If you are going Organic, you really can not over do your applications. Lawn Restore is a good product, but you can also use Corn Meal or Cracked Corn, Soy Bean Meal and Milorganite (5-2-0 with 4% iron) to give you some diversity. Used Coffee Grounds can be used, if you can find a good source. In the fall, you can mulch mow leaves others throw away curb side and add lots of organic matter for free to your yard. It usually take 3-4 passes to make them disappear. Your neighbors will think you are crazy, but you can not deny the results. I applied 350lbs of organics / 1000 ft2 last year. Hoping to hit 500+ this year. Now for the clay, you can use a soil conditioner and wetting agent to loosen it up. This with the organics will open up the soil over a few years. Humic Acid, Dried Kelp and Black Strap Molasses can help energize the microbes in the soil and get things moving quickly in the spring. NC Agronomic agency soil tests are free and get you in the ball park. Although, once you dial the soil in, you may want to use a lab that gives you more details so you can tweak the other elements in your soil (Boron, Copper, Manganese, Zinc and Iron) Using lime (whether Calcitic or Dolomitic) is important and which one you use will help you with your pH and Calcium to Magnesium ratio (7:1 is what you are shooting for). Calcitic is usually 5x the price, but has 5x the Calcium. S http://forums2.gardenweb.com/forums/load/soil/msg0311011017714.html Lastly, NCState as a NTEP testing site for grasses. If you want the best results, using the best grass for this area is key. Typically the big box stores are not the best place. Online you can order exactly what you want. http://www.ntep.org/tf.htm Just read the results for the NC testing center and you can get an idea of which varieties you will want. In the end, you are probably not too far off. Since you enjoy it, adding a few more pieces to your schedule should improve your results.

I hate to be so particular about it but boy is it frustrating to come home from work to find a car with its passenger tires on your nicely edged lawn. I'm considering curbing, but hate to make the investment since the property edge line is within easement that the municipality owns. I don't know what the risk is that I would spend the money and they would come and remove it.

LOL! Thank you. Yes, pretty much all of them, except the climbers, Hugonis, Roxburghii and the Ausins (which aren't worth the effort in this climate) are now moved to new homes. Engineered soil requires mechanical digging to excavte a hole. Refill it with the native, unamended soil and plant on top of the uncompacted mound. It will settle with time and the "bucket" you've created will eventually collect water. The difference is, that is all very much inorganic sub soil which often has ground water in it. Inorganic material doesn't sour when submerged under water. The deeper tap and anchor roots of pretty much any plant is suited to finding that kind of water and making good use of it. The feeder roots remain in the upper inches which are initially above grade but which will settle with time to about the soil grade level, and will spread out in the upper layer of "top soil" always installed over the engineered soil. That's the issue with planting trees in the stuff. The builders place a thin (often much less than a foot) of "top soil" (read "dirt") over the engineered soil bed then plant in excavated holes which the roots can't penetrate due to lack of air space and drainage. The tree roots grow to the surface where there is oxygen and where they splay out under the turf, resulting in surface roots running in all directions. Some tree and shrubs generate them naturally, such as liquid amber and pepper trees. When planted in engineered soil, their bad traits are exacerbated to the extreme. I plan to have them mechanically removed and the soil excavated to create a bed of loosened sub soil. All organics will go on top of that layer where they will break down and condtion the loosened sub soil as they digest. White Birch? Nope. Hateful things. Not that they aren't "pretty", but they are much prettier where they are suited, meaning where there isn't aridity, alkalinity and saltiness and where there aren't drying winds and extreme sun and heat. They like cooler, damper climates where their foliage doesn't fry easily, much like avocados and Japanese Maples do. Birches generate a tremendously thick, dense, fibrous root mass under the turf, very much like a carpet backing. I've dealt with many people who love the look of the birches and who virtually always want pansies planted around their trunks to flush out the "Connecticut in the desert" look they desire. Try it once. It doesn't succeed here. The only way to accomplish it is to create a planter around the trunks using large stones; lay in a heavy plastic liner and fill it with potting soil. The stones hold it in place and hide the edges of the plastic from view and support the soil. Do NOT puncture the plastic sheeting or the tree roots will inflitrate the potting soil in a matter of weeks, destroying the whole project. Then plant the annuals you want in the potting soil. IF you're lucky, it will take a year for the tree roots to grow up between the stones and the plastic liner before they infiltrate the soil in it and kill the annuals. I've repeated that process around the same birch trees for the past eight or so years and it has worked as long as there are no drainage holes to give access to the tree roots. When you replant, you often have to rip it all apart and surgically remove the tree root infested root ball, cutting it away from the ground, then replacing the stones and a new liner with new soil and new plants. Because the surface of the makeshift planter is wide enough and it isn't deep, any water that fills the bottom of the liner is either utilized by the annuals, or evaporates quickly enough to prevent it from souring. I have seen that birch root mass literally expand, pushing Schedule 40 PVC sprinkler lines to the point of shattering. Their roots are perfect for stabilizing creek banks, nearly eliminating erosion. They aren't good to deal with in any area you hope to be able to actually PLANT anything in. If the trees are young, without a great deal of spread yet, you can establish beds of agapanthus or other invasive types and they can do battle quite effectively with the tree roots. A friend has that combination around the front of his home where they have successfully growth together for over thirty years. But once the trees are established and those bloody roots have generated their characteristic mass, you are NOT getting a shovel into the ground from outside their drip zones anywhere near the trunks. Hateful things. Kim

Who laid your sod? All those seams from the sod should not be lined up and should have been laid in a brick pattern. It's not a huge mistake, but the reason you lay it in a brick pattern is to keep the sod pieces from shifting. I would not apply any weed n feed products or pre emergents until your sod has rooted together and you can no longer see the seams in the lawn. Once you start seeing the lawn green up start watering it to keep the soil underneath moist and then you can apply a starter fertilizer or a balanced fertilizer like 10-10-10. You are better off spot spraying the weeds over using a weed n feed product. The weed n feed product don't usually work all that well and cost a lot more. Just be sure not to spray weeds when the temps are over 85F as it may harm your lawn. Once all the seams are gone you can start using the Scott's Turf Builder for the rest of the season. You want to apply 1 lb of Nitrogen every 4-6 weeks, this will help keep the grass healthy and choke out a lot of the weeds.