['89cab]

Didn’t want to hijack Wolf1’s lawn thread, so here’s my tale….

I hired laborers to remove and haul away my old lawn. I’m redesigning the yard and want to start fresh. The old lawn (with good sprinkler system) was sod I laid twenty years ago when my kids were young. Wiffleball, football, shade, pine and redwood trees, and dogs took their toll, and I thought it would be easier to start with a clean slate for the new landscaping. The new lawn will be about half the size of the old with the rest turned into gardens – where I definitely want to improve the soil. Incidentally, this is a house I will live in for the rest of my life.

I assumed I would place topsoil on top of my clay dirt, rototill, level, compact, (and repeat process), place edging and then lay sod. My research on gardenweb’s lawn care forum indicates rototilling is now a cardinal sin.

My dilemma is do I improve the soil while I’ve got it exposed, risking uneven leveling with much more work, or do I level a little bit, place the edging, sprinkle some fertilizer, lay the sod and have a beer?