Hi, I mistakenly killed my front yard lawn recently when I bought a house and the irrigation system didn't work. I have a small front yard turf area (~150 sq ft), with the dead lawn, so I hand dug it out. I was going to plant a grass mix (Sundance buffalo grass and blue grama grass) I got at the Jun 22 Native Plant Swap but after reading the site prep info had some questions. It seemed like none of the site prep info was for dead turf grass. My questions (1) Do I need to put down topsoil? It does not seem so, but I did remove about 2" of dead grass/soil. (2) Did I need to hand dig remove the dead turf? It was 80-90% dead. Some instruction seem to imply that I could have just cut the dead grass down low, aerated it, and then planted the native grass seed? I still have all the dead grass (by the shovel full), should I put it back in the front yard and plant the seed? Or just leave it in the pile in the backyard piled up to become compost? (3) I want to make sure the water drains away from the house. Before I dug up the dead turf/soil, the home inspector and foundation person pointed out to me that the water drains both to the sidewalk and to the house (a little bit). Seems like I should use a rake to make sure the water just drains to the sidewalk (it is maybe 1" off now). Overall, wondering if I got a bit ahead of myself on this plan, but still the dead turf was not going to work out long term. I don't mind some learning mistakes, but just want to make sure I can keep on track without wasting too much energy, on making an easy to care for native grass front lawn. I hope to eventually plant scarlet globe mallow, purple prairie clover and some blazing star along with the grasses. Thank you for your help!