Every house owner who’s pushed a lawnmower is aware of that grass requires periodic care. Even so, the ideal-kept yards can develop problems. Luckily, the may be as simple as an application of the correct lawn-care product. Or perhaps it is time to dethatch, unfold lime or just pour on extra water. In the majority of cases, it’s a foolproof method which your garden center is more than happy to help with. Plus if the difficulty is really severe, you are able to usually aerate plus add more seed, and be back to normal within a month or two. 

But that’s when the soil is workable. It isn’t always. In new housing developments, the topsoil is usually scraped away to create a new landscape. Ideally, developers can end a job with 5 to 6 in. of topsoil to anchor the new lawn, but that is the perfect case. During thecrazy, last stages of construction, the standard of the dirt in the yard is usually ignored–especially if the new house owner is not as willing to pay for extras. Worse however  rushed landscaping may lead to poor drainage, plus building scraps get plowed under, making fungus issues for years to come. Even the alternative of sod may spell trouble if it is not grown along with your particular climate in mind. Discover more about sod lawns here. 

Whereas it may be possible to control bad soil, bad grass or poor drainage, it’s difficult when you face all three. If your grass has very little heat tolerance plus requires regular doses of expensive fungicide. But the biggest problem can be the clay soil. In this dense earth, grass roots penetrated an inch or two, then unfold out, to form the thick layer of dead plant matter known as thatch. Even  tree roots prefer thatch to the heavy clay. These problems, whereas rather serious, are fairly common, especially in new neighborhoods. 

The perfect solution here is to take away five to six in. of clay soil, replace it with topsoil plus replant with a hardy seed or sod. But ours is a landscaped yard, with terraces, flowerbeds, fences and underground sprinklers. It allows very little area for earthmoving equipment that might harm  concrete sidewalk and drive. And finally, this technique is expensive.