Question
I live in New Jersey (near Philadelphia), and our yard was a bit of a mess when we bought the house last year - in addition to the grass, there were all kinds of weeds, ivy, roots, rocks and apparently a little bit of trash underneath too!
I decided to rip it ALL up.  We did that, pulling as many roots as possible...but it just goes on and on.  I finally decided it was enough and began raking it flat - trying to get as many leaves (holly leaves are not fun!) and roots out.  
BUT:
1.  does it matter if there are a few leaves or roots here and there?
2.  I can't seem to get the lawn perfectly flat - as I pull the hoe across, I can feel it going up and down....will this look bad when the grass grows?
3.  The dirt is so dry - parts of it are almost sandy.  Do I have to put down new dirt?
4.  What do I do now?
Thanks so much!

Answer
These people BURIED their garbage?  Are you sure there's nothing buried under the HOUSE you bought?  

It sounds like you are on the right track.  But I think you might consider a nice little work with the rototiller.  Rake out the roots and stones you can see now, and pick the miscellaneous things out of the ground, then rototill and re-rake.  

There is a school of thought that says rototilling high clay soil and hardpack will only make things worse.  But if you till (or do some serious hoeing and digging), you can get the rocks out and till in some amendments to make the soil healthier and grass-friendly.  If you play your cards right you'll never need to till again.

Since you just moved in, you'll enjoy the benefits of a nice new lawn early on.  I think weeds and other things are a good sign -- the previous residents probably did not use herbicides, fungicides or pesticides, so you have some nontoxic soil with lots of potential.  You may be sick of looking at those weedy roots, but don't stop now.  Get them out of there.  Dandelions need just 2 inches of root to sprout anew, and they will ruin your life if you let them.  Other weeds will just sprout like wildfire from sections of roots you leave.  It's worth it to get out as much as you can.  

If you really want to do the job right, buy yourself a soil test kit at your local Home Depot or friendly neighborhood nursery.  It's a good way to avoid spending money on amendments you don't need.  Most New Jersey soils are going to be more acidic than your grass will like, so till in some pelletized lime, and wait a few days to get a soil pH reading to see if you need to add any more.  You can also send a sample in to your local Cooperative Extension but that will take a little more time.  Best long term results are obtained when the lime is completely worked into the soil, all over your plot.  Just wait a few days to let the lime settle before you take a soil sample, especially if you use pelletized lime.  I like pellets because there is less dust and you don't breathe it in the way you do with the less expensive talcum-type lime, which has to be moistened in the bag at the source or you end up with a cloud of lime smoke the moment you open the bag.  But pellets take days to have any effect on the soil around it.  So wait before testing the pH if you use it.  

After your tests come back, add necessary ingredients to make your soil healthy.  Those leaves are GOOD for your new lawn so leave them in the soil.  Ingredients might include peat moss (which will make your soil slightly more acid, but is a great way to raise the moisture retention of dusty dry hardpan).  You can try a local farmer's rabbit or chicken manure.  If you use store bought manure you don't have to worry about adding too much, but it gets expensive.  Sand is probably not good to add in large amounts, unless you are generous with compost, humus or peatmoss, because it will make your soil even harder than it is already.  A good starter fertilizer will get the roots off to a good start -- I like the Gardens Alive WOW! Plus, which also has an earth-friendly weed-killer that will inhibit any weed seeds you happen to leave behind (www.gardensalive.com).  The WOW! Plus by the way is on sale as we speak.  Rake the soil flat, pick up debris off the top including rocks, and you're ready to rock and roll.

Alfalfa is famous for quickly turning plain vanilla dirt into supersoil.  If you can wait until autumn to seed, a summer crop of alfalfa pours incredible amounts of organic matter into the ground, most of it yielded in the roots.  You don't have to dig it in when you're ready to seed; just mow it down and leave the clippings on top of the soil, where they will decompose.  

I'm not sure whether you had holly shrubs and dug them up or if they were simply buried there.  Foundation plantings are important to absorb moisture near the foundation and they also look nice.  Perhaps you want to get the lawn over with first.  It's a major project so I don't blame you if you do.  When you are doing your final grade, make sure you slope AWAY from the foundation.  It is VERY important to begin with a smooth soil base; those seemingly minor dips and bumps won't level themselves and 5 years from now you'll be remember this paragraph, wishing you had evened out the lawn when you had a chance.  

By the way you should use a first rate grass seed.  Note how much light you have and use that as a guide.  My favorite grasses come from Seedland (www.seedland.com) which has a library of varieties and guides for picking the right ones for your neck of the woods.  Gardens Alive also sells blends of gorgeous grasses for shade or sun.  

If you are made of money, you can now put down fresh-cut sod, soaking it through, deep into the nice new soil you have prepared.  Don't pick up anything that has been sitting on pallets for two or three days -- order it and make sure they cut it the day you are going to roll it out, otherwise you're wasting your time and money.  Where I live, it's not unusual for some people to spend $20,000 on a new sod lawn.  Personally, I prefer to pick out the seed so I know what exactly the lawn is made of.    

If you're going to be thrifty thing and seed instead, and if you can get to this point before the end of May or early June, throw down your grass seed and watch your grass grow.  Keep the seed moist; I'm told that failure to water correctly is the biggest reason newly seeded lawns fail.  That means morning waterings using a fine spray and sprinklers.  I hope you see some earthworms under that dirt while you're digging in those amendments.  No sign of life?  In a year, that should change.  While you're at it, set up a compost pile somewhere off the beaten track.  Leaves, grass clippings, vegetable peelings and eggs will turn into rich earth that will grow beautiful grass next season.  

Summer heat is very bad for new grass.  Make sure seed has at least a month to grow before hot weather begins baking the daylights out of it.  Autumn is the preferred planting time for a new lawn, or early spring.  Grass grows fastest and healthiest at temperatures in the 50s and 60s.  If you do put down your lawn, you can't give your lawn too much TLC this first summer.  Make sure NO ONE walks over it.  Don't mow too early or too late.  Water deep and thoroughly.  Above all, NEVER use those mass market weed killers with things like 2,4-D and other weapons of mass destruction; they're advertised as shortcuts, but you'll be stuck putting them down every year, instantly wrecking the soil chemistry and wreaking unspecified long term damage.  Organic is easier, cheaper and user friendly.  Nothing less should be used in The Garden State!

I tried to keep this short and sweet, Jeff.  I don't want to discourage you with a book about how to put in a new lawn.  If you have ANY questions or need clarification, let me know.