Re: the rehab and what I did right or wrong.... 1) I would not install sod next time in the first place. I would get the exact seed that I want and call in a hydro-seeder. 2) Really make sure to scalp the lawn. I mean cut it really short! Nothing taller than 1/2". Anything taller than that and it mats down under the top dressing which means the seed won't take because the grass underneath creates an air pocket that kills the new grass, but KBG doesn't grow through like some of the warm season grasses. 3) With KBG I'd do it in May if I had a choice. There are going to be weed problems whenever you expose fertile soil, but it is manageable. Forget about the weed issues because there is an easy solution there with KBG. But KBG takes a LONG time to come in from seed. The one thing that doesn't help is if it starts to get cold before it really starts growing well. IOW, if you wait till Sept to avoid some of the weeds and it starts to drop below 50*F in Oct, it'll be till late next spring before things start to look good again. The important issues with KBG are moisture and soil temp. May/June is best IMO. 4) Do it all in one shot! If there are low spots that will require more than the suggested 1/4" top dressing, just go ahead and fill them in. Don't wait! Have your preferred seed on hand and get that thing level the first time. This work is too strenuous to be doing it more than once. Little touch-ups later are to be expected, but get it 90% done in the first shot. 5) Anything more than 4,000sf you should try to locate a mechanical spreader for the top dressing and drag the lute or chain link around with a lawn tractor. 6) This is a point of debate, but... Currently the Orbit sprinkler heads are much better than the Rainbirds. Make sure that your sprinklers are exactly how you want them before doing anything with the lawn. And yes, sand isn't great for them, but it is pretty easy to fix. There are probably more that I'll include later.

@Phildeez--that really settles it then. They are not defoliating. There are some holes in leaves and some leaves that are growing in twisted. Some of the peppers have been snacked on, some with rot, some not. But no "trails of destruction" as it were. @woohooman--You seem tense...if you'll go back and reread I specifically said "Tomato Hornworm." And looking it up, it would seem VA does have them. Though they are more prevalent in other parts of the "Piedmont" then ours, so she could be right about Lynchburg, specifically--esp. since I haven't seen any hawkmoths--but you can bet I'll be on the lookout. @northerner_on Slugs have been truly horrible this year. I've been putting down iron phosphate baits, but with all the rains we've been having they only work a few days before they dissolve. It's been raining *hard* almost daily for the last few weeks, my beer traps keep getting filled with water. Gah! I guess I'll hand pick tonight, rain or no, and see if it is the slugs. (Early this season I hand picked about 300 in an hour, off of the basils and dill and other small herbs I was hardening off. I'll report back and let you know.

It won't stop raining. Would too much water produce symptoms that look like herbicide damage? New foliage coming off the one sucker that I let go looks gnarly with stunted curled foliage and stems? The stems are gummy and curled on the leader but the rest of the plant looks fine. I did spray the grass with bonide broad leaf killer, but that was a few weeks before I planted the garden almost two months ago. Also the garden is not close to where I sprayed and I am only seeing symptoms now after the garden has been in for a month. I wonder because the ivy that lines my grass area covering a rock wall was affected by the spray and the foliage of the ivy looked like this. Plus only one of my 8 plants is showing this and it's only on part of the plant.

be careful what you wish for lol! we had fay around for four days and 35+" of rain later, seminole county is drowning. thank gawd i'm in south seminole & the st johns river flows north because we can't hold anymore water. unfortunately north seminole county is sitting w/ several feet of flood water everywhere and river crests don't happen till tues. we're still getting lots of rain but its' from all the sitting water evaporating up and combining w/ the heat that's back. we are on a new kind of water restriction now lol, you can not use municiple water or add any water to the sewer system. no clothes washing, no dish washing & quick showers only, the lift stations are running on overflow & on generators. hopefully in my city we have people following this otherwise everyone is soon going to have backflowing sewage into their homes. the situation is even worse for those on spetic & wells most of those homes are under water and guaranteed to have contamination. no one gets water damage claims on their home owners insurance these days, you can only use federal flood insurance. there are alot of people here w/o fed insurance and there will be no federal aid from fema either, so far there has only been government aid allowed for govt clean-ups. ~ liz