Hi I have just moved into a new house and the grass it a mess it wasn't cut for hte previous two months. I had to use a weed-eater to get down and then mow it. The soil has a lot clay in it, and there is a little bit of a thatch build up. Should I aerate, and thatch and then fertilize? or any other tips on how I could get a nice green lawn. I have been watering for 2 hour periods, will this help. Thanks for all the help. Mike

What you should do depends largely on how large your lawn is. If this is a small lawn, then I would say: "Start all over" - But if this is a big lawn,for instance, half an acre like we have, then you should maybe try to repair rather than replace. Aerate, de-thatch, fertilize and over-seed, too. Keep cutting it down - don't let it go to seed. Pay attention too to how much shade you have - how much direct sunlight. Shade is not great for grass. In shade, better to get rid of the grass and replace it with beds of hosta and daylily.

like you we moved into our current house and to call the stuff in the front yard grass would have been a real insult to any form of grass - it was mostly dandelions, clover, and spotty bits of what looked like blades of grass.... we began a regiment of pulling weeds, adding good grass seed covered by top dressing with good soil/compost. in addition we chose to go with a more organic, low number fertilizer, applied often (we now use the 3 step myke product or something like gaia green. we watered deeply when we did water and we also ensured we had a very sharp mower blade, set at a higher than normal setting.

the change to a nice patch of green lawn didn't happen overnight - the only way for that to occur is to rip and replace - we couldn't do that easily because of all the large trees with feeder roots in the grass.

i agree with patricia, the world doesn't need large tracks of grass in our yards, and perennials are a great option - we have a section of both - and the section of grass is getting smaller every year.. i admit, i still like the small postage stamp of grass in the front -