Question
We are trying to grow grass in our front yard.  The yard is sloped, very clay-based and gets direct sunlight.  The soil stays dry and cracked despite watering. We have seeded 3 times with minimal patchy results.  Do we need to till up the yard and mix in compost or other soil before trying to seed again this fall?  Help!!  We reside in North Carolina.

Answer
Establishing a lawn on hard clay soil in full sun can be difficult. The seedbed must be kept consistently moist until the new seeds germinate (sprout) in order for the seeds to survive. If allowed to dry out even slightly the seeds will die.

You can cover the seedbed with a light layer of straw of compost to keep the humidity high during seed establishment and you must water several times per day.

For best result you can mix in compost into the top layers of soil (about a 2-3" layer mixed into the top 8-10" of soil) to improve the quality of the soil. The soil would not crust up as easily.

However, you can establish a lawn on clay surface as long as you loosen it before seeding and then keep the surface consistently moist until germination (use straw).

Compost may be a good solution if you have a small plot. Just remember that 1000 sq feet of lawn area would require some 10 cubic yards of compost to provide a good mixture (3" mixed into the top 8-10" of soil). Compost can be delivered in trucks, but as you can see it will only work for relatively small plots (not for several acres of lawn area)