Yes, there's quite a bit of shade, and in around 1200 square feet of front lawn about 75% of it is shaded. As I stated earlier, I pruned the trees in order to provide more light this season. I'm getting married in May and, though my lawn looks awesome, I'm referring to my fiancee's lawn which I've neglected for the past two summers. I'm trying to basically re establish the entire lawn. The existing grass covers only about 20% of the area, if that. I don't have a regular water/fertilizer schedule as I haven't done anything to it so that I can start from scratch with the seeding of the new lawn. Thanks for all your help, Elroyyboy

Regarding sustainment: I have mentioned this many times on this forum, but I know several people who raise cattle with nearly zero inputs. Calcium is an input and a few other minerals that the cattle remove from the soil, but that's all. These ranchers use no seed, fertilizer, herbicide, insecticide, miticide, dewormers, hormones, antibiotics, or anything else. They don't even irrigate. They just add water troughs and the minerals (calcium and seaweed) and that's all. They have no trouble raising fat cattle on the grass that grows in Central Texas (not known for lots of rainfall). Because they have stopped using the -icides, their land has improved markedly and continues to improve as they increase their stocking rate. These guys carry twice as many "animal units" per acre as their neighbors because they have so much healthy, natural (native) grass. Meanwhile their neighbors are buying the latest and greatest seed every year, which of course requires you to tune up your fertilizer regimen and get rid of the weeds. They also deworm their cattle which kills the dung beetles which bury the dung down in the soil where they, and other creatures, decompose it adding fertility right where Nature intended for it to be. The "organic" guys have tall grass from fenceline to fenceline while the neighbors have scrub, rocks, washouts, and very little cash at the end of the year. This is not only sustainable (except for the calcium an seaweed) but extraordinarily profitable since the inputs are so small and the stocking rate is double. And I hear people all the time saying they're lying about this or that because you can't do it that way, but they do. If you go back to a system more like what Mother Nature developed, you can sustain the system and still profit from it. But in our arrogance we have to tinker with things, and it seems we are trying to tinker ourselves out of resources.

I've never heard of ammonium sulfate being a bomb ingredient, ammonium nitrate certainly is and that's a powerful N source. You may not be able to get it at a big box store, usually the farm supply will have it. But you could use regular lawn fertilizer, like 29-3-3, probably the cheapest way for the typical shopper to get N fertilizer. The small amount of P and K will not throw things off too much even if you already have enough of those. What I would do is return that aluminum sulfate, use the organic amendments and see how things grow. If necessary you can fertilize as the season goes on. You have about 17 cu ft of stuff there. Spread out over 100 sq ft. that's about 2" of organic amendments. That's not really overdoing it if the soil is poor to begin with. I wouldn't worry about the manure, just till all that stuff in, plant and enjoy.

Well, shrubs, I don't disturb the soil much with my method of growing potatoes. I simply lay the seed potatoes on the surface and cover with mulch, usually chopped leaves. Harvesting involves pulling the mulch off and picking up the spuds. Having said that, while Ma Nature doesn't get out there with her 6 HP Troy-Bilt tiller, I don't see her growing much in the way of eggplant, peppers and tomatoes out in the wild either. I wonder why that is? I'm in favor of a program of limited tilling when it is necessary. When is it necessary? Every garden or field will be different but if the difference is not tilling and waiting years for the earthworms to do their thing so I can grow a carrot or getting organic matter into the soil and crops off it in the same year, then some form of tilling is the way to go for me. I double dig most of my raised garden beds. The disturbance of the soil structure seems to have little to no visible negative effects and I for one am not alarmed at harming the mycorrhizal fungi. Nor am I going to avoid tilling when it will benefit me in order to avoid injuring the earthworms. (Earthworms, which as noted in other threads, are noxious invaders of this northern forest I call home.) Nor will I rely soley on methods Ma Nature uses to build soil, since in my limited years left on the planet and my need to feed myself during those years, I recognize that Ma Nature has had approximately a 10,000 year head start on me in the soil-building department. Wayne