Nancy and I are engaging in a lawn battle this fall.

Despite all the rain we had this summer, our lawn was mostly brown. And even though we are not lawn freaks, this would not do.

Beginning two weekends ago, I used a garden rake to pull up all the brown grass and the thatch that was under it. With that done, what we had left was occasional islands of green grass sticking their blades up above a sea of brown soil.

I went to the local soil and compost yard and bought a half yard of soil and a half yard of compost in the same pickup-truck bed, and spread the mixture on the areas of lawn that I had raked clean, raising the sea of soil higher up onto the grass tuft islands. Then I added limestone and Milorganite, a mild natural lawn fertilizer, and raked it all again.

Finally, last Thursday, I spread shade lawn seed and went over the entire area with the back half of the rake. We have been watering about 10 or 15 minutes a day to keep the whole thing moist.

If this doesn't give us a mostly green lawn by next May, we'll have to bring in a professional or use sod. I really dislike working on lawns.

For something more colorful, check out Sunday's column, in which I tour the gardens at Purpoodock Club in Cape Elizabeth and talk with their creator, Julie Seavey.

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