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A wee bit of background: A year ago, I hired a landscaper to re-grade my super-slopy back yard and get grass growing back there. Long story short, the dude brought in truckloads of "fill dirt" which turned out to be straight Georgia clay, full of rocks as an added bonus. Add in some construction equipment rolling over it and I wound up with some VERY compacted clay.

Needless to say, getting seed or sod to grow on this has been a nightmare. I've sprayed with compost tea, liquid humic acid and various organic amendments, and it's barely any better after a year. I had pretty much decided to wait till fall, bring in a huge amount of topsoil/compost, till it in, then install sod.

As a Band-aid effort (so that I'm not looking at big patches of clay all spring and summer), I overseeded early this spring. There is still wheat straw between the newly growing grass, so I got to thinking, maybe I could spread a "green" that will help the wheat straw "brown" break down faster. I had spread coffee grounds in the front yard a couple of times last year with good effect, so I was thinking of that.

Has anyone done this before... compost in place on a lawn?? What greens and browns did you use?

yay sheet composting!


you could maybe combine it with some really tough weeds or cover that won't go out of control but will drill tunnels in your soil. Annuals. Let them grow too, full height (so thin them). I'm not sure anymore why people don't find these plants beautiful.

Of course, all this might make you forget about having a lawn...

Thanks - great idea to grow a sort of cover crop amongst the grass... the back yard is part/dappled shade so I would need to figure out what annuals would grow there. I'm a little scared of actively sowing weeds... any you recommend that wouldn't be too hard to eradicate later (or that I wouldn't need to eradicate)? Clover maybe?

too bad you are in the south..up here in michigan if your clay is laying exposed during a freezing winter..it will crumble...at least on the top layers..from freezing and thawing..and then you can mix a little composted cow manure in and get the seeds started..and eventually it will build up a layer of humus on its own..grass loves clay..but not baked clay.

yeah, I would try laying a layer of something over the clay about an inch thick..and plant in that..look for a forcast of at least a week of rain

Interesting, we got several big (for Atlanta) snows this past winter and it did seem to improve the clay a little bit... we're about to get a few days of rain so we'll see if my plan works. Thanks again for both your replies!

Answered your own question; dutch clover is a great idea to help out a new lawn. It fixes atmospheric nitogen into the lawn, feeding the grass...

HG