[Bogie Shooter]

Originally Posted by suesiegel

To make any difference you need to apply a lot of manure. If, I recall one inch is 700 pounds per 1000 sq foot. As you have said, our problem is that they laid sod on top of sandy clay. They should have added organics into the top 6 or 8 inches of soil before laying the sod but didn't. Actually for me they refused to do it. You need to get the organic matter into the soil to matter. If, you top dress there is no reason for the manure to move into the soil where you want it. Put some soil, and some manure in a glass jar add water and you will see the soil sinks and the manure does not.
You can, as I did, use a good quality rechargeable drill attach it to an extension bar or an old long large auger bit drill holes every 6 inches or so and fill them with manure. IT IS A LOT OF WORK. Once you do it, you will need to apply less water and less fertilizer. We put 70 fifty pound bags of manure into our 5,000 sq foot lawn. Be careful not to go deeper than 6 inches. All your in ground sprinkler pipes, cable TV and power are down 8 inches. Having a drill with a clutch meant that if I hit anything it would not damage pipes etc. You do a little at a time. We took two years to do our lawn.

Wow!