Question
Hello Charlotte.  I live in NE Kansas.  We are finishing up the home we've built but unfortunately it looks like it's too late to get a lawn in this fall.

Next spring we will hire a professional who will do the seeding and I'm assuming add topsoil (our soil now seems to be clay -- I'm a novice).  Is there anything we can do now to prepare the ground for the seeding next March?  

Answer
Hi Amy;
Unless you just don't care for lawn work, it is easy to do yourself, and if you go on an organic program, it is even easier, you get better ersults, and it costs very little.
There ARE some professional lawn care companies that do an organic program.
You can till in some soil amendments that will loosen up that clay, but it would leave you with bare soil.
You could lay down about 3 inches of cedar bark mulch, and when it warms up enough to till and start your lawn, you could just till it in.
Cedar bark mulch is good for several reasons.
Besides staying anchored better then pine bark mulch, and hard wood mulch, it loosens the soil, and when it decomposes into compost it adds more nutrients to the soil than other wood bark mulches. It also repels insects, including termites.
Each spring when it is time for termites to swarm, I scatter a thin layer of cedar bark mulch, all over my lawn to repel fleas and ticks, especially, and I put a line of it around the foundation of my house, and out buildings, about 3 or 4 inches wide and an inch or two high. That keeps termites away from our house and buildings.
I have done that for 41 years, and never had termites, even though some of my neighbors have them every year.
The ones that don't use an organic program, that is.
If you till some bark mulch in now, lay a layer of it on your lawn, and till that in next spring, you can then seed in your lawn.
Some other things that will help improve your lawn that you can put down now, and just water in are, lava sand, and alfalfa meal. Those you would just sprinkle a thin layer all over the lawn.
If your area is prone to fungus problems, next spring, after you till up and seed the lawn, put down corn gluten meal. 15 to 20 pounds per 1000 sq.ft.
Water it in.
Corn gluten meal is not only a good fungicide, it also adds a lot of nutrients to the soil.
An organic program has no poisons, so it attracts lawn critters to your yard. Toads, lizards and grass snakes. They eat all the larger harmful insects that invade your lawn, and they get rid of more than putting down insecticide will.
Beneficial nemetodes and cock roaches eat microscopic harmful insects .
Cockroaches normally live in the soil and feed on harmful insects. We put down insecticides, and they kill off the food supply and threaten their lives, and they come into our homes to find food, and a place to hide from the insecticides.
When we use chemical lawn products, they kill the beneficial insects, microbes and nemetodes that do all the work we need done, besides mowing, edging and watering.
All I have done for the last 8 or 9 years is to put sugar on my lawn each spring and fall, and mow edge and water, and use baking soda for fungus.
I have a weed free, thich lawn that stays green longer in the fall and greens up faster in the spring.
Weeds like poor soil, ans will not live in rich soil.
Sugar doesn't kill anything, but it nourishes the beneficial microbes that work around the clock, enriching your soil.
Toads love slugs and other soft insects like grubs. They also like ants and some other insects.
Lizards keep ALL the aphids off my roses, and I used to have tent catapillars in my trees that would drop down on me everytime I went outside, no matter how often we sprayed the trees. Now the lizards eat them, and I haven't seen a tent in my trees for over 7 years.
This spring I started going to a website that Texas' resident organic guru has. He writes columns that are carried in most of the major Texas newspapers.
I paid the subscription fee of $25.00, and that entitiles me to access the entire site, and go to the furums to read and post qquestions, receive a monthly email newsletter and onlune magazine, and a monthly magazine in my mail box.
I have learned so much more since I started accessing his site.
He writes primarily for Texas gardeners, but he has done test labs all over the country, and the organic products do the same for any area. If you want to consider that site, go to    www.dirtdoctor.com

If I were you, right now, I would sprinkle 15 or 20 pounds of agricultural cornmeal, and 4 pounds white sugar, per 1000 sq.ft of lawn. Lay about 3 or 4 inches of cedar bark mulch on top of that and water it well.
That will give you a better yard than bare ground, and you can till it in next spring.
That much bark mulch, tilled to about 6 to 8 inches deep will looosen up your soil enough for the grass seed to take root and grow. The agricultural cornmeal and sugar will work into the soil. The sugar will nourish the beneficial microbes, and they will start working to enrich the soil.
If you also sprinkle lava sand over that, and alfalfa meal is also good. Those two things are full of nutrients, and by spring, you will have pretty rich soil.
Very few weeds should come up, if any, and they will start to die out soon.
Treat with 4 pounds sugar per 1000 sq.ft again in the spring. Before or after you sow seeds doesn't make any difference.
In the spring, sprinkle lava sand and alfalfa meal around again, and that will put even more nurtients into the soil.
Earthworms, cockroaches and other tunelling insects will keep your lawn aerated and that will prevent thatch, so you should never have to dethatch your lawn.
Watering to a depth of at least 6 inches, after your grass starts to grow, will encourage a deep root system, that will protect against heat, cold and drought damage.
I water with soaker hoses, because sprinklers that spray into the air, waste more water to evaporation than it puts on your grass.
I let my grass grow to 5 inches and mow to a height of 3 inches, and leave the grass clippings.They sift into the grass and compost and add food for the grass.
I bought some organic fertilizer about 3 years ago, but it is still in my garden shed. My grass is gorgeous, so I just have never gotten around to putting it down.LOl
The 3 or 4 inchjes of bark mulch will deter wds from coming up this fall.
I used chemicals for over 40 years before I tried the organics, and BOY, I wish I had known them what I know now.
I might still have a back and knees that work.
I don't have to worry about when my grandchildren or pats put in their mouths, because there are NO poisons put down,and since I switched to organics, my Asthma and allergies are 90% better.
My toas and grass snakes don't bother me, because they stay out of my sight. The lizards I see, and even talk to, but they don't run in my direction.
I see them running along the fance and tree limbs.
I used to apend aroung 50 to 100 dollars per month in the dormant growing months, and about 100 to 200 a month during the growing season, on lawn products to TRY to have a good lawn, and had a mediocre one.
Now I spend less than 200 dollas per year, and have the most beautiful lawn.
I soent at least 20 hours per week, working in my yard, in the growing months, and only 5 to 10 hours per week the other months.
Now I spend about 2 to 4 hours per week in the spring and summer, and less than that the other months.
I enjoy my yard and garden, rather than slave in it.
Anything you want to know about organics, I am very happy to share what I have learned, so just write me anytime.
Charlotte