Question
I live in NC and have compacted red clay, I would like to amend the soil without ripping up the entire lawn what is the best way to do this?

Answer
Piedmont Soil is Red Clay, say the professionals at University of North Carolina:  'Almost all the Piedmont soils are Ultisols, with light upper layers and a reddish sub-soil.  The most common local Soil (and the 'State Soil') is the Cecil Soil, seen here in profile, uprooted, and with a distribution map...'

It's all spelled out on their website at a page called 'Introduction to the Soils of North Carolina', or something along those lines:

www.unc.edu/courses/2006fall/geog/110/001/NC%20Soils/NC%20soil%20&%20Veg.htm

The essays posted in 'A Century of Soil Science' by the NC Dept of Agriculture likewise report that your 'Cecil Soil is a Red Clay Soil, with sharp quartz Sand intermixed, 6 inches deep, containing from 10 to 30 percent of quartz and rock fragments in both Soil and Subsoil.  It is underlaid by a tenacious Red Clay Subsoil, which is reached by ordinary plowing.  This Soil is locally known as 'Red Clay Land'.  Quartz bits tend to make the Soil and Subsoil more friable, they write, and drainage becomes more efficient.  'It is a fertile Soil,' they write, 'well suited to Cotton, Grain and Grass.'  Here's the URL:

agronomy.agr.state.nc.us/sssnc/century.pdf

You may as well get to know them.  Because they're going to be doing your Soil Test:

www.ncagr.gov/agronomi/sthome.htm

There are two keys to correcting your Soil without uprooting the entire Lawn.

1.  The first is based on a close, personal relationship where you know the names of all the Earthworms in your yard.  Take one of those courses that will help you remember that.  It's very important to be friendly, build intimacy.  Especially since you are going to be inflicting Shock and Awe with Step 2, which is...

2.  Topdress, then rent yourself a Hollow Tine Aaerator.  While this is an EXCELLENT way to lighten Compacted Soil, it is a very good way to make your local Earthworm population HATE you.  Every once in a while, someone tests these things.  The Earthworms population declines sharply.  So you want to be very friendly BEFORE and AFTER the Hollow Tining, to minimize the negative and maximize the positive.  Are you with me?

Earthworms convert Soil to nutrient-rich Topsoil.  You have to keep them happy.  The happier they are, the more work they'll get done.

'Core Aerifiers' are the same thing as 'Hollow Tine Aerators', probably this just regional habit.  Whatever you call them down there, do that.

The tines pull out big plugs of Soil that can be up to a foot long.  The more plugs you pull out, the better your results.

Should you keep those on the Lawn?  That depends on the Soil and the Lawn.  If you are doing it on bare Soil, it makes no difference.  An established Lawn, which I think you probably have, it does make a difference.

Next, let me once again declare my strong endorsement of Georgia landscape designer and gardener Daryl Pulis, pen name 'Mrs Greenthumb', a Red Clay and HGTV veteran with a website:

www.mrsgreenthumb.com/articles.html#clay

Writes Ms Pulis: 'Southern Red Clay is very poor in microorganisms once it's cleared out for home development... Soils vary in the Carolinas. Even in very short distances you can find Red Clay, rich loam, gravel and/or Sand.  Once again, we have it all here.  If you don't inherit good Soil, you'll have to purchase it or create it by adding organic material until it is rich and loamy.'

Let's try to understand your Red Clay.

Wikipedia tell us, 'Cecil Soils support forests dominated by Pine, Oak and Hickory, and have a Topsoil of Brown Sandy Loam.  The Subsoil is a Red Clay which is dominated by Kaolinite and has considerable Mica.  ... Total Potassium in the Cecil is higher than typical for Utisols due to the presence of Mica.'

Standard procedure for this problem is to amend, like there's no tomorrow, with organic matter -- Peat Moss, Compost, Humus.  If you have a Lawn established already, this is a modest film that goes over the Grass, a 'top dressing' that works ITSELF into the ground.  Earthworms handle much of the labor.  Odd, but true.  Having orchestrated your own Sting operation (the effect of chemicals on the invertegrates underfoot), this will be somewhat slower than normal.  Just don't do it again.

The difference between chemical and organic fertilizers is like night and day.  Chemicals are potent, very fast (practically instantaneous), and generally short lived.  Organics are mild (which some people translate as 'weak' and 'in-efficient'), long lasting, and practically permanent.

Chemicals go straight into the plant.  Organics take up residence in the Soil, feeding microbes like a decomposing Fish or Twig or Apple; the microbes generate plant nutrients at a rate the paces with plant's metabolism, faster in Warm Soil, and slower in Cool Soil.

As soon as possible, TEST YOUR SOIL!  You've seen that here if you've found the Red Clay questions.  I know you have.  Are you in North Carolina?  Do that here:

www.agr.state.nc.us/cyber/kidswrld/plant/soiltest.htm

Warning: The note that from late fall through early Spring, processing may take several weeks due to the heavy sample influx from farmers at this time.

Any questions?

THE LONG ISLAND GARDENER