I own a JD LT-155 Kohler 15hp, I have 0.77 of an acre, about 0.5 in grass. The tractor and trailer are used for miscellaneous yard task; planting, clean, up, flower bed, hauling dirt/mulch, etc. The tractor has a 2 gal. gas tank and I can mow about 3 times on a tank. I do my own service work including sharpening the blade. I purchase a tune up kit from JD. (2qt oil, Oil/gas/air filters, spark plug) for about 40 dollars once per year. I spend about $10 per year for miscellaneous things light bulbs, wax, etc. I have had the tractor for about 10 years and had to replace a mower belt about $70??? and broke the wheel off of the deck when I hit a tree root, $90 When I got it, I had the service performed by the local JD farm equipment dealer, but because of cost about($300/event pickup, delivery, parts and service) do it myself. I assume I will have to have the tractor serviced by the dealer in the next couple of years. I expect to have to have the blades sharpened by a professional and replace them in the next several year about $50. At some time in the future will probable have to buy new tires at about $50 a piece That is balanced by the fun of riding around on the tractor and taking the grandchildren rides in the trailer through the wooded back part of the yard. Also,the time I filled a large shallow hole in the yard. With my wife in the trailer and I driving the tractor we rode over the new dirt to pack it down. We were laughing like fools as we talked about what the neighbors were thinking about the old couple going round and round in the front yard

I get the urge to pontificate based on personal experience, knowledge or pedigree — Im often guilty of that myself. But if you’ve ever struggled with heavey clay soil - and tried almost everything with little to no results — you might be more open to TRYING the product before teeing off on all the reasons it can’t work. Sure there’s a lot of ”snake oil” peddled online these days. But I was desperate to try to improve my Heavy Clay Soil bc no matter what I tried — copius layers of organic matter, compost, grass clippings, leaves, various soil amendments — I still had a slow draining mud pit in the Spring that you couldn’t even dig or till unless the conditions were perfect. Too dry and you got hydrophobic dust and too wet, you got clumps and mud balls that then dried into small bricks with almost no chance of being able to break them up once dried. This cycle kept repeating — until 3 months ago when I ordered a bottle of Claymend. I fully expected to be disappointed but maybe see some marginal improvement at the micro level as I had tried all the macro level things. I did the extra work of chiseling and digging my beds up to break the hard pan into clumps and clods as best I could, mostly to just try to expose more surface area knowing I was going to be applying the claymend. The label said you can apply a heavier application than standard with no ill effects — which I did. and since it was Fall and I wanted to accelerate things if possible to see how the over Winter results might be, I did a 2nd application withing about a week or 10 days just to get more product working on my wretched soil. I watered it in hoping it would leach into the soil cracks and work some magic. I did also add some commercial nursery compost ( a couple inch layer) and mixed it in the 1st 6 inches of clumps and clay — but I had done this many times in past with little and very temporary improvements. **Fast Forward 2.5 months to late December and I just accidentally went up to my garden for a look bc we got a couple beautiful sunny days. I was stunned by the look and composition of that 50’ bed. I’ve never seen it look that way — Zero Clods or Clumps and the most grainy, beautiful texture I had ever seen for that bed. I couldn’t resist grabbing the Garden Fork and sinking it in. WOW. Just Wow! That bed was Amazing and I could easily till it with the garden fork and found there were Zero compactions, zero clumps — only beautiful dark soil that was easily turned and what I would call the PERFECT composition for planting / growing. Not only perfect composition — but No waterlogged, soggy or muddy components to it at all, which Ive NEVER seen in that bed — Ever. It was stunning. At first I was thinking it was the Fall Compost I added — then I was back in the garage and saw the bottle of Claymend I’d left out to remind me that I wanted to add it again in early Spring — and That’s when I recalled Adding the Claymend back in early October which I’d completely forgotten about. I went back and inspected the bed again and in very short order, I had run the garden fork through the entire 50’ bed with ease and confirmed that it was all the same — and for lack of a better word — completely ”transformed” from the heavy, rock-hard clay from when I started. No Joke — it Transformed that dirt and I am completely stunned at how it worked for me. So laugh or scoff or continue to look for reasons why it couldn’t work as advertised — or shell out a few bucks and TRY IT (if your soil needs it). I’ll bet you will become a believer. I’ve never seen anything like the results I got. So a couple more nice days and I was out digging up 2 more 25’ beds into the soggy, muddy, waterlogged clayballs that have been tormenting me for years. I broke up what i could and applied a generous coating of the Claymend over these beds bc based on the results in my 1st 50’ bed, I want to see what will happen by Spring in these troublesome beds too. I did not add any compost, just the Claymend so we’re going to see what happens. It rained a decent amount so I went back and dug the fork down even deeper (?12-14” or so) to bring up even more big clay chunks and expose more surface area and crevices. Then I sprayed another application to try to get all the clumps and clods and hope that it will leach even better into the beds and enhance my results by Spring. You can call me crazy, but within a couple days of that, you can literally SEE the changes happening and the difference in the soil. Yes, there was some rain, but the Clods and clumps appear to be literally ”melting” away and the texture of the dirt is looking remarkably similar to the 1st bed that has been percolating for 2.5 months. I’m super excited to see what will happen by Spring. In one final test — I decided to just spray a light application on the surface of my last 50’ bed and did nothing to till or mix it in and Im just going to see what happens with that. You can quibble with the science of ”how” it works. But if you try it — you won’t quibble at all with the results.

Yup, and some no-mow or low-mow turf mixes also include fescues in addition to the buffalo grass, etc. To my eye, they can be a reasonable alternative, provided fast and large-growing annual weeds don't gain too much of a foothold. And of course, if they do, broadleaf herbicides will take them out, though of course, that is one of the management regimes you're trying to avoid. Then there's my lawn: Once a pretty good stand of K. bluegrass and fescues, with a little perennial rye still in the mix, over time, what has happened is that the Glechoma (creeping jenny, sonofabitch, various other names) and the wild blue violets have so proliferated that that is pretty much what I've got now. The Glechoma smells good when it gets mowed, appears to be foot-traffic ready as any turfgrass, and requires multiple herbicide applications to be gotten rid of. The violets? Nothing short of total lawn re-do is going to get them. For now, I'm just living with it. +oM

Thanks for the website, it was very interesting and a great source for various types of grass seed and what they are like. But, pickseed does not sell directly to the public, infact, they only deal with one other company, suregro, which also does not deal with the public, they sell to large accounts such as CIL, Home Depot, and other big box retailers... Both name brand seed and store brands... Seems that Pickseed and Suregro are behind most seed sourcing / production for all of at least Eastern Canada... Talk about a monopoly... So, I am still left wondering where I may source individual varieties of grass seed at a reduced cost to just buying EcoLawn... I'll have to have a look around. But a bag of 100% Sheeps Fescue or Creeping Red Fescue for my own blending may be harder to come by then I hoped...