Hi All,

Please help this novice gardener! We just moved into a house in lower Manoa that had a very neglected yard. It looked like it had not been raked or tended to in several years--lots of dead leaves and scraggly bushes. We've been raking and bagging all the dead leaves and soon will be down to plain soil. I was surprised to see that the soil is very crumbly, dry and sandy looking. Not what I expected to find in nice lush Manoa! :)

We have two young kids and would like for them to have a nice grassy backyard. How do I prepare the yard for that once the leaves and rubbish is gone? I was thinking my plan wold be:

1. Clear the dead leaves, etc. (almost done)

2. Aerate the soil with a tiller or hoe or something

3. Throw grass seeds around

4. Water

Will this work? Do I need to add nutrients to the soil or anything? Like I said, it looks pretty sandy and rocky.

A few other things:

There is a huge ficus in the backyard. The roots are trying to take over the yard and it gives a lot of shade, so large areas of the grass will not be in full sun.

I've also got a nice big avocado tree, but the leaves are brown around the edges. It has a lot of fruit on the tree, but doesn't seem to drop very many. Is it possible the ficus is affecting the avocado? They are about 15 feet apart. There are a couple other smaller trees in the yard, and they also have brown leaves. Maybe they just need watering...

One final question. Can you help me identify a shrub that I've seen around Manoa? It is a flowering shrub, sort of cottage-y looking, with small clusters of light blue flowers. I can't find identify it by Googling. I could go knocking on doors and ask, but I'm sort of shy. :)

Thank you very much for any help you can give me!