We have an acre or so to mow and are looking for a grass to grow in clay (Indiana). We have patches of grass now and are thinking about Zoysia to fill in the gaps. We have fertilized and used gypsum to break up soil (to no avail). Any recommendations as to anything that can be done to the soil? And would Zoysia be suitable to plant or what would you recommend? Thanks!

Zoysia is quite a hardy grass, a creeping variety, but if you have bad winters I wouldn't recommend using this grass seed it will not survive cold winters. As for the clay, I would recommend sand to break it up and possibly a lot of compost mixed in as well, but this would require rototilling.

My understanding is that sand causes the soil to hold water like the clay does. What do you classify as cold? We're SE of Terre Haute, Indiana and the winters aren't real cold. Thanks!

I've lived in that area and the winters are considered long and hard. I would advise like tickle and work the soil up and mix in a compost and try planting rye or bluegrass. Preparing the soil is the key here

Sorry above, should have read 'that you CAN plant a good hardy grass'. Further advise though is, the more compost you work into the clay is breaking down the strata to accept a good base and then the grass will create its own base faster. I would suggest introducing some worms too (with the compost). What worms do is highly under rated and good gardeners know there is none better to create more compost and good topsoil in the bargain.

In Florida, I've used Rye grass to cover exposed dirt until the grass, St. Augustine, that was damaged due to construction came back. And it worked well in the "winter" we encounter. It doesn't hold up to heat: at or above 80-85*F it dies back. The benefit is the remaining root structure allows the natural St. Aug runners a place to hold.

Aside from all the good advice you have received here, you may want to look into planting Conservation Grass. Although I don't live in your area, I had the same situation with clay, along with very rocky soil. Conservation grass is the stuff the highway depts use along the major roadways. It is relatively inexpensive, grows very fast, and takes to whatever soil is available. But, be forewarned, it isn't just grass. It is a mixture of pasture grasses, alfalfa, clover, and other grasses that are easy to grow. If you are good about mowing your lawn, no one will really be able to tell. But, if you aren't on top of it, it can take on a bit of a weedy look when it gets too long.

I really appreciate all of the good advice given. I'm not sure what I'll do other than try to add some compost and perhaps work one area at time - I don't want to till up an acre and start all over - too many other irons in the fire. We'll probably continue on with the rye grass and eventually have a nice lawn. Any other comments on using sand to break down the soil? I have about 4 tons of sand I was going to use for a patio but changed my mind. Thanks!

When to plant rye grass, When to plant fescue, Will either do for clay rocky (slope) soil in USDA zone of 7?

I live in Michigan with 1 acre of solid clay. I just loosened up the top by dragging a pallet behind my tractor. Then threw down Tall Fescus seed. I didn't even fertilize. It took two years but now I have a beautiful lawn. Best part is that I don't even water it unless it gets very dry, maybe ten times a year. I live in a sub where most have sprinklers running all summer long.

Add a lot of lime also to the above mentioned answers.

I live in Northern Virginia, and like most areas along this section of the east coast have clay. I'd been unsuccessful with trying seed several times, but admittedly with little more effort than dropping seed and watering. The other problem was what I had was a who's who of weeds and weed type grasses with virtually no decent grasses growing. I finally have had success, and here's what I did. Keep in mind that some of what I did was an experiment, so I changed tactics in various areas of my yard of about 1 grassy area.

In all areas I killed the grass with a hose spray application. It was expensive at about $100 per gallon (I used 2), but worked great and everything was dead within two weeks. (you have to wait 6 days before planting anything with this stuff, so careful)

I purchased a good plug aerater, although renting is an option, I knew I'd need it for a while and going forward, so dropped the $500 on the aerator.

First area was the front and side yards. I used a skid steer and completely removed the dead grass and re graded the lawn. It was a lot of work, even with the machine and took two days. This area has lots of quartz rock, so this helped remove a lot of it. I then used the aerator and it worked much better than I thought it would in this clay soil, pulling big plugs. There is no realistic way to rototiller this type clay, as it would simply stick to the blades

Next I had about 10 yards of an organic soil called ag-gro (chicken poo I understand is the main ingrediant) delivered and 10 yards of a top soil mix with sand and some organicic. I mixed both piles together. I then spread this across areas plugged and much fell into the holes, which was the intent. I again went over the entire areas with the aerator which did a nice job again, of mixing the clay and topsoil mix. On this, I spread seed (Pennigton Smart Seed Fescue mix), starter fertilizer and set up the sprinklers.

Of note is an about 3000 square foot area where I had run out of the mixture above I had just the top soil mix delivered to finish this area without the ag-gro.

I had two 25 pound bags of seed left, so decided to do the back yard too, which I run out of energy to do by this time. I decided that I need to break up the area, but had earlier killed all the grass, as with the front / sides. I simply made two passes over entire area with aerator. It was a mess, but on this I spread seed and fertilizer and set up the sprinklers.

A small area (400 square feet) where I had not planned to do anything this season was mostly grass, some weed. I decided to overseed it, as I still had some left over seed. I had not killed this area. I ran aerator around and spread seed, stater fertilizer.

All of this was seeded within 1 day of each other, so here are the results.

All areas were on a timer system I found at Lowe's, that allow three waterings a day for time of your choice and length you wish. They have 4 ports each and I had three timers for a total of 12 zones. I used 11 of the 12..

Main front area / combo ag-grow / top soil. - Within 8-9 days I saw sprouts coming up, but barely perceivable. Two weeks in, I could tell there was good coverage, although a little thin, over all but a few areas. I had timers on different times of watering, and the areas that fared worst, were the ones with least water. Those where I thought because of over lap would be too wet, actually did the best. Lesson here, err on side of too much, rather than too little water, within reason. Several heavy rains caused some trenches in these areas, and nothing came in there, but those can be dealt with later. Overall OK to good results, and a huge improivement over what I had.

Main area / top soil mix only (3000 sq. fee) - This had some growth a little later than above Not as good results as above, but OK and far better than what was there previously.

Back area that was only aerated. As with other areas heavy clay back here, but did not uproot dead weeds, clover etc. nor spread anything other than seed and fertilizer. Amazingly this area came in the best, of killed areas. Very full, although some few areas need overseeding still, I'm surprised and shocked by results. In early days after above and while wet, walking back there would have ten pounds of clay stuck to my shoes. I figured I wasted the seed, but results were very good.

Front small area - no kill as this was mostly grass, although clumpy. - Very good results here, and filled in areas quite well. Looks solid now.

Conclusions - Water is key. Err on the too much rather than too little here. The timers made that possible as I could never have hung around long enough to manually do this. The top soiled areas didn't hurt anything, but I'm not convinced they helped much either, based on my back yard experiment. The aerator is the best investment I made. It made mixing and looseing the soils possible. I can tell those areas where topsoild was allowed to fall into these holes that those holes did best. You can make out corn rows of grass in these plugged areas. Use good seed, and stay on the watering or everything else you do is a waste of time and money. Whatever you do, kill what's there first, especially if weedy so you get a fress start, but I would not recommend ripping it all up as I did. I think the dead roots help hold the soil until new growth comes in.

Just my experiences, but having been confused about what to do, and having found much different advise on line prior to this, I thought I's share what I found. Too early to tell what the long term success will be in each area, but all areas will be overseeded in early spring.

Good luck!

Aeration,Aeration,Aeration.That is the trick to having a good crop of grass in a clay soil.