Question
Charlotte,
Original grass is Kentucky Blue. I would like K.B. plus Rye.
My type of soil is sandy; hard pan in places.
Also, I need to remove an old Cotton Wood root that has emerged on the surface of my lawn.
My lawn has numerous bare patches and asorted weeds. Also, perhaps deep beneath my lawn are thousands if not millions of tiny black ants.
I do have thriving bushes and an Ash tree that is doing well.
Thanks,
Sherman
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Followup To

Question -
How can I remove my old lawn and then condition the soil and then put in sod?
Thanks,
Sherman J. Sedgwick Jr.

Answer -
Hi Sherman;
If you re satisfied with the kind of grass or grasses you have, I would not remove all the old lawn, but rather just work on conditioning the soil.
If you live in a climate that your dormant season for grass is close, you might be stuck with a very muddy yard all winter, and that could damage your soil further.
To lie fallow for the winter, might lat all kinds of disease, and weeds take over your yard.
If the grass you are wanting to have in your yard is one that spreads by runners, like Burmuda or St. Augustine, perhaps it would crowd out the old grasses in a season or two.
Answer some questions for me, and I can help you more.
Do you have good loose soil, or is it too heavy with clay?
What kind of grass is there now, and what kind of grass do you want to have?
What kind of climate, and what general area do you live in?
Answer these for me, and I can better advise you.
Charlotte

Answer
Hi Sherman;
Here is what I would do if it were my lawn, to get the best lawn in the least amount of time and labor, and expense.
I would dig out the cottonwood, and fill in that area with good dirt.
Take some of the soil where you have hard pan.
Mix it with about 3 parts cedar bark mulch, and 1 part clay soil, and fill in where you dug out the hard pan, and the root. That would give you two good soil areas where you now have bad ones.
Then sow in the rye grass seed.
I don't know what time of year is best to sow rye.
Rye grass to my way of thinking is a weed, so I got rid of mine.
I live in a hot climate, North Texas, so rye, since it is a cool season grass, dies out early in the summer. It just makes problems for us here.
I also don't know a lot about sowing grass seeds, because every time I tried to seed a lawn, the danged birds ate most of it, so I just stick with sod.
I know in some areas, and with different grasses, the time of year you sow the seeds varies. Check with a nurseryman in your area to see about the proper time to sow.
The cedar bark mulch will repel a lot of insects, and it may chase those ants.
A good organic program will get rid of them, because it will attract toads, lizards and other beneficial lawn critters that will eat them.
For every harmful insect that would invade a lwan, there are hundreds that feed on them.
You put down poisons, in the form of weed killers, fertilizers, and insecticides, and it kills off the beneficial insects and critters. It wears out right away, and the harmful insects are back, before the beneficial ones can re-establish. So you have to put down more poisons.
It is a viciouis circle, and you are the one who loses.
Make a healthy enviornment for the beneficial microbes, nemetodes and insects, and lawn critters, and you will no longer be bothered with harmful insects.
I had grubs, ants, slugs, army worms, you name it. I was dealing with them.
Since I have been on the porganic program for 8 or 9 yeras now, I have none of those insect problems. I have some very fat toads and lizards, and I have grass snakes, but gratefully, I never see them.
Toads love slugs. That makes them best friends of mine.
Toads, lizard and grass snakes eat grubs, ats, army worms, and all those pests that get into the lawn.
My lizards, I see them running along the fence, and up the tree trunks, and rose bushes etc.
I used to have to treat my roses for aphids once a month, and still had aphid damage to almost every bloom that opened.
I treated for grubs, and slugs and snails, and still had the silver streaks all over, and still couldn't go outdside in June without June bugs ( the adult of grubs) flying all over me.
Tent catapillers dropped on us from the trees, no matter haw often we sprayed.
Since the first year I started the organics program, I have had none of those problems, and no lawn damage because of insects.
Using organics improves you soil on an ongoing basis, so even with poor soil, a couple of years on organics will greatly improve the quality of your soil.
In the areas where you have good drainage for grass to grow, it is just wasted effort to till all that up and start over.
The areas of hard pan are the only ereas that won't be improved  right away, to where you see a big difference.
Weeds like poor soil, and will not thrive ion rich soil. So make rich soil, and weeds will die out as soon as they come up. In just a matter of a couple of years, they will not even come up, or they will come up and die out before they get big enough for you ro see them.
I haven't had weeds come up at all in over 6 year.
I am learning about more organic things to do, since early this spring, and am starting to try some of them out, but for the last 8 or 9 years, I have put nothing on my lawn except, sugar, and bainkg soda.
The sugar nourishes the beneficial microbes that enrich the soil.
It does not kill weeds, it just makes those microbes multiply and they enrich the soil on an ongoing basis.
I started seeing weeds disappear in a mater of a couple of weeks, and in two or three months, after the first application of sugar, that spring.
I put down sugar again in the fall, and the next spring about half as many weeds came up as the year before, and they were all gone in a couple of months, with no weed killers put on them, and no pulling or digging of weeds.
The next year there were only a very few that even came up.
I had dollar weed, crabgrass, johnson grass, dandelions, clover, and a lot of other weeds.
My neighbor had a yard full of weeds, and mowed so seldom, they went to seed and kept my lawn seeded, and most of the other lawns in the neighborhood.
I use 4 pounds sugar per 1000 sq.ft of lwan.
I just broadcast it by hand, and water it in well.
It does not attract ants, because the deep watering disolves it.
Those ants you have will attract beneficial critters that can smell food on the table.
Would you believe, even cockroaches are beneficial?
We put down insecticides that kills their natural food supply, smaller harmful insects, and it threatens their lives, so they are chased into out houses to get food, and hide from the insecticides.
They naturally live in the soil, where they tunnel through, and eat harmful insects, and at the same time, keep the soil aerated.
Earthworms and roaches tunnelling through the soil, keep it aerated. Their droppings add nourishments to the soil to enrich it.
I put fresh rosemary sprigs ( about 1 inch long) on each cupboard and cabinet shelf, under the appliances  and in closet corners, and anywhere roaches can come in or hide.
So I have a million or so tunelling through my soil, but never see one in my house.
  My lawn care program.
Spring and fall, 4 pounds sugar oer 1000 sq,.ft.( plain white table sugar like you use in cooking).
Water to a depth of at least 6 inches to encourage a deep root system.( Deep root systems protect against heat and cold damage, and prevents thatch).
Edge and mow.
At the first sigh of new growth when the weather is cool, and fungus can start, I disolve 1/4th cup baking soda per gallon of water and spray the roses and other susceptible shrubs. Be sure to spray underneath the leaves as well as the tops.
That is all we have done for 8 or 9 years now. I forget if I started in 98 or 97.
That has produced a thich green lawn that is weed free and insect free, and stays green longer in the fall, and greens up faster in the spring.
It is a healthy enviornment for all the little critters, so I gat a large community of them right away. They take care of all the insects I used to battle.

New things I have learned about this year.
Lava sand and alfalfa meal are full of nutrients to help your lawn, and plants grow better.
You can get lava sand at most nurseries now. My husband picks our's up at Walmart.
I had to go to a feed store for the alfalfa meal.
You can just sprinkle the alfalfa meal and lava sand lightly over all the lawn, and water it in.
Alfalfa meal can be made into a tea by soaking 1 cup alfalfa meal in 5 gallons of water, overnight, and then strain it to use in a sprayer for foliar feeding, or just use it without straining to water plants, indoors and out.
Alfalfa meal is expecially good for flowering plants. and promotes more and larger blooms.
Corn gluten meal.
This is a natural weed and feed, and also a natural fungicide.
Corn gluten meal is a byproduct of the corn wet-milling process. .
This corn gluten herbicide works because there are some natural chemicals in it that inhibit root formation at the time of germination, says Christians. The timing of application if very important for this to work. You have to apply the herbicide before the weeds germinate.
It should be broadcast in the spring around February 15-March 15 to prevent grassburs, crabgrass, and other annual weeds that germinate from seed.
For the cool season or winter weeds, broadcast sometime between September 15 and October 15 at 15-20 pounds per 1,000 square feet for the control of henbit, dandelions, annual bluegrass and other winter weeds. It also serves as a powerful organic fertilizer having about 9-10 percent nitrogen.
Corn gluten meal can be used when overseeding ryegrass or other cool season crops but only with care. You must wait until the grass, vetch or clover has germinated and started to grow before putting the corn gluten meal down or the seed germination will be hurt. Do not use prior to planting summer grasses.
This has gottren to be a very long respons, so I will close it now.
If there are more questions, please write me back, and I will try to answer them with fewer words.LOl
My background is in sales and public relations, so it takes 4000 words for me to paint a picture.LOL
Charlotte