Question
What do I do to prepare soil for seeding and sod?

Answer
Greetings Charles and welcome to AllExperts for Lawns.

I can tell you are a man who doesn't mess around.  So I'll get straight to the point.

Where do you want to do this?

If you know the Zone, great.  If you know the nearest city but not the Zone, great.  If you know the latitude and the longtitude, great.

While you're figuring that out, Charles, get a soil test done.  Not just any old test.  And definitely do not do this at home.  Send a sample off (by Federal Express, ExpressMail or other overnight courier) to Soil Foodweb (http://www.soilfoodweb.com/), which will analyze the soil you want to grow grass in and give you a complete analysis of what it needs.  Follow the instructions carefully for obtaining your soil sample.  There are several locations that will be able to study your soil; naturally, you want to pick the closest one.  And Charles, make sure you follow the instructions.  You're sending this stuff off to some real scientists in a laboratory and you want to get advice you can count on.  This is the Intelligent Gardener's way of lawngrowing.

I need to know of course what sod and seed would be best for your region.  If you already know you want cool season grass - I have a feeling you know a lot about this and have already selected the grass you want, for all the right reasons - your soil should be made to order for your grass.

The old fashioned way of doing this would involve Rototilling the soil until it is, as one writer put it, "the consistency of ground coffee".  You would pick out the rocks and refuse, add lime and fertilizer, and if you were really dumb, you would top it off with a "Pre-Emergent Crabgrass Killer" that would decimate all microbial fauna and the flora that go with it, wiping out the earthworm population and the butterflies, ladybugs and arthropods that go with them.  Kaboom!  Like an atom bomb...Dead Dirt.  The foundation for desperate grass.

Well, I could go on...

Let's recap:

1. Tell me where you live.

2. Any clue what your soil is like?  We can discuss this while The Lab is analyzing your soil.

3. Add ingredients as directed to correct pH, web and soil structure.

Back to you, Charles.