We purchased a house late last fall and I'm in the midst of brainstorming how to repair the lawn. Here are the main concerns...

1. Quite mossy - there's big patches covering random parts, about 50% of my entire lawn. One part is obvious.... It's always moist because of the grade and where it is. You can walk over there and feel the ground squish it's so wet. That's way down at the end though. The rest is more up hill and far away... Some parts are in full sun, some in partial shade. I have to do a soil test, but I'm assuming it's acidic?

2. Our entire yard is covered in pebbles! I know they laid down new soil to prep for the sale and put some seed down... I don't know if they picked the cheapest soil in the world or what... When you rake the lawn vigorously you can literally see little pebbles hopping into the air.

3. Super patchy. There are MANY areas of absolutely nothing - parts that are as big as 2 square feet. And to add insult to injury there are other patches of super green lush grass but it grows in a weird tuft, like a random round grass pillow.

So! What should I do? I've talked to many neighbors and have gotten a very mixed response of the following....

- use something to kill everything then buy new loam and reseed everything

- till everything, don't bother to prep, just go to town with the tiller, then reseed everything

- sprinkle loam over everything after a seriously short mow then add seed.

- kill everything, rake all the dead stuff up and toss it, till it, then reseed.

- aerate it, add seed, voila!

- add lime, call it a day.

Clearly mixed responses.

I know lime is probably important. I like the idea of tilling but won't that just churn the bad stuff underneath and allow it to grow again? I'd hate to buy loam for the whole yard.... That can get super expensive.

Also, some friends are saying I should do this now before the summer arrives while others are saying wait until September.

My thoughts: kill everything, till it endlessly til it's well mixed, till in lime, seed it, water it, cross fingers. Not sure when & not sure what else to till in.

Thoughts??

(by the way, I'm in central Massachusetts)