I always hesitate somewhat to recommend annuals to someone who lives so far north of me, because your climate is so different, but here is a list of some that I really like and that ought to do well for you. Ask around and research in your area before jumping in with both feet. Zinnia Profusion, Pink and white tones: These are fabulous for the front of a border. They bloom non-stop, and probably will do better for you than they do for me. Our intense sun causes the pink shades to fade. Mexican Zinnia (Zinnia angustifolia) in Crystal White is a truly outstanding plant for us. It will be at its very best in late summer when everything else is pooping out. Salvia farinacea, Victoria is my very favorite blue and it's spiky too. It's about eighteen inches high. Delphiniums or larkspur would probably do well for you, and again, they provide spiky form that is so valuable. If they bloom all summer in your mild climate, I'd definitely include them. The larkspur will reseed. They are tall, but the foliage isn't, so they don't seem so tall, if you know what I mean. Sweet Alyssum will bloom all summer (for you, not me), comes in whites, lavenders, and pinks. It's great at the front of a border and provides nice fine texture. It will also reseed if happy. helichrysum is a splendid foliage plant that would provide silvery blue color with its fuzzy leaves all summer. Lambs Ears would do the same and provide some bolder forms. You could also consider stachys grandiflora. It's blooms are rose pink. Very attractive plant and if you have good luck with lavender, you should do well with it. Alternanthera is another wonderful low growing spreader. It has purple/silver/green leaves that are metallic looking, but not garish. It weaves through other plants well. It will spread 3 feet by summer's end, so set it back in the border, to avoid having it all over your grass. I second the motion for pentas. They are splendid annuals that look great the whole season with absolutely no care. red, pink, rose, lavender, and white. I personally like the full sized ones (about 18 inches) better than the dwarfs. The blooms are in scale better with the larger plant size. The whole plant is neat and elegant. Blue Lobelia, crystal palace is a great front of the border mounder that provides fine texture and really really blue flowers. (I'm so jealous to think of all these lovely plants you can have all summer that I can only have in late fall and early spring! :) pansies! snapdragons heliotrope Vincas are hard to beat in the heat of summer. They come in a wide range of pinks, reds, whites, and even lavenders. They have beautiful dark glossy foliage, make neat mounds, and never say die till frost. They reseed. Wave petunias Some begonias and dahlias would fill the bill too. Celosia, gomphrena, Amaranthus, nicotiana and statice would all be possibilities too. Oh, and browallia (blue). As you vary the number of plants you use, also stagger them in your bed. In other words, for a drift of seven, say, plant 3 across the very front of the bed, then plant 4 more right behind them. Then begin the next drift of plants in that odd space in front, so that the flowers blend together and don't seem to be rowed up. Make some of your drifts go deeper back into the bed, and other drifts spread out wider. (I hope this makes sense! It's easy to do, hard to explain!) There are, of course, more, but these should get you started. Post a picture next year and let us see how it turns out!

If you seeded over the areas of 1" compost, then why are you worried about the grass underneath?

I can't believe no one has mentioned two things... the fact that hostas will grow in clay soil and that its probably the trees starving the ground of water/nutrients... I deal with an acre yard shaded mostly with mature silver/water maples... I think I only have two other varieties of trees and ones a cherry I planted this year when my son was born.. I live in southern kentucky and my soil is also primarily red clay... Two things hurt clay soil... the fact that it holds too much moisture and that it compacts and hampers root growth... I have compensated for this by amending with our "cattle- hay feeding- manure compost" that makes itself in the field where we feed the cattle...go to an old feeding spot about three years old and dig... it will be black loamy soil...then just apply a thin layer to the top of your beds... you may have to raise your plants....ride out in the countryside and stop by a farmers house... they're friendly people... and see if you can get permission to dig you up a few boxes of soil... I also do not use any in ground fertilize close to the trees... If I have plantings close to the trees... I use something that can be applied foliar and high in phosphorus to help the plants roots compete better with the tree roots...We've just moved to our new home two years ago this november..so I've only had two gardening seasons... granted I moved a lot of mature plants into the garden... I really have impressed myself with what I've done in two years... Basically what I'm getting at... is just alter your approach.. and lift your chin up a bit... I would say quit mulching or amending with anything thats not broken down yet... the breaking down process will cause you more fungus and rot than you are happy with....removing all leaf litter in the fall and mulching with a good mulch in the fall is a great gardening practice...definitely remove all old hosta leaf litter... water more often around your trees...check out www.pinestraw.com... you can order pinestraw in bulk shipped to your door... nothing else better to mulch with...slugs hate it....Good Luck... gardeing and nature is a challenge... especially here in Kentucky where the weather and seasons change daily... but the rewards are wonderful... John

To grow a good stand of grass, or most any other plant, you want a soil pH in the 6.2 to 6.8 range because that is where most all soil nutrients are most readily available. 5.9 is a bit low so adding the right lime, calcitic or dolomitic, can help your overall program. Put on compost, or shredded leaves, or something similar, preferably not the bark because that is just not something the soil bacteria will easily digest unless you have a good, healthy soil already. Sand, becasue of the large particle size, does not cause soil compaction, although small amounts mixed with clay can cause clay to bind more tightly together. That is why few of the Ag Research Stations recommend adding sand unless you add at least 45 percent by volume (an extremely large amount of sand). Since this is to be a lawn I'd not be concerned about the Potassium level, once sufficient quantities of organic matter are in the soil that will come up, in my experience. Once your have sufficient levels of organic matter in your soil compaction will not be a problem, so you should only need to aerate this once even though it can take a few years to get sufficient levels of organic matter intothe soil. Rototilling your lawn will leave you with large, bare areas for some time. Properly amending the soil will get grass, as long as what you have is what you want, growing faster. Whether rototilling the grass you have into the soil or not is good or not so good is always the question. Some grass species are very invasive and rototilling can often simply spread the grass roots around and give you more grass, but the grass does add organic matter, so it depends on which grass type you have nad how much future work you want to do. With my Quack Grass simply rototilling creates much more future work, because of the amount of grass that will grow back, than covering the area with newspaper and a mulch material which will kill the existing grass and most of the roots, even though I know I will still get some of that grass growing in that bed in the future. However, the soil is workable enough that pulling those grass plants and roots is very easy. Often a cover crop, of one of those cover crops with allelopathic (plant growth suppression properties) properties can help.