First, you didn't flunk Lawn 101. You got a B in 2006, a C in 2007 (for late seeding) and an A so far in 2008. Nothing you did was wrong, but the timing for seeding was off a bit. 1) Round Up. We hesitate to mention specific chemical names for companies. The generic glyphosate works just fine and it's essentially the same stuff. Also, so many of us are organic and the R word stuff isn't. 2) Compost and peat moss will both decay away in about five years, so the soil is going to settle. Certainly you can mix either lightly (say, an inch or so every ten inches of soil), or skip it and use organic feeding methods. If your soil is really bad, I'd mix it. You can usually get compost from your local garden store, big box store, or delivered bulk from a supplier. The other option is to use 1/4" as a topdress for your seeding. Over time, the decay products work into the soil and enrichen it, plus you kill two birds with one stone and don't need to otherwise mulch the seed. Plus, the worms like it. :-) 3) Go right ahead and use it. If it was stored in a cold garage, it's completely fine. If stored in a warm house, you lose some germination but it's not that significant over six months. You can't wait too much longer for a spring seeding (and might want to consider using Siduron or Tupersan as a pre-emergent when seeding). So you probably don't have time to wait for the soil results. That's OK, you can work on correcting those issues afterward. Right now, get it sprouted--the seed has all the resources it needs for the first few weeks of its life. Once you get that test back you'll know what to add.

Glad to see this thread. My lawn looks the same way, though more tan than grey, but each day I see more and more green sprouts popping up. I was going to rake but I will wait based on the advice here. In a few weeks I'm going to drag around a tow behind dethatcher to do a quicker job of lifting the grass. No set low enough to hit the soil, just enough to skim the grass. It will make for an easier job than raking alone, though I was still going to try and get a head start with the rake. I have what I think is pink snow mold under a tree in the front yard. Some patches, and one large spot by a few feet. The grass seems to be pinkish brown and curled up, but damp. I'm hoping this recovers even if it takes a while. It was the first instance of any mold that I noticed.

My instincts say that the tree is pulling away nutrients from the soil before the grass gets it. I'm no arborist but it is my understanding the active root zone for a tree is about the same as its canopy (your drip line). For my money, I'd apply a pound of urea nitrogen on that area with the next milorganite as a test (or heck, this weekend if your of a mind). If that doesn't perk it up some, then a soil test would certainly be in order. If you mulch mow your leaves in the fall, its possible the soil Ph could be acidic in that area. Just MHO, I'm sure the experts will offer better advice.

really hard to tell for sure but typically fungus in my area is reddish/yellow. You may have multiple problems. The problem with newbies is that they want to solve problems with chemicals (I was one of the worst offenders). The worst time to add fertilizer is when a grass is stressed and excessive nitrogen will show up as patterns matching the application method. If you just applied the nitrogen within the last few days you can reduce the effect by watering heavily for one day but if you applied it more than a few days ago you are probably past the danger period. Again, check the soil moisture at about 2-6" deep at several areas in your lawn each week. It should be slightly wet the day of watering and then let it go to slightly damp before watering again. Wet all the time just rots the roots and causes yellowing due to lack of nutrients. With most soils a twice weekly 1" watering in the summer is all you need. When the grass comes back on it's own (and I'm almost certain it will) then evaluate the soil like I said and take any corrective action required. Guessing and throwing chemicals at it will probably make things worse.