First of all, verify you have clay. At least do a jar test. Find a straight sided jar and fill it half way with soil. Measure the height of the soil with a ruler. The fill the jar about 3/4 full with water and a drop or two of dish soap. Shake the jar for about a minute to be sure you have washed all the clay particles off of any stone or sand particles. Set the jar down and get out your ruler. After 1 minute, measure the height of the layer of sand that has collected on the bottom of the jar. After 1 hour measure the new height of all the sand and silt that has collected on the bottom of the jar. After a day check to see if the water is still cloudy on top. If it is still cloudy, then you have clay in the soil. If the water is clear enough to read through, then you do not have a clay soil.

I'm going to predict you have a red sand soil.

If you were wrong about the clay and started treating the soil as if it were clay, then you might have made a lot of mistakes in amending and in plant selection.

Also in the picture it looks like there are two different soils. Am I seeing that right?

One last thing. What are all the machinery tracks on the soil? The soil should have been graded with a tractor and box blade as in the following picture.

The box blade leaves no tracks and prepares the soil for planting.

The house pad was built up using the red fill dirt. My septic system is in the front yard so when the system was being installed that is the dirt that was dug up (different color you are seeing) and then spread back over the drain field.

I did a soil test which I sent to the state I reside in and came back saying my pH was 5.0. I have not added any amendments to the soil yet. The soil test did come back saying I needed to add lime to raise the pH.

Unless you need to raise the grade, I would try to just amend what you have, unless it's so bad that you want to remove and replace.

Compost, compost, compost. And degradable mulches that will continue to feed the soil.

Avoid amending single plant holes, in favor of doing an area. And if it takes longer to get that done, just mulch some of it and let it be while you work more intensively on other parts.

If you're in a place where termites are a thing, it's best not to have woody mulches up against the house. You can use a foot or so of gravel next to the wall.

That is a good-looking house.

Do you have an overall plan on where you'll have the drive and walkways and things like that?

Fori—the driveway is to the left of the photo. Gravel drive..around 450’ long. Will start with pavers/stepping stones leading to the side and front of the house and will eventually do a concrete walkway to the front in the future. Right now focusing on getting grass and the landscaping done around the house as well as clearing out the brush in the back and cleaning it up so we can have a backyard as well as space for a workshop.

I'd like to make a point about gravel driveways. We had a gravel drive at the house in San Antonio. House was there from 1939 and the drive was never paved. Unfortunately the previous owner did not use chipped stones for the drive, so they were slippery against each other. Here are two pictures showing the difference in round and chipped pea gravel.

Both are considered pea gravel. The stones in the top picture slip around against each other and never settle down to a compacted surface. As you drive over those they spread out continually. The chipped stones in the lower photo lock in to form an immovable layer. They still get kicked out, but only one stone at a time.

Compost, compost, compost

The Myth of Soil Amendments, Part III

“Healthy soil has high organic content”

https://s3.wp.wsu.edu/uploads/sites/403/2015/03/soil-amendments-3.pdf

I've generally learned to ignore her for that very fact. Internal self-contradiction between her own articles, bad plastic chemistry, and plenty of other little problems eroded my trust in her years ago.

Introducing Bert Cregg

I have a lot of respect for Jeff and for Linda Chalker-Scott. Both have contributed a lot to landscape horticulture by critically examining the various myths that pervade gardening.

http://gardenprofessors.com/category/who-we-are/

I'm not saying everyone should believe she is a crackpot, but that's what I think. I could write essays rebutting her myths. Wait a minute, I have written essays rebutting her myths. It's exhausting. The one you listed up above is not so bad, although I'm a little confused as to what the myth actually was/is. I guess she is distinguishing between mixing amendments in with the soil as opposed to topdressing with amendments, like we talk about on this forum. While I agree that mixing, say, compost, in with topsoil is a bad idea, I don't see any mythage in the concept. It is certainly no myth that garden writers for magazines are getting paid by the word and not for their expertise on a topic.

We are seriously digressing here. If you want to introduce someone else to make a point, fine, but I think I'm letting go unless Slim250 has more questions.

While you can do some of the things suggested, the long term solution appears to be on your property. While I can not tell if the trees are yours, leaves can create a very good garden. We have lived in the property for about nine years. Each fall I have collected all of the leaves from the property and placed them in area designated as planting beds.

Finally when you do get grass, mow with the cuttings blowing into the uncut area. Over time the clipping decompose building up your yard.

Finally when you do get grass mow with the cuttings blowing into the uncut area. Over time the clipping decompose building up your yard.

Since we have been doing this for the about 9 years. Those areas that were bare clay when we moved in, now have two to three inches of good soil.

If I were seeding the lawn in the picture i would drag a heavy chain behind a riding mower to make a smoother surface. I would then hand sow the seed and then cover it with about an inch of mushroom compost. Recommendations for the amount of seed per 1000 Sq Ft are usually 3 pounds per 1000 Sq Ft. I would use a lot more than that maybe double.

I would suggest you do NOT use seed from a big box store because they sell the same bags from Maine to Hawaii and from Key West to the Aluentians in Alaska. So no matter where you are most of those bags contain WEED seeds. You're paying good money for useless seed.

I don't know where you are but here I would suggest "Penn State Mix" which is a mix of mostly Perennial Rye with some Fescue and some Kentucky Bluegrass. The place I buy from uses 50 pound bags of Pennington Seed Penn State Mix which is put in a big container. A scoop is provided and bags which you can fill with as much as you need. They have a scale and you pay by the pound. If you're in an area any where similar to mine I suggest you google that seed supplier and find a dealer near you.

They also sell seed by the seed type. You can buy the component seed that makes up that mix by itself and you can buy; for instance a better grade of Kentucky Blue. I have added a little of the better KB but don't over do it. I say this because Kentucky Blue and Fescue will tend to get Red Thread and Red Dust in the summer if you have too much in your lawn. And if you have too much of those two varieties you will have to Dethatch your lawn fairly regularly.

So if you seed and then apply an inch of mushroom compost you will be covering your seed to keep it moist, the birds from eating the seed (I don't have that problem), and improving the soil. Once your lawn is established you can repeat the inch of Mushroom Compost to better improve the soil. I would suggest in the spring just prior to when the grass starts to grow fast. To quicker hide the MC.

If you're up North get it done quick.