Question
I live in western Canada. The snow is melting and my front yard is turning into mud. Particularly, in front of the front steps and along the drive way. This area barely grows any grass. Last summer it was all dark and hard soil. It get muddy after the rain. I don't know what to do about the situation. I have thought of putting stepping stones or even trying to grow grass. I don't like it also because the kids track mud all over.

Answer
Hi Charlotte;
If it is clay soil and hard, the problem is made easier to put stepping stones down. They won't sink into that clay, but clay usually doesn't stay that muddy. Clay won't let water soak in if it is extremely hard.
One thing, if you decide to put the stepping stones down, you might rake the soil loose down about an inch, and add a bag of cement to it, and water it. When it dries, the cement will make it even harder and more waterproof, so the stepping stones would lay there without sinking in at all.
If there is enough sun to that area to grow grass, and that is what you want to do, you could till up the soil adding some bark mulch to loosen it more so the water will soak in and the grass roots can work their way through the soil. I would put about 4 inches of bark mulch down, and till to a depth of 8 inches, and that would give you 8 inches of good loose soil.
another idea you might consider, put stepping stones, or paving stones and make a front patio, with a nice seating area, with olants etc around the preimeter of it. That would add a beautiful area to the entrance of your home.
Go to Home Depot, or Lowe;s. I don't know if you have them in canada, but they are stores that sell all the do it yourself things, lumber etc . They have a large area of how-to magazines and the ones on landscaping are full of beautiful ideas.
Look up landscaping ides on the web too.
Put that in your search engine, and you should get a list of a lot of sites to get some ideas of what would work for your home, and your level of what you can and cannot do.
Sorry I couldn't help more.
Charlotte