I live in NC and recently moved into a brand new home and learned that the builder removed all the topsoil from the yards and laid our fescue sod directly over the clay.

This was done in early June. Since then, we have applied a hummate soil conditioner and are awaiting a soil analysis to determine if lime is necessary.

I read the article about needing to develope deep roots...and have a couple of questions:

1.  Will my grass ever be able to develop deep roots down into the clay?
2.  With clay, how do I water to develop this?
3. Can I have a nice, healthy organic lawn in clay soil?

Thanks!

BTW...let me add that this site is great. Thank you so much for the info!!

And, I wanted to add a little bit about what my lawn looks like now. There is is green sprinkled with some brown is the sunny areas. The sides look great (they get a lot of shade)

I do have one area that has gotten very patcy.

We recently had a million weed pop up. Not sure where they came from. Some was crabgrass (i think, i'm new to all of this) and the others were tall, fast growing grass looking weeds. My husband and I spend 6 hours over the past two weekends pulling them. We got a good deal, but will probably have to make another pass.

I don't know if that was the right thing to do or not, but I definely don't want to put down chemicals.

I did hire an organic lawn care guy to put down some treatments. Thought I'd let him go at it this first year and then I'd try to take over after. But, I'm wondering if, with the clay, it is a lost cause.

Thanks for any help/advice.

OK...here I go again - back to the infrequent watering...can I do that with clay? And, if I already have some brown patches, do I still just look at the healthy grass to see if it is curling to determine when to water next?

Paul, do you do phone consults 

Thanks!

1)  It depends.  It is possible, but it depends on how pure and hard the clay is. 

2) same answer.

3) same answer.

How long does it take you to dig a hole a foot deep?

Phone consults.  Well, I've done a ton of that sort of thing for friends and stuff.  I suppose if you dropped $25 into my "I wanna buy a new camera" fund, then I could visit with you for a bit.

I don't know how long it would take me to dig hole...but I will tell you that the clay is pure. I'll get out the shovel this weekend and check to see how hard it is. It probalby varies in different locations.