have any appreciable clay. If the water is too cloudy to see through, then you have clay. There are chemical soil softeners you can use any time of year. They are all surfactants containing either raw organic surfactants like yucca juice or aloe vera or they contain processed surfactants like sodium laureth sulfate found in most shampoos. These materials are processed much like your great grandmother did with animal fat and wood ashes to make bars of soap. Only these modern surfactants use coconut oil and sodium hydroxide, potassium hydroxide, or other similar strong bases to make the liquid form. If you want to soften your soil try this. It has worked for me and everyone who tries it. Spray your lawn with 3 ounces of baby shampoo per 1,000 square feet. Follow that up with 1 full inch of irrigation or rain water. You can measure your application of water using empty cat food or tuna cans. When the cans are full, you have applied an inch of water. Then in a week, follow up with another inch of water. A week after that follow up with another dose of shampoo and an inch of water. That should do it. After that you should notice that your soil becomes amazingly soft after you irrigate or it rains. Then after a few days the soil will dry out and firm up again. It will be just like a sponge - soft when wet and hard when dry. The one treatment (well, two) should last for years. If you want to apply more, or if you accidentally double, triple, or quadruple the application rate, that should not hurt anything. If you do this you should never even think about core aerating again.

>>KBG was less drought tolerant than TTTF. It is, very much less drought tolerant. KBG will show wilting long before TTTF will. KBG is more drought resistant than TTTF. It simply goes dormant, waiting for the rain to return. TTTF, left dry, will eventually just up and die. So will KBG, but 1/4" of water every 2 weeks is enough to keep the roots alive. Dormancy can continue for 12 weeks, but losses will start to mount. 8 is the usual maximum given, although I've seen it go a lot longer than that with that incidental watering every now and again. That having been said, my established KBG has been watered twice this year. So much of this is related to how you treat the grass and how you treat your soil. I've pushed mine to very high organic matter levels, which store water like nobody's business and won't let it go easily to evaporation (but a root can exert enough ionic pull to grab the water with no problems). I attached pictures of my lawn (follow the link to my blog as you can see the entire history if you wish to peruse back that far). It's hardly shabby, but this is not a good year. We've ping-ponged between bone dry and soaking wet. >>I water just enough to keep it alive. From March to May it was absolutely beautiful deep dark green but right now it's much lighter and even tan in some spots. Ditto. Keep in mind, I'm somewhat north of you, just a wee little bit. I'm not sure if KBG would be a good choice for North Carolina. >> I will need to overseed this fall so would overseeding KBG into the TTTF lawn be a good idea? Would this eventually lead to a full KBG lawn? I'm open to ideas. The two don't argue with each other directly, so that's not an issue. The KBG, if well-fed (we're talking 4 to 6 pounds of nitrogen per thousand square feet per year) will fill in holes as the TTTF dies out from age. That process isn't fast; there are certainly thirty year old TTTF tufts out there, I've seen some. Growth rates will differ, almost certainly, so that may drive you crazy. Color is going to differ, and the look of the grasses is very different as well. I never felt that tri-mix (fescue, rye, KBG) was a good choice for anybody, but they do that to get one grass to grow in an area, at least. Again, I'm not sure about KBG that far south. Lexington, from the map, feels like it should be OK-but-borderline, and your altitude (800 feet+) speaks well for putting in KBG. Current temperatures and overall average temperatures are fine for it, and KBG when established in good soil should stay green all winter (mine does up here). Rainfall levels are perfectly acceptable. By the way, you have rainfall moving in. Best grab an umbrella for later this evening. If you absolutely forced me to pick three modern cultivars, I'd go with Midnight, Prosperity, and Boutique. You can freely substitute Midnight II or Midnight Star for Midnight, they're all close enough. Those are three extremely dark cultivars, so consider that before you do this. When mature, they'll have that thundery dark green look that my lawn has in spring and fall (all grasses lighten in summer).. Also, tolerance for weather their first year isn't as good as it will be later on (true of any grass), so watering the first summer will be required. I never recommend dormancy the first year if it can be avoided, and if it can't, keep it short. The grass doesn't have the root depth and resources it will later on. Here is a link that might be useful: My Blog, With Photos

Tall fescue shouldn't spread, it should clump or bunch. By Kentucky Bluegrass mixture do you mean several different cultivars of Kentucky Bluegrass, or Kentucky Bluegrass mixed with other desireable (thin-bladed) lawngrasses? Assuming you've got KY31 and not some broadleaf weed that can't be eliminated with a selective herbicide, I'd hit all the KY31 with Roundup and reseed (or sod) the areas killed by the Roundup in about three weeks with a blend of quality KBG cultivars or a mixture that approximates the thin-bladed grasses you have now. We're approaching the best time of year for seeding. You *could* dig the KY31 out, but that sounds like more work than killing it with Roundup. So yes, dig up (or Roundup) *and* overseed a new mixture (or blend). I'm assuming the affected areas are large enough the existing KBG won't have time to spread and fill in the bare soil in one season. If you leave the soil bare you'll have weed problems next spring. I know what you mean about the unkempt look of KY31 growing in the midst of bluegrass. The blades are lighter green than bluegrass, much wider, and grow twice as fast so you have these unsightly things sticking up out of your uniform stand of lawngrass about two days after mowing and it just gets worse the longer you wait to mow again.

Am I to understand that the installer used a rototiller first? Was it a hand held rototiller or one mounted on a tractor? If he used a hand held rototiller, then I would not believe anything else he told you. If he used a tractor mounted tiller, then he's probably smarter than all of us. The only way the underground debris concept works is if the previous grass was not doing well there. You say it was fine, so I'm leaning toward the installer not really knowing what he's talking about. Rototillers are what amateurs use when they don't know what the proper tools are. The professional landscapers do not use a rototiller. They use a tool called a box blade on the back of a tractor to prepare a space for planting. The standard instructions for new sod or seed are to water for 10-15 minutes, 3x per day, for 2-3 weeks depending on the situation. The idea with sod is to keep the roots moist so that they will knit into the soil. Some clayey soils do not need that much water and some sandy soils need more. If your soil is sandy then you might need to go toward the 15 minutes, 3x per day. If you are clayey you might need to cut back to prevent the turf from remaining soggy all the time. With fescue, once the grass is dead it is not coming back this decade. You need to seed or patch in more grass.