Question
      hi charlotte, how are you? i asked you a couple of questions a while ago about my lawn and here i am again. i hope you can help.
      i have a terrible lawn front and back. it is covered in weeds and when i try to seed the ants just carry them away as fast as i put it down it seems. the soil is nasty clay. it so bad its hard to put a shovel into it.what can i do to fix all three of these issues?i was thinking of putting lava sand down and then making a combination of sugar,baking soda,orange and lemon peel with Epsom salts in some gallon jugs of water(or even getting a sprayer)and spraying it on my yard. do you think this will work or should i do it one at a time or what can i do!??? i am in the navy and i live in housing so i don't want to put too much work into it (like tilling everything up)i don't have three or four years to work this in(i do but then who knows what the next person will do i will be here for 3 more years max)please help me!

Answer
Hi Tom;
Ok, putting orange and lemon peels in Epsom Salts, and scattering it will work for the ants, also to keep neighborhood cats from using your yard for a litter box.
Putting the sugar in galon jugs of water will not work as well, because you will have to make so many bottles of it.
You want to use 4 to 5 pounds sugar per 1000 sq.ft, then water it in well.
I would do that first, THEN put down the orange and lemon peels, whether or not you mix them with epsom salts.
The awater would disolve the epsom salts some, so that treatment might be diluted some.
It would be less work to do the sugar first, and do the citrus peels separately.
Putting the lava sand down is a good idea. You could mix the lava sand and sugar and broadcast them at the same time. I did that last fall.
I mixed a bag of lava sand and enough sugar to cover my front yard, ( about 3000 sq.ft), and broadcast them, then watered.
That clay is your biggest enemy, but it does take a couple of years to uindo it.
tilling in some bark mulch is the best way, but if grass is growing fairly well now, I would just do the other things.
The organics will improve the soil on an ongoing basis, and earthworms, and cockraoches, if you have them in your area, will help keep it earated so water will get to the roots.
The epsom salts is beneficial to roots too. It stimulates them to grow.
Write anytime.
Charlotte