Adding soil to lawn ??'s

[JohnnyWalkerRed]

I live in NW houston and I stopped by a place on Windfern that sells a yard of "enriched soil" for 20 bucks. I was thinking about getting one to spread around my yards since it seems to me that my soil is to hard and compacted prohibiting healthy grass growth. Is now a good time to do that given that I have already power raked the yard and spread about weed and feed? ALso is this enriched soil what I should get for the lawn? My lawn has always been decent but I can never get it to thicken up. Thanks for any help. JW

[Pocketfisherman]

You need to find out what enriched means. There's a good chance it's done with processed sewage sludge. If you or your kids spend a lot of time on the lawn, you might want to reconsider if that is the case. The best fix for compacted soil is to have the lawn aerated with a coring machine. You can rent one, or have it done by a lawn service. After the aeration, top dress with a good quality compost like Cotton Burr compost or similar. Weed and Feed is about the worst thing you can do to a lawn. It leaves salts in the soil which bind up the fine particles and cause compaction. You can remediate that with a product like Medina Has to Grow which will break down those salts and provide nutrition for natural soil organisms that make the soil fluffy and drain well. It can take years to bring it back to where it should be after wed and feed, which is also very harmful to trees and shrubbery. If you need to use a fertilizer, use a slow release organic based fertilizer.