The good news for you is that some of the best agricultural sites in the US consist of red clay soil. As long as your property DRAINS sufficiently, it's no big deal to tame this stuff. Trust me, I know from personal experience! Rather than looking at the big picture, why not focus on one small portion of your landscaping....one area that will make you happy each time you look at it? The ordeal of it ALL won't seem so insurmountable if you attack it a little bit at a time. Eric had the right idea in his earlier comment. I'd surely suggest that you turn as much of your property into something useful (and easier to take care of) instead of grass. Large landscape beds and tree collections can all be mulched to keep weeds down and to add to their attractiveness. Assorted mulches eventually break down and begin improving that soil, too. When we moved to our present home, this yard was pretty discouraging, too. I was horrified at this brick hard stuff we were supposed to grow stuff in. We tilled in a fair amount of aged bark fines and compost ONLY into those areas where we planned to add landscaping (shrubs, perennials, and annuals). The several trees we added, as well as the grass (mostly weeds when we got here), simply had to make do. Guess what? Trees planted directly into that hard red clay, with no amendments at all, grow like crazy! Those beds were amended once. We top dress with mulch and compost annually. We aerated the areas meant for grass heavily, then sodded with a hybrid Bermuda. After a very brief growing in period, the grass began to thrive like crazy on top of that red clay. Again, with very little watering (and we don't have an irrigation system). Come to find out, there's nothing difficult about growing in red clay soil. Well, we use a heavy duty auger to plant things rather than a shovel... but so what? ;-) Our plantings have thrived with less water, less fertilizer, less fuss than I have ever experienced in all of my years of growing! Go figure.

I grew up in Saskatoon. :) Am currently rural, about an hour directly to the east of you, but we're regularly in the city to get shopping done. You're certainly getting into your garden much earlier than I this year. Nothing went in until mid May and and the last of the veg garden was in June 2. I've never encountered a spinach leaf miner before, but I don't grow a whole lot of spinach either. I'm always trying to beat the peak of cabbage worm season as our kids are crazy for broccoli. We should be seeing a lot more of them by now, by my recollection. I haven't seen any significant damage yet and it's practically mid-June already. We're getting a downpour right now and the radar looks like it's over you, too. Stay dry!

Raybo, so did you keep those 12 bags and used them? what was your result? Not sure what you paid but if I get the new stuff for around $6/ea bag delivered to me, I think its much cheaper than what most sites are selling for. What are other choices if I end up with Tomato-Tome 3-3-6? I used Perfectly Natural that had 6-6-6 last year and got decent results. But that bag costs between $10-$15 plus shipping.

Check the carpet warranty whenever choosing pad! The grading must match to have minimal issues (i.e. if carpet is designed to last 15 years so should the pad) and often to enforce the pro-rated warranty. Many manufacturers have tighter restrictions on stair installation which usually require the best grade pad available. For SmartStrand they have a few carpet grade choices ranging from 20-25 years. The warranty information site indicates if you choose their preferred SmartCushion they'll add 10 years to the carpet warranty (could be a time limit on this offer).