I've cut enough grass for a lifetime, I'd like to find an alternative besides letting the natural plants return. Well...have you thought about hiring a kid to mow the lawn? Seriously.If you have enough sun for grass, grass will grow. If you don't, it won't...and then you'll have something else to think about. I had a customer in the GC three weeks ago who had just "cleared his woods" but didn't know what to put in place of the scrub and brush he'd removed. Wanted enough English Ivy for 3/4 of an acre. yeah. After I picked my jaw up off the floor I explained that EI would make him miserable...poison ivy would infiltrate it...honeysuckle would infiltrate it...not to mention the mess it makes when it goes up trees. I convinced him not to plant that. Then he asked about vinca. I told him vinca was a better choice, but with 3/4 of an acre of high shade and a reasonably level lot he could do better than 3/4 of an acre of vinca minor. (He'd still have honeysuckle and PI issues...plus English Ivy that the birds would plant...) I then suggested he call a landscape designer or architect and figure out what would make his woodland garden beautiful. I'm hoping he took my advice. Yes, I lost (perhaps) a major vinca sale. But I'm hoping I saved a property owner some heartache.

Thank you for not wanting to disc the soil. Your answer is staring you in the face. Animals! When the Spanish arrived here they brought goats to clear out pastures for the cattle. After the goats cleared it initially, they ran cattle with goats at 1:1 ratio. Goats eat one kind of plant and cattle eat the other. Your "weeds" are forage, not weeds. Even if your pasture if filled with poison ivy, goats eat that stuff. Kudzu = forage. About the only plant that comes to mind immediately that is not forage is cactus, and even that becomes forage once the spines are burned off. You can seed if you want to but I would try not seeding and see what grows after the animals paw around in it and fertilize it for you. I would also cross fence the area so that the animals are relatively contained for a couple weeks at a time. Electric fence is very cheap. After they have mowed the area pretty clean, move them to fresh (contained) pasture. Assuming you don't live in total desert, I would start at a rate of 400 pounds of animals per acre and keep them moving. Starting with seven acres, I would cross fence that into 10-15 smaller paddocks of 3/4 acre or less. Then put about 4-6 goats in the first one for a week and see how that goes. If they don't clear the area in a week, leave them a few more days. If they clear it faster, then you have too many goats for the forage. Move them through the various paddocks until in 10-20 weeks they return to the first one. By then you should have new growth. If you do not then you need to sell some goats - at least they will be well fed. If what you have when the goats return is all grass, then it's time for a calf.

HmmmÂOrganic proponents on an Organic Message Board, imagine that if you will? cerister I can identify with your dilemma of gardening on clay, for I too have solid clay soil. I live on a solid clay hill that has mixed in gravel along with patches weeds donÂt even grow on. The first year I tried to till in the spot I wanted a garden in, but my brand new tiller wouldnÂt even break the surface. I had go find a farmer with a tiller on his tractor to break the clay. The first year only weeds grew in the spot along with Bermuda grass, I considered that progress. The second year I found out about organic gardening, went and got about six pickup truck loads of compost and tilled that in. I also learned about compost teas as well as other teas that I began to use. That year I grew some great vegetables on the spot along with plenty of weeds mixed in. Again, progress in my eyes from where I started. The next year I learned about mulching, that made the difference. Mulching over a layer of compost eliminated the need to till, and I havenÂt had to use the tiller since. I am not saying I wonÂt till again, but the link to "The PloughmanÂs Folley" motivated me to get a disc to pull behind my riding lawn tractor, the results are better than progress, I will call it success. I donÂt count worms; I count baskets of vegetables I bring in all summer and fall. You have gotten some very good suggestions, and I too suggest you do whatever you feel good about, for nothing will change if you donÂt do something. I will say compost, compost tea, organic fertilizers, and mulch will, in the end will get you where you want to go. That has been the experience I have had in this hot Georgia sun, planting on this world famous rock hard red Georgia clay. kathyp When I moved here I didnÂt have a lawn, unless growing rocks count. As I said earlier, my tiller would not break the surface of the clay. What I did to the lawn is I started using compost tea on the area I wanted a lawn. My yard is a little over three acres or more, thus I made a lot of compost tea. I did some research and found very good information from Dchall and followed it. Today I have the thickest, greenest, fastest growing lawn on this end of the county. Let me say again, if you do use compost tea or any other tea or lawn amendments on your yard, you will have to cut your grass regularly and high. The teas are not a danger to children or pets and do work in a season. I have found that the clay gets softer under your feet and the grass, if you want to call it that, will spread without seeding. Did I mention my grass grows thick and very, very fast? I would suggest you look at the FAQ on lawn care before you grab that tiller. I know my arms and back is grateful for what I learned, the lawn, flowerbeds, and garden look great and give the results I have come to love and appreciate. That is my experience, am wishing you both success in your gardening adventure Blutranes ...

Improving soil conditions - if corn was grown on the site for years your soil is certainly depleted. My veggie garden is on a former corn/soy field and had been reduced to pure sand. Over the years it has mostly received organic matter, in my case primarily sawdust and manure from my neighbor's stables. Now the soil is pretty black and everything grows like crazy. The only other additives I put in were some lime and rock dust. Things may be different where you are, you could have clay. If you do, you need to dig it up and add as much organic matter as you can. If it is sand, after the first year's digging you can just add organic matter to the surface, and the worms will take it into the soil. To much digging will over-aerate sand and cause the organic matter to break down to quickly. Since you want to grow hummingbird and butterfly plants, most of which want well drained conditions, think of mounding up your beds so water drains off. Long relatively narrow beds are better to work in. You don't want to be compacting the soil by walking on it, so six feet wide is about it.