[Sylvanfan]

Well my back yard is fata'd with a capital F. Grass is all pretty much dead and it just looks horrible. Considering I'd like to get my house up for sale in the next 2 weeks my only real option to make the place look appealing I think is to strip the existing yard and put in new sod. In digging up a bit of ground in the backyard last night where I'm planning on removing the grass and putting rock I noticed that the soil is extremely hard.

I was planning to rent a sod cutter and cut up all the existing grass and get rid of it. Than I was going to spread on a new layer of top soil, put the fertilizer down and than lay the new sod over top. But I'm wondering if I shouldn't get an aerator or rototiller after I strip the sod and break up the base ground if it's this hard before I put the a layer of good top soil on top? The lawn was only 5 years old, but I doubt it's ever been aerated.

Any advice I can get would be mucho appreciated.