In Chicago it is a great time to core aerate and then broadcast 50 lbs./per acre of straight Kentucky bluegrass (no ryegrass or fescue) and slow release starter fertilizer. If you have a tractor you can purchase a pull behind core aerator. For a smaller lot you can rent a walk behind aerator or hire someone to do that. Landscape supply places like John Deere Landscape supply sell KGB in 50 pound bags. Start by mowing the lawn as close as you can. Next core aerate very thoroughly, making sure that the plugs you pull out are bout two inches deep or so. Go over it a few times so the thing is just peppered with holes and plugs. Then get your broadcast spreader out to put the seed and starter fertilizer down. Water it like crazy to keep it wet, and nature will take over with cooler temps and some more rain as we head into the Fall. I would hit it one more time with starter fertilizer in about 4 weeks and THEN see what you have in the Spring. I am betting (based on my experience doing this in Chicago) that you will be very happy with the results.

Hi Jenn. I've used John Rowley's Interbay Mulch method of composting with great success on an existing raised bed of amended clay garden soil. As long as you have a good mixture of varied ingredients, without too many browns or too many greens predominating, Interbay Mulch should work for you. It's also important to make sure the ingredients stay moist. (Like the ingredients in a compost heap, somewhere close to the dampness of a well wrung out sponge.) And like a compost heap, it helps if the ingredients don't pack down so much that there is no air flow. You want air to continually circulate so the decomposition stays aerobic. You ask about mixing native soil into the layers of the pile as you're building it. If it was me, I'd drop the extra soil at the bottom of the pile, and keep any mixing to a handful of soil per square yard, per 1-2" layer deep. This will help the ingredients to be primed with the existing local soil microherd, but it's really not necessary -- the local microherd is already omnipresent on all the living and dead things in our gardens, fields and forests. :) However, some gardeners advocate for adding clay soil to compost heaps as a growth site for nitrogen-fixing soil bacteria. Personally, I've done both and haven't noticed much difference. YMMV. Any grass, including grass with ripe seeds, which you add to an Interbay Mulch pile, is likely to get consumed pretty darn quick by the microherd. (Although if you have persistant stubborn perennial weed grasses like crabgrass, you may want to keep them out, or keep them to the center of the heaps. Others here could likely advise you better on that issue, if it may be a problem for you.) Some years ago I built an IM heap in the fall. It was originally stacked up about 4-5 feet tall on an 8' x 4' raised clay bed, but it slumped a foot or two within the month. Then I built it back up to the original height, covered it, and left it alone until the following spring. When the snow melted and warm weather arrived, I removed the cover and started raking thru the largely decomposed ingredients. Aside from fresh wood branches over 1/4" thick, nearly everything had broken down into a rich brown-black compost. The breakdown was far more rapid than I usually see here with standard passive compost heaps -- and far more uniform throughout the pile. Even the larger wood branches which remained whole had been stripped of their bark, and the bark reduced to fragments the size of small wood chips or less. There was about 8-10" of compost left once all the branches were removed. I raked it smooth, covered it with a leaf mulch then a wood chip mulch, and transplanted thru it all into the soil surface. The tomato, pepper and basil plants in that area of the garden produced bountifully the following summer, with no weed, pest, or disease problems. Just make sure you follow the standard composting guidelines. Varied ingredients with a good balance of browns and greens; damp as a wrung out sponge; pile loosely so there's room for airflow. Summer rainfall here where I live is enough to guarantee any IM or other compost heap usually stays moist. Depending on your local weather, you may want to check the heap once every few weeks to make sure it hasn't dried out. I found IM a surprisingly fast, efficient and low-effort way to produce large volumes of compost. But if I was doing it again, I'd reduce the number of green branches over 1/4" thick. Though older and thinner deadwood broke down quite well, for me. Good luck! All the best, -Patrick p.s. When I built my IM heap, I had no burlap handy. So I covered the pile with a single layer of the heavy brown paper from torn-open yard waste bags. Weighted down with light boards and small stones, they kept the heap dark and moist enough to keep working through the winter.

I would probably put on a layer about 2 inches thick. The greenwaste component can be a pretty significant contributor to salinity, primarily in the form of soluble potassium. The manure can also be a significant source of sodium and/or boron depending on the horse's diet. It should work well but don't go too crazy. With a silt and clay content of around 60%, leaching will happen relatively slowly, especially in regards to boron. As far as where the potassium is coming from: Both the manure and green waste components are likely contributing to some extent. But the greenwaste (as alluded to above) is a blockbuster source of potassium. Also, when it says "excessive" for potassium, that's just a label that the computer program spits out based on the level measured. It's thinking of that sample as a mineral soil, not a compost. Apples and oranges. -Fertilizer is NOT a soil amendment.....Someone please correct me if I'm wrong, but they are NOT the same thing lol. Fertilizers are soil amendments as are gypsum, sulfur, lime, compost, etc. -Soil amendments are meant to improve drainage, structure, and such. Those are typically "organic" amendments like compost, shavings, bark, peat, etc. There are also inorganic materials that have a similar function like calcined clay and lassenite. -....balancing the Ca and Mg levels? As one of the articles in the current issue of Organic Gardening magazine says having nutrients in balance is more important than the actual amounts. I'm gonna go out on a limb and say that Ca:Mg ratios of 10 1/2 and 11 1/2 in the 'Hostas' and 'Roses' samples respectively will be okee dokee. ;) By the way, I have to raise an eyebrow at the organic content of 3.7% in your compost. By dry weight I would be shocked if it was anything lower than 40% (and that would be really low). The only thing I can think of is that they might be using what's called a Walkley-Black or other "titration / acid digestion" method to determine organic content like you would on a relatively low organic mineral soil. Those methods typically don't break down the larger organic "chunks" completely and, consequently, they wouldn't show as part of the organic content. But even then 3.7 would be really low. I think something went hay wire on them with that number.

Our rain is unpredictable. Technically we are listed at 30" per year but........ That depends. We have been in that same drought you are probably in for the last several years but sometimes we get a lot so its hard to plan what to grow, its crazy making. This spring was real wet and I had some plants suffer. I'm on a slope with good drainage so that helps. The last few summers had straight endless weeks of daily 100+ temps with no rain almost all summer. We also have high humidity during periods in summer, it depends on what the weather decides to do to us, we are at its mercy in so many ways. I don't do hardly any watering here. Its survival of the fittest but I will relent when weeks have gone by on certain plants or if I am establishing something new. All the kinds of Miscanthus need supplemental water in summer here. The ones around here died in the last few years unless they were irrigated and many of them looked like crap from the heat. The Pennisetum grasses need a lot of watering or else they look bad. I avoid both of these thirsty grasses. Since we have been so dry in the last several years, it should give a good idea of what will do OK for you there on such little rain, but 5" is extreme, ouch! The muhlys all look great without any supplemental water, including the regal mist. I read that M. rigens thrives on drought. I believe it, mine grew fast in that dry heat and was as healthy looking as you could ask for, same for the Pine Muhly. The M. lindhemeiri gets much bigger with more water but did fine during the drought. These really vary in size a lot depending on conditions. I had one growing by the air conditioner drain and it was a monster in size while the ones growing dry were much smaller. In Texas where the drought was much worse, some of the muhly's went dormant and looked awful in 2012 but I think they came back OK from what I read on the Texas Forum. They seem to be programmed to withstand the drought. I know you would do very well with the Sacaton wrightii. I bought 4 of those improved huge sized ones for a 'hedge" that they sell at High Country Gardens and didn't like it. It grows very very fast but the leaves are sort of wide and it wasn't to my liking like the unimproved ones I grew from seeds and replaced it with. I also bought that Muhly lindheimerii/capillaris hybrid one called 'Flamingo'. Its gorgeous. As an isolated specimen that improved Sacaton might do well for you if you want a TRUE MONSTER Grass. The Ravenne grass seems to be made of cast iron. These cook along the highways and look fine, no watering. They are common along with Crepe Myrtle and Chaste Trees which all seem to be indestructible here. The grass stands real straight and very tall. We are so windy here, most of the trees trunks lean toward the north, but not the grass. I always consider the highway test as 100% reliable on drought hardiness. All of the native grasses you mentioned are also used a lot in that way. The Mexican Feather Grass is often planted with pink blooming hesperaloe and thats a nice drought hardy combination. The Switch Grasses are used too in mass plantings along the roads and seem to do fine with little water here. I think they will do well either wet or dry. I'm so jealous you got to go to Plants of the Southwest. I would love to visit the nursery sometime. I have two desert Four O'Clocks I started from seed I got from them last fall. I have tried the Feather Dalea seeds without luck four years now. I can get them to germinate but then they die. I have good luck with various penstemon, Russian Sage, Lantana, Blackfoot Daisy, Desert Marigolds, Salvia Greggii and Flame Acanthus but not Agastache. I see other people growing it but mine always die. I don't know why. I have lots (too many) of kinds of cactus and cold hardy agave but the cats don't seem to mind them. The Apache Plume gets real thick if you prune it back hard in spring. Its very ornamental, at least to me, but I have weird taste or at least I seem to be in a tiny minority when it comes to plant tastes. Other ones I have that I love are Mormon Tea and Winterfat, you probably have that growing wild there too. I like the looks of the silver nightshade a lot, maybe I should investigate it a bit more. I don't want invasives.