I'm assuming you built the home but did not include landscaping in the plans. That means you really, really need personal help to get your drainage right. You should never just bring in soil because you think you need it. Let a professional decide. Maybe they won't do the entire job, but let them bring in the soil and get it graded.

As for grass seed, everyone wants low maintenance. They also have shade, 3 active dogs, and several children under that age of 10. So we need just a little more information. Do you have any of the above? Are you in the sandy part of NJ or the gardeny part? How large is the area getting grass?

Know this going into the project: now is not the best time to seed a lawn in NJ. Late summer is much better. Now is the time when crabgrass seed is germinating, so when you water your grass seed, the first thing you'll see sprouting is crabgrass. Your new grass will eventually come in several days or weeks later. By then the crabgrass will be well established. The new grass you planted will weaken under the summer heat and allow the dominant crabgrass to fully take over. By July you should see a full carpet of crabgrass with the occasional planted turf grass survivor. Then in late August you will need to kill the crabgrass, rake it out, and reseed for the second time. You can save a lot of money, grief, hassle, etc., by accepting your fate now and skipping the spring seeding. Simply foster whatever weeds happen to come in. If you are not watering daily like you would for new seed, then you'll get less crabgrass, and more variety in other weeds. That's fine unless you were hoping for a showcase lawn this summer. Green weeds, when mowed weekly, don't look as bad as bare dirt. You can practice mowing, watering, and fertilizing until August when you implement the master plan. You will learn a lot about grass while tending the weeds.

Armed with that information, if you want to continue with spring seeding, we can help get you the best results. Just don't expect the finest turf for the summer. Next year will be much different.

Thank you so much for your response. We moved in just before the summer last year and I think experienced exactly what you are describing!!Now that construction has basically destroyed anything growing in our yard I was excited to start anew. Much as we would like to hire a landscaper right now it is not in the budget so we had wanted to (at least temporarily) make it look a bit more aesthetically pleasing until we can afford professional help. As my kids are home (they are teenagers) now and have alot of energy is there anything productive we can do to the yard now that will not support weed growth but will support a more healthy lawn for the future?Would just laying healthy soil foster weed growth? or be ok?

thank you so much for help..

oh and we live in Northern NJ, no animals and not a small yard (will send pictures tomorrow when it is light)..thank you!

Do you have topsoil that has stones in it or is it not topsoil? You can't bring enough topsoil home from HD to do anything. If you truly need topsoil, best to find a good local source to truck it in. Moving topsoil around with shovels and wheelbarrow is very therapeutic for housebound teenagers.

Absolutely need pictures to go further. I would not assume you need to bring in topsoil UNLESS you have low spots that need to be filled. Adding top soil to an already profiled surface creates automatic drainage problems. But if you have done absolutely nothing since the house was constructed, you probably need top soil. Again, I would let the local professional decide how much and where. Let them grade in the drainage for you. A general rule of thumb is the soil should begin 4 inches below the sill of the house and slope downward another 6 inches in the first 10 feet out away from the house. This can be tricky, so let the pros handle it.

Generally you can improve your current soil if the drainage is already good. If you bring in new soil, it has its own issues and would require improvement also.

Mowing weeds is not a bad thing for this entire season. They are green and easy to grow.

Thank you dchall-san_antonio for your help. It has been pretty rainy and I wasn't able to take a picture until now...but this is our yard currently. Will topsoil encourage weed growth as well?Is there anything else you would recommend we an do now to improve it?TYSM for your help..

It seems that your yard is already maximum filled to the paved surfaces, so there is no room to add soil. If your soil is so bad it won't grow grass, you'd have to remove several inches of soil first, in order to have room for topsoil. You can probably make do with what you have.

Why don't you get the teens to remove the lowest/left limb of the tree? It's unattractive and needs to be removed as part of routine maintenance (shaping a tree as it grows.)