It is very common for developers/builders to remove the top soil and sell it before they even pound one nail in any houses they are going to build. However, it is also very common for lawn guys to use this as the perfect excuse for why your lawn looks bad. Look around the neighborhood, do all the lawns look equally bad or is it just your house? It is likely that you have to have a few inches of top soil just maybe not as much as we would like. Depending on your budget you have a few options. If you don't have any budgetary concerns I would contact a reputable landscaper and have her put together a quote to install a new lawn with plenty of topsoil. You should get at least three estimates and have them hold off on the work until August. Spending that much money on an install in spring is a bad idea because you would have many weed and crabgrass issues. Any good landscaper could have you with a picture perfect lawn by September. Not all landscapers are good. The second option would be to continue to treat your lawn and attempt to build it slowly. You will need to have patience and a tolerance for some weeds. If there are bare areas or parts of the lawn that are thin I would suggest you make an attempt to seed them now, however, as I said before, seeding in the spring time is never particularly effective. Temperatures and competition from grassy weeds usually leave you with less than perfect results. If it is possible you should rent a core aerator (or hire someone to aerate) and then over seed the entire lawn with a mix that includes mostly improved rye grasses. (I am assuming your lawn is mostly sun and not a lot of shade) Rye grass will germinate faster than any other type of grass. (using bluegrass or tall fescue will result in about a month of waiting for the seed to germinate. Rye grass will come up quick) Make sure you water effectively if mother nature doesn't provide enough. It will be very important that you make a concerted effort to water properly and set your mower at the highest setting it will allow. Mow high all spring and summer to crowd out weeds and crabgrass. NEVER EVER mow your lawn during the heat of the day when temps are over 85 degrees. This is very important....do NOT mow your lawn during the heat of the day. Finally, you should get on some type of a program to help feed your lawn and your soil. A chemical program would be the easiest, cheapest and most convenient but probably not the most effective. (The tech you get treating your lawn will probably be a hard working person but not particularly knowledgeable and his/her goal is to sell you more stuff) With topsoil that is less than great you will want to improve it as best you can. Synthetic, chemical fertilizers won't do that although they may help your lawn to grow and be green. An organic program would slowly build your soil and promote some good biological activity below the grass. You should also look into compost tea. Remember; seed now, water effectively, mow HIGH, feed the soil and have patience!!!!! Good luck!!! Oh, by the way...stay away from corn gluten if your seeding.

What I have seen happen, around here, with new developments is someone comes in and strips the "topsoil" to go to some other development and then after the houses are built they haul in more "topsoil" and spread a thin layer and either lay sod or seed that. Then people try to keep that lawn growing by pouring a lot of "fertilizer" on it which can make for a lush green, but sick lawn with numerous problems that then need pesticides to control. Short of tilling in what yuu have and starting over spreading compost is a good idea, mulch mow the grass to recycle in place those grass clippings which will help add more organic matter to the soil. If you have deciduous trees those leaves that fall from them every year can be mulch mowed in to provide evenmore organic matter. What organic matter will do in sandy soils is help keep moisture and nutrients in the root zone so the grass plants can be fed by the soil bacteia that digest that organic matter. In clay soils the OM seperates the soil particles so the plants roots can move about more freely and makes moisture and nutrients more readily available. Compost tea can provide some bacteria, and nutrients, tht would then feed on the organic matter in the soil. However, soils lacking sufficient levels of OM won't have much of anything for those bacteria to feed on so spraying the compost tea would be, largely, a waste of time, energy, and maybe money. Molasses can provide a food source for soil bacteria, if they are present because of adequate levels of organic matter. Spraying molasses onto soils lacking sufficient amounts of organic matter will not do much except waste your time, energy, and money.

Welcome to organic lawn care (not the forum but the concept)! We'll need a little more information about your situation but a lot of modern theory behind it applies almost universally. Compost is not the ultimate solution anymore. It never was but nobody knew any better. King Compost was the idea of Rodale and those who followed him up until the early 2000s. In the 1990s there was DNA research on the soil that revealed the secret to why organic fertilizer worked and compost had only limited value. The secret is microbes - tens of thousands of them. Prior to that revelation it was believed there might have been tens of microbes living in the soil. Tens of thousands opened up so many concepts of interdependent food chains that the global food chain in the soil was named the soil food web. It is the soil food web that creates plant food, plant medicines, vitamins, minerals, enzymes, and really everything that happens inside the gut of a higher order species of animals. Then the solution to making organic gardening work became food instead of compost. Compost has no food value left in it. Food is all food. The food that we use is made from cereal grain sources and other nuts, beans, and plant materials high in protein. If you look at a bag of commercially bagged organic fertilizer you'll see corn, wheat, alfalfa, soy, flax, cottonseed, feather meal, and some animal byproducts. Commercially bagged fertilizer costs about $0.65 per pound in quantity. However, if you visit your local feed store you'll find the same materials in 50-pound sacks for something like $0.30 per pound. The cost used to be more like $0.06 per pound but that is certainly changing. In any case what most of us do is buy bagged alfalfa pellets or soy bean meal at the feed store. The application rate is 20 pounds per 1,000 to start. You can go up to 50 or 60 pounds per thousand if you have the budget for it. Most don't. Red thread and rust are two fungal diseases that will not be touched by corn meal. I've never had those but I have been reading this and other forums for about 10 years and that is the combined intelligence from the readers here. For other fungal diseases, as kimmsr said a large number of readers/writers here have had success with ordinary corn meal applied at 20 pounds per 1,000 square feet to eradicate an existing disease. Having said that, many also report that it has not worked for them. What I know is that I would not have a lawn at all were it not for corn meal. I'm a strong advocate for it, but not for red thread or rust. Your soil is not sterile. It is unfed. As soon as you feed it with real feed, it will respond with an unbelievable flush or dark green growth. I'll post a picture to show an example. This photo was posted almost a year ago here on Gardenweb. It is mrmumbles zoysia lawn. He applied alfalfa pellets in May and took the picture in June. As I recall there was no compost involved. His story was similar to yours - years of chemicals and a switch to organics. I believe this was a test. Many people are skeptical and do a similar test using dry dog food (a great source of protein). Most do not post the pictures, though.

Depending on where you are in Indiana your soil will be either clay or sand. Clover can be good in the lawn since it can fix Nitrogen and it will add organic matter which will benefit the grass you are trying to grow. Black Medic, also a legume that fixes Nitrogen, seems to grow better in compacted soils then clover will, and adding organic matter to that soil, which helps with soil compaction, seems to help eliminate this "weed". Since turf grasses much prefer a soil with a pH in the 6.2 to 6.8 range a soil test for soil pH and major nutrients is necessary to start. In addition these simple soil tests might be of some use. 1) Soil test for organic matter. From that soil sample put enough of the rest to make a 4 inch level in a clear 1 quart jar, with a tight fitting lid. Fill that jar with water and replace the lid, tightly. Shake the jar vigorously and then let it stand for 24 hours. Your soil will settle out according to soil particle size and weight. For example, a good loam will have about 1-3/4 inch (about 45%) of sand on the bottom. about 1 inch (about 25%) of silt next, about 1 inch (25%) of clay above that, and about 1/4 inch (about 5%) of organic matter on the top. 2) Drainage. Dig a hole 1 foot square and 1 foot deep and fill that with water. After that water drains away refill the hole with more water and time how long it takes that to drain away. Anything less than 2 hours and your soil drainsâ too quickly and needs more organic matter to slow that drainage down. Anything over 6 hours and the soil drains too slowly and needs lots of organic matter to speed it up. 3) Tilth. Take a handful of your slightly damp soil and squeeze it tightly. When the pressure is released the soil should hold together in that clump, but when poked with a finger that clump should fall apart. 4) Smell. What does your soil smell like? A pleasant, rich earthy odor? Putrid, offensive, repugnant odor? The more organic matter in your soil the more active the soil bacteria will be and the nicer your soil will smell. 5) Life. How many earthworms per shovel full were there? 5 or more indicates a pretty healthy soil. Fewer than 5, according to the Natural Resources Conservation Service, indicates a soil that is not healthy.