Head on over to your local Clemson Extension office and have a talk with your agent. Don't worry about your analysis being old -- especially if you haven't done anything to your soil. Other Key questions: What type of grasses are you trying to grow -- Centipede takes a totally different care regime than Fescue or Bahia... What is your soil PH What soil type do you have? Now.... Looking at my recent analysis -- those are all Lbs/Acre -- not PPM measurements... P looks really low K looks medium low Ca should be plenty Mg is probably OK My guess is that you are going to be using some sort of balanced "premium" slow release fertilizer with minor elements -- like a 10-10-10 slow release or a 17-17-17 slow release... But It is going to be totally dependent on the type of grass and your soil type. Thanks

"just me 6" ... I agree with Kimmsr that you want to get the lime in there to start working, BUT I don't know that I think doing so before the builder levels things out makes sense. I just picture you distributing the lime well across the top of the soil, and the bulldozer coming and scraping the top 3 inches away here and filling in a dip there ... resulting in a really uneven distribution of the lime. If I were you I'd wait. If I read you right, we're just talking about waiting until Tuesday or Wednesday; I think waiting a few days is worthwhile to increase the chances you get your lime distributed pretty evenly. As to improving your "nasty sticky clay soil" ... lime will fix the pH, but I don't think it will affect the texture. You want better "tilth" ... not sure if a search on that word here will bring up articles that will help. Adding lots of organic material is the single best way to improve your tilth, for a variety of reasons. First, just mechanically, having lots of bits of organic stuff in between the sticky bits separates them and lets air and water in. Next, the soil beasties that are going to eat that organic stuff will, in the process, glue some of the clay particles together into aggregates (bigger bits), which tend to permit air and water to penetrate around/between them. Do you have a source of free municipal mulch? By that, I mean ground up leaves that a nearby city collected in the fall, let sit over the winter, and puts out for you to take the following year? That can be good stuff or it can be garbage-y. I have a couple of cities around me to choose from, and have a clear preference for one over another.... Alternately, if you're willing and able to spend, get a truckload of compost from a local nursery. Go there first to see what they'll sell you. My nursery sells it for $35/yard, and they're selling pretty nice stuff (ground a lot finer than the municipal free stuff, looks more decomposed, maybe is in a more managed pile over the winter?). Till it in to your soil after the builder and before you first plant. Then add more to the perennial beds. And keep adding more to any plants that can be mulched (nearly everything except grass) forever more. (Wood and bark mulches last longer, but ground up leaves feed the soil better.) By the way, don't let anyone sell you topsoil. You have plenty of the mineral component of soil already. You want more of the organic component, and that's the only part it makes any sense to pay anyone to haul to you. Don't let them talk you into a mix of compost and topsoil either ... that would be better for their profit, but not better for you. (UNLESS you have a shallow area you want to fill ... but then, the builder should fix that, right?) I know, I'm not giving a lot of advice on the soil test. But you asked how to make sticky clay better, and in my flower beds, compost and leaf mulch are what does it. - LCPW p.s. On the "posey power" ... hard to say without knowing what it is, and some facts about what KIND of clay you have. I have learned here that one kind of clay actually can be broken up well by a chemical additive that nurseries sell. But many many folks have asked about it and knowledgeable folks here have said, "you're in a part of the country with clay that won't be helped by that in the least". I'd say don't do it until you know more.

Extremely nice! At the moment, I think we give you the crown for Best Soil Test of 2015, although that's subject to change. Adjustments here are minimal. Can you tell me your location and grass type, if you know it? I'm going to make recommendations for a northern lawn for starters, but may need to move things around a little if you're down south. EC 12.1: Probably a mostly-silt soil, perhaps with some sand and/or clay. This is a nice number as it's high enough to hold a nice amount of resources but not so high that we can't change the balances as we have to. pH 7.2: No barrier to a perfectly gorgeous lawn, although this is a little high going by the textbook. I'll discuss this under the thing that cause it--calcium, potassium, and magnesium. OM 5.2: Very firmly in the Good range. I wouldn't mind seeing it go to Excellent (6%+), but this is hardly an emergency. Certainly consider organic feeding, and always mulch mow your fall leaves. Sulfur 19: A very nice answer with some margin to it, which is good as I'm going to recommend adding some sulfur-based items below. Phosphorus 136: A little lowish, kind of. My target here is 200, this is close enough that there's no deficiency. However, the lawn isn't performing quite as well as it could with more phosphorus, so I've recommended application of starter below. Get the cheapest starter fertilizer with a high second number, like 20-27-5 or 18-24-6. Calcium 72%: A touch on the high side, but not a problem and this won't cause any issues in your lawn (except perhaps for some slight color loss). Certainly avoid calcium sources like any kind of lime for at least this year. Magnesium 19.6%: Right at the top of the normal range, which I actually consider rather high. Not a problem, although your soil might be tighter and harder to dig than you might like. Avoid lime as it contains magnesium (dolomitic). Potassium 2.9%: While right in normal range, I'd like to enhance this a little bit. Local garden stores or landscape places can order potassium sulfate (sulfate of potash) for you. Or it's available online. Recommendations below. Sodium 1.2%: While a touch higher than I like to see, this is not causing a problem just yet. Sodium in higher amounts is toxic, so this does bear watching just to make sure it's not going up. Minor Elements: All perfect. I do discuss iron below, however. Iron 163: Well within normal range and not deficient. At your pH, however, this isn't going to produce the best color, and your color in most wet soils or using elite grasses will be tolerable at best. Application of Milorganite whenever you like will very slowly raise this, and deliver a large quantity of immediately-available iron until it binds up (which happens fast at a pH of 7.2). Recommendations: May 23 or so: Apply starter fertilizer at bag rate. June 15: Apply 1 pound per thousand square feet of potassium sulfate. September 1: Apply starter fertilizer at bag rate. September 15: Apply 1 pound per thousand square feet of potassium sulfate. October 1: Apply starter fertilizer at bag rate.

In addition to tox's very good comments, let me add this. We tend to think of stuff like compost, composted manures, chopped leaves, grass clippings, etc. as organic matter when they should really be considered as organic material. There is a significant difference. The organic 'materials' will continue to break down and decompose over time and shrink as much as 90% in volume before they actually become organic 'matter'. Organic material is very temporary and changeable - organic matter is pretty stable in the soil. It is the relatively permanent and stable levels of organic matter that soil labs test for (if they do that type of testing). So a 50-50 mix of soil and compost is unlikely to be an excessive amount of OM......once it fully breaks down - which will happen quite rapidly, usually within a single growing season - it should put you somewhere in the 5-8% range that is most desirable. Based on how this process actually works, I would argue that it is pretty near impossible to have too much organic matter!! I wrote about this in another thread and included this LINK that you might find useful and explains this concept very well. btw, I would not be concerned about adding any rabbit manure - the level of potassium it contains is negligible.