I'm sorry I forgot to say what's in the mixes. In the first picture for FALL: This mix is comprised of winter rye, field peas, ryegrass, crimson clover and hairy vetch. Vigorous late summer growth provides winter erosion control. The peas, clover and ryegrass will winter kill to provide organic matter and soil cover. The hairy vetch and winter rye will regrow in the spring to provide nutrients for crops to utilize. For the Spring Mix , in the second picture: Use as a green manure to enrich the garden with both nitrogen and organic matter. The mix contains 60% field peas, 25% oats, and 15% hairy vetch. Designed for spring sowing, but it may be sown anytime early spring through late summer. Our backyard is part of the Rocky Mountain , literally! And so to tame patches of it, since it is not level, our son weed-whacked the rag weeds and other unwanted last fall, and since my Fall mix didn't arrive until too late(didn't want it all eaten by the wild pheasants and other wild residents-might have to pellet the seeds with fine clay powder because of that), I will sow the Spring mix very early on patches maybe 10x20's on the South facing incline for additonal gardening places and let the mix do the weeding out and the fertilizing and the softening of the dirt, and the composting, to get them ready for vegetables and flowers for the year after. I am planning to always have a patch of the mixes growing for seeds, and to rotate them from one patch to the other, and intersperse their plantings with my regulars when ever possible. Bon, bref, I've been long winded,as usual. Chris

If it were me I wouldn't be digging it up either. But before I tired the Bobcat thing I'd talk to a knowledgeable excavator about the possibilities. I'd go with continued watering, hoping for some good natural rainfall to help out. I built a new 6' x 40' 12" raised island bed over the past winter. We filled it with 6 yards of premium soil, and tried to settle it without compaction as we did. I watered for several weeks and not much settling. Then we got our first good Gulf coast storm system (aka toad strangler). The result after that was a solid 1" settle. Be patient, it will settle. In the OP you mentioned irrigation and sod. I trust you haven't installed the irrigation yet, which is fortunate. An option you might want to consider for now, while you wait for nature to do the work, is to seed the area with an annual grass. Not sure what grows in your area, but there are several decent annual ryegrasses that could be used. Some local turfgrass experts should be able to guide you. Not only will that give you neat short-term coverage, which will please Ms. Punkaweedus, but the root growth action may help settle the soil. Then in the fall or next spring you can easily get rid of it and finish the project. BTW - Bobcat has many models, including some with ~ 36" width. This post was edited by TXEB on Fri, May 10, 13 at 19:03

Soil is composed of the mineral (sand, silt, clay) portion and organic matter. Terms such as "topsoil", "garden soil", "flower mix", are meaningless unless well defined. I have found, over many years, that many people think "topsoil" and loam are the same thing when they are not. :Loam is a specific soil type, "topsoil" is just the top 4 to 6 inches of soil from someplace that may, or may not, contain some organic matter. So, some "landscaper" sells a fairly decent soil mix (92 to 95 percent mineral and 5 to 8 percent organic matter) usually about 4 inches on top of soil with little to no organic matter. Simply not enough good soil for any plant that roots deeper then 4 inches. So that 5 to 8 percent organic matter quickly turns into not nearly enough. Most soils I have looked at over the last 50. or so years, have more then enough of the mineral (the sand, silt, and clay) and lacked adequate amounts of organic matter. What the soil you have needs is organic matter, not more of the mineral portion of what makes up soil.

Firstly, deep ripping would be a problem at this point, I don't have the funds to do something like that today and I have some obstacles(dry well, sprinkler supply lines) to deal with. The last time I disturb the soil(tillage) will be this year, my street has many neighbors with huge trees, I just bought a heavy duty leaf shredder, so when they place there leaves in bags for the city to collect I am going to snatch them up, grind them up, then till them up in the compost/soil layer I have now. Point taken on the smell from decomposing radish. I have thought about blue lupine and will probably integrate that into my plans. I think I will find around 8 or 10 different plants, then plant them in bunches separated by either a ground cover or some partially composted wood chips. So far my options for plants are narrowed to these for nitrogen fixation: Blue Lupine Bush Clover Crimson Clover Sweet Yellow Clover Then for organic matter: Black Eyed Susan Buckwheat Daikon Radish Sunflowers I am open to suggestions. I will not be planting like it is a field, I plan to plant just several plants of each in bunches, the bunches being arranged so the nitrogen fixers fertilize the organic matter producing plants. I have to make it look sorta decorative not to get the city on my back. I am not wanting to do any plowing after this season. I am trying to build the soil food web and will even be putting in a path of stepping stones to avoid compaction. In spring I will buy some earthworms from a bait shop then seed my front yard with them. Each year I hope to grind up my neighbors leaves to feed the worms, until they wise up and use them as nature has done for years. Then the following year I plan on planting three trees, hopefully by then I can get some worms and other organisms breaking up the soil as long as I keep supplying the organic matter. I will be collecting the above ground organic matter and making some compost for the spring in my back yard, along with any spare organic matter from my neighbors(they are throwing it away). My reasoning for this is my city has an ordinance that weeds that are cut down must be removed withing X hours. Each year I hope to have a steady stream of leaf mold and plant roots to keep the worms happy. I have attached a photo of the yard after I had tilled about 3" of compost into the top 6" of soil and had built up some raised beds.