"This lawn was never very healthy to begin with..."

That can be a sign of poor soil. Save yourself some headache and time and get a soil test. Logan Labs in ohio does a comprehensive test for $20--well worth the money. You can post the results here and someone can advise you if you need to amend your soil to help produce a healthy lawn with clover.

A true slitseeder has fixed blades, a separate set of discs, and metered tubes for dispencing seed. They are self propelled. They are expensive machines and very seldom available for rental--I've never seen one for rent in my area. An alternative, and what many rental places call a slit seeder is actually a verticutter with a drop spreader attatched (Ryan Renothin, Billygoat and Bluebird are common rental models). It has fixed blades to produce slits (vs flail blades that are used in dethatchers). They are commonly available for rent. They are almost never self propelled, but some newer models are. I've used the Renothin and Billygoat with very good germination results--much better than when I've just broadcast, rolled and topdressed, but rather than use the drop spreader, I broadcast the seed separately over the yard and then ran the machine over it in two passes at a 45 degree angle to one another. Easy? Over a flat, loamy soil, yes. If the soil is hard or the yard is on hills, it takes some work, like alternating between pushing a 200# non propelled lawnmower and trying to hold back a tiller on hard soil.

I know a golf course manager for a pitch-n-putt that kept a bentgrass/clover on two courses. He said it was the perfect solution for all his problems. He never watered or fertilized or used any -icides. All he did was mow once a week right before the weekend golfers showed up.

Forgot I had a picture of one of those golf courses. They were about 50 miles north of Lake Erie.

{{gwi:104406}}

Sorry for the delayed reply, but THANK YOU for the advice. Grass1950, you're right that the soil quality is probably poor. I am going to do a soil test, and I hope it doesn't reveal that the soil is too incredibly awful. What I'd really love to do would be to bring in 15-20 yards of good loam and a Bobcat to push it around and start over. But I don't have the cash for that right now, and besides, it's almost impossible to get bulk materials up on the lawn as it's perched up on a flat space built up with an 8' tall boulder stone wall all around. A few bags of fertilizer/lime won't be a problem, so I hope that's all it needs. I'll check into the slit seeders - I didn't realize there was a difference between a slit seeder and a verticutter.

dchall, I've never planted bentgrass before, but it sounds like a good option with the clover. Is it invasive? In other words, do I have to worry about it creeping into the flower beds?

Thanks!
-Diggity