I've been using organic fertilizer only since 2002. Before that my lawn was bouncing all over the place. It seemed at times that no matter what I put on it, nothing improved it. Finally organics fixed everything all at one time.

Back then I was using ground corn meal because it was only $3 per bag. Now with the prices of commodities changing I'm using alfalfa pellets. Both of these are sources of protein although corn is a much weaker source. Protein is processed by the microbes in the soil into its constituents and ultimately (3 weeks later) into plant food.

As for a schedule I'm much further south than you and I don't typically winterize. What I do do is start fertilizing on Washington's Birthday and then again on Memorial Day, 4th of July, Labor Day, and Thanksgiving. I suppose if I winterized I would not need the February application.

My application rate is 20 pounds per 1,000 square feet.

Do you have any brick factories in your neighborhood? If not then you probably don't have clay but a mix of salts which mimic clay soil. Do you have issues with hard soil even when it is wet? Or issues with standing water or penetration into the soil? If so we can probably help you.

If you write back, please tell us what your watering regimen is. How often do you water and for how long? Historically most peoples' lawn problems can be traced to watering too often and not deeply enough.

thanks dchall. We have VA red clay but with enough water it penetrates ok. We water 2xs a week for a total of about 3 hours total each day (5-8am). This is what the sprinkler guy said to do from May-Oct.

Okay. You need to forget the conversation with the sprinkler guy. He just wants to demonstrate all the cool features of his installation. Here's how to water. First you need to time how long it takes YOUR sprinkler system to deliver a full inch of water. Put some cat food or tuna cans out on the lawn and turn on the sprinkler. When all the cans are full, that's the time you want to memorize. That is the time you will water every time you water. When the temperatures are in the 90s, you should be watering no more than once per week. When temps fall into the 80s, you can back off to once every 2 weeks. When temps are in the 70s, back off to once every 3 weeks. Chances are your sprinkler system does not allow you to program it like that, so you'll have to go to manual.

Also stop characterizing your soil as clay unless you have a brick factory in your neighborhood. When you have real clay, brick factories pop up. Otherwise what you have is sandy loam with too much magnesium in it. Magnesium causes soil to mimic clay in many ways. The red color is from iron, which you seem to have plenty of.

You can do a quick test to show you don't have clay. Get a straight sided jar like an olive jar or whatever. Fill it half way with soil and measure the height with a ruler. Then fill it with water almost to the top and put in 3 drops of dish soap or shampoo. Put the lid on and shake it up real good. Then set the jar down. Two minutes later take a picture of the jar with the ruler next to it. Two hours later take another picture with the ruler. Then 2 days later take another picture. You're looking to get 100% of the inches of soil measured. If you had six inches of soil to start and after 2 minutes you have settling of 3 inches, then 50% of the soil is sand. After 2 hours if you have 2 inches more, then you have 33% loam (2 inches divided by the original 6 inches). The rest should be a cloudy brown water on top. What is most likely is that after 2 hours the water will not be that cloudy. If you can see through the jar then you virtually have no clay. If, after 2 days, the water on top is still cloudy/brown and not cleared up, then you have serious clay. Clay remains suspended in water for days.