Since i'm not from your area, i can't say for sure, but at least around raleigh if you go thru the yard waste center (where they haul leaves and ground up trees from curbside pickup), you can get compost and mulch for a much, much cheaper price. Less than $20 a pickup truck full around here (which can only hold about a half a scoop). If you pay to have a load hauled, they can normally fit 2 scoops in so it's around $30, last time i did that for the compost cost (plus hauling). Yes, you pay more upfront, but often, less per cu ft because you can't get a full scoop on a pickup and you save the gas money and aggravation of driving back & forth for multiple loads. The upside to doing it slowly- pickup by pickup- is you don't have to store it- get what you can use as you work, and pace yourself. That may be a real consideration in a development with rules.

You could also check on craig's list and see if you can find somewhere locally that gives away or charges a nominal fee to get horse manure/cow manure/chicken poop. Normally if it's well composted they don't smell much at all. And you need little to really help the soil- it's like vitamins for your soil, so you can spread that thin. Sometimes companies that grind up trees will deliver that material to you for free or little- saves them from paying to take it to the dump. You'd have to let that compost, but it doesn't take as long as you might think (couple months, if turned, esp softwood, ie: pine). If you look around and think outside the box, there are lots of options if you are willing to put in some elbow grease rather than money.

Have you talked to some of the neighbors and asked what they did or are doing to have their trees and yards stay healthy? I do think that improving your soil is going to be the most effective thing you can do before you try to replant, for trees especially.

Another thing to find out is if your house/landscape is still under any kind of warrantee. I don't know how long those are for, but it's worth checking into.

Are you still in drought conditions out there? If you are, it's going to be hard to do much of anything but spread compost/mulch and wait til you get some rains to soften that clay a bit. The mulch will help soften it, so long as you don't get carried away. 24" of compost/mulch is overkill, by the way, unless you're going to til it in right off and even then that's a lot.

Investing in a tiller might not be a bad idea (if you can afford it), or maybe you could borrow or rent one. Taken care of, they'll pay you back in spades.

If the larger trees you're seeing are over 25 feet tall - they were there before the houses were built. Most of this area has clay or sandy layers, usually under a foot or more of good topsoil - when they level the lots to build the houses they scrape all that topsoil away exposing the clay underneath. It will take years to build up an entire yard. Compost cures all ills but keep in mind that a pile of dry leaves the size of a small car break down to an amount of compost that would fit in a standard kitchen trash can. This is why I buy my garden soil by the truck load and amend it with homemade compost every year and this work is never done, the soil eats up all that I can feed it.

Maybe the neighbors planted their trees before the drought and maybe they paid to have their yards worked on by a pro team which brought in topsoil.

You will have to divide your yard into bits that you can handle and just amend the spots where your slowest growing trees go first. Make sure you can water them the first year or so otherwise they'll stuggle to survive. Turf can handle a thin skin of good stuff on top of the clay but flowerbeds will wants a couple of inches deep and trees even more. A lot of the classic backyard trees and shrubs here will handle the clay just fine as long as you break it up a bit and mix in some good stuff and water them on a regular schedule.

ok some of that was a frustrated rant more than it was useful information to anyone. I guess let's focus on two problems -

First - my maple tree out front...what can be done in the immediate area that a 15' maple tree will survive next summer?

Second - the lot in general...there are patches where the clay is basically as hard as concrete and most of the lot breaks up into hard clumps that almost look like rocks when I dig into it.

I'm sure that getting a tiller and mixing in some amendments to soften up the big patches will help, but what about the lot in general? I know 1/8th of an acre isn't big...but I can't compost the whole thing.

Obviously your neighbors watered their trees to get them established prior to or leading up to and (as much as they could) during the 08 drought.

Your maples, if their canopies are now lopsided and half dead will need that much more TLC, not really worth it, to survive. If they do "make it" they will ahve to re-grow a rounded, acceptable canopy.

Simple ample rainfall (like this spring) is not adequate to establish lawn, shrubs or trees...they need their roots constantly moist through deep, scheduled soakings. If such conditions are not met, the healthy roots die, until a point the green foliage can no longer be supported by the dying roots.

Yes, the comment to lay down 2 feet of compost would be an ideal situation at the time of the completion of hte site BY THE BUILDER, or before any grading and tree/turf planting occurred. Otherwise that guy is just trying to make a buck.

Put down pine straw to create the basic bed lines for future shrub planting. In the rounded, kidney-shaped beds for your lawn--I'd say you need a more drought tolerant grass, such as zoysia or bahia, rather than the water-sucking cool season fescue and bluegrass types.

mhallam,

I truly feel your pain. Here's your "hang in there". Lucky for you, this is a great time of the year to make the much needed improvements for your lawn and the drought is over. I grew up in Charlotte and I remember the year the water line busted that fed our house from the street. My dad and I got the shovels out and started digging. Before long we filled the wheel barrow up with rocks, bricks and all kinds of miscellaneous construction debris.

First thing- You should definitely take some soil tests. Pick up some empty soil sample boxes from the Mecklenburg County agricultural extension office. They are free. Take as many soil samples as you feel like. Return them to the ag center and they will test them for you for free, its a tax benefit. They'll tell you what your soil needs. Most likely it needs a good dose of lime. Most clay does.

Hopefully some of this rain will soften it up for you to work with it. You can plant some trees this fall if you feel like starting them from scratch. It sounds like those maples are toast. Thats unfortunate. I wish you luck.

http://www.ces.ncsu.edu/index.php?page=countycenters

Thomis

Here is a link that might be useful: soil test page

When the leaves start to fall you should gather up as much as you can handle and make a nice deep mulch bed around the base of the maples. It can be as deep as you wish but it shouldn't touch the trunk of the tree and it doesn't need to extend out past the edge of the furthest branch (where the root tips are). You will need to water the pile to keep it in place. Oak leaves can take years to break down; maple leaves may only last a season.

In the parts of the yard with the worst clay I would consider putting in a gravel patio or path and not even try to grow anything in it.

If weeds are growing in the clay then other things will grow there also - it isn't that bad, but it is hard to work with. I prefer to build up on top of clay rather than mix stuf into it.