Gina: I read your posting several times to make sure that I had an idea as to what your situation is, an what some of the conditions are. Here's what I get from reading between the lines: (1) You don't seem to be interested in making your lawn a hobby - so the high-maintenance efforts and costs are out. Most likely, so is stuff that requires pampering. (2) You have a heavy clay soil that has not been been aerated since you owned it. (3) You have a mix of grasses and broadleaf weeds, and it contains some form of a clumpy unimproved variety of tall fescue. (4) You don't seem to have a lot of knowledge or experience with lawn products (fertilizers, lawn chemicals, etc) and you don't seem comfortable around them (some scare you?) Do I have some of the major points? OK, let's be honest - you've got a mess (and a full acre that is in trouble is a lot of work and expensive to fix). I also have a full acre of lawn and it demands 3-5 hours a week to do even the absolute minimum, even with a lawn tractor. There is no way to avoid that much work. I spend lots more time than that on mine because it is also my hobby. I don't see how you could avoid spending some money to get the soil to grow a basic lower-maintenance lawn that will get the HOA off your back. You may not like it, but if you're not willing to loosen up the clay soil yourself, and you're not willing to pay someone else to do it, then you are at an impasse. If you have large bare spots that don't even grow weeds, then either there is water pooling there too often that drowns anything green or the soil is so hard that nothing can get established. If you have an HOA, then I have visions of a large development in which the developer probably mixed the topsoil with the subsoil and that is not good. My recommendations would be like this: (1) are you friendly with a fair number of the neighbors? If so, ask around about what people had to do to the soil to get a passable lawn growing. Tip: do NOT go to the person in the neighborhood that has the perfect lawn - you have already told us that you're not going to listen to expensive, time-consuming, complex solutions - and perfect lawns are ALL of those things. Go to someone that has an OK lawn and isn't mowing it every time that you drive by. (2) scoop up some soil from 3 or 4 inches down under the lawn in several spots (a handful is enough) and mix it together. Send that to a cooperative extension service and they'll send you an analysis of what is wrong with the nutrients and composition of your soil. Fix what it says to fix. (3) only then should you try to plant grass seed. If you doing it before then, you will most likely waste your money, and write a note to this forum next year telling us that even more money was wasted (and a lost year). I wouldn't try planting a real fancy lawn if you're not going to dedicate time to it. A perennial ryegrass lawn with some fine fescue is lower maintenance and cost, and will look OK. Don't expect the best lawn on the block. (4) I know this goes against what other people will tell you, but if you have a lot of broadleaf weeds, I'd get a basic lawn established before I try to kill the weeds. With an acre, you won't get all of the weeds replaced by grass before new weeds spring up if you don't commit a ton of time and money. Take the attitude of "at least the weeds are green" even if you hate it. Deal with broadleaf weeds once you are in control (that's going to take a lot of 2009). (5) Read a lot of Dchall's postings here on proper (infrequent but very deep) watering and proper mowing. Bad news: the rough tall fescue that you have is going to cause the lawn to have small patches of taller grass this year. If you have more than 50 or so patches of it, you may have to live with it this year. If that all works, c'mon back to the Forum and we'll help you begin to fine-tune the end result, and how to send the HOA a "So There!!" letter ;-)

Colorado has an area on the western boarder just east of Grand Junction called the "Western Slope". It is a little micro-climate on a high plateau area. The days are warm and the nights cool. The main town is called Palisade. It is a perfect place to grow peaches, and recently vineyards are popping up. I found a link to the Chamber of Commerce in Palisade. They hold a peach festival once a year. You might start there. My guess is that there are numerous types grown there. http://www.pickyourown.org/PYO.php?URL=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.palisadepeachfest.com/ We just call them "Palisade peaches"!

an easier way fell into my lap, well mail box, really. 2 little boys down the road left a flyer in my mailbox and i'm having them de-weed my garden and re mulch. nice cheap labor. haha. Try to find something similar in your area.

Oh my gosh. My order from Rockytop just arrived in my afternoon mail. First off I was surprised at the really big box as I had only ordered 15 iris and that included the 5 Special Bonus that you qualify for when buying anything else. I bought 4 of their 2010 intros- BLUEBERY FUDGE MAGNIFICENT MASTERPIECE BEVS BABE BACKDRAFT Six others of various year intros- POLESTAR CABERET ACT DONACHCLONEY FABULOUS ONE MAGICAL REALISM PERRYMONT I got 6 extra special bonus iris even thought I only qualified for 5. He had told me they were out of the first i choose so I picked an alternate. But both my original choice and the alternate are both in here. I have- LAKE TANEYCOMO ROYAL VESTMENTS MACHERALON JAMAICAN BREW SURFERS DREAM BEWITCHING HOUR Then there are 8 more bonus iris. I haven't even gotten a chance to look them up yet. I have only afew and I mean afew single rhizomes and those are quite large. Many doubles and those are larger than other places sending singles and almost as large as the singles. Then some are triple rhizomes and some clumplets were they are all attached and some have even more babies coming out of the sides. Also large. Not like he needed to send the doubles or more bewcause they are small, they are not small at all. So now I know why he needed the really large box. I will be taking pictures of some of these and will have more to say about all the extras. I am simply astounded at what I recieved today. Just unbelievable. You couldn't do better. I have never seen anything like it. Just past fabulous. I am really happy to say the least :-))