> "We were told that we shouldn't use any pesticides to kill the clover since we plan on overseeding in the fall." You have a slight misunderstanding here. Do not apply pre-emergent herbicides, i.e. 'crab grass preventer' if you are going to sow seeds in fall. This product would prevent the germination/emergence of the grass seeds also. It's OK to apply post emergent herbicides, i.e. 'Weed B Gone' before sowing seeds because these products kill what has already emerged. And FYI - Common Weed B Gone contains mainly 2-4D which is not really effective on clover. Ortho makes this post emergent product http://www.scotts.com/smg/products/ortho/weed_killers/weeds_in_lawn/pdf/WBGChickweedCloverOxalis_042009.pdf which contains Triclopyr and is more effective on clover. But, we do not know what type of grass you have in southern KY so check the label for your grass.

Good point about spraying every weed. You could do that, but since you have full coverage weeds, you might want to use a granular. Be absolutely sure to read the directions. Many of them go on to WET GRASS. That makes it a 2-person job. One person keeps the grass wet in front of the person applying the herbicide. Otherwise the grass dries out before you get the stuff applied. If you do your seeding this coming August, then the KBG will have time to get established. There is a saying about ground covers which applies to KBG, too. The first year it sleeps, the second year it creeps, the third year it leaps. This applies in relative terms, but the sooner you get it in, the sooner you'll have an excellent lawn. Clover reseeds profusely. You'll have to keep after it every few weeks next year to get rid of it. Preemergent in the spring might help. It does not kill seeds, but it does not allow seedlings to take root. Keep your new lawn mowed tall and that will help prevent new weeds. You don't need to aerate, but if it makes you feel better spending the money and breaking your back to make little holes in the yard, go for it. Learn to water deeply and infrequently if you are not already doing that. Deeply means one inch of water as measured by cat food or tuna cans placed around the yard. Infrequently means once a week with daily temps above 90 and once every other week with temps in the 80s. Watering like this has a big effect on cutting weeds. Weed seeds need moist soil for several days. If you allow the soil to dry out completely at the surface, the weeds can't sprout.

"Without cover, how often should I water the seeds after slit seeding?" try watering fairly heavily the first time to make sure everything is wet, not saturated. From there just water lightly 3 times a day, maybe 10 minutes each time. 9am, noon, and 2:30 pm is what I am at now. Just make sure the soil is all damp. ""Do I have to be sure I've waited a certain amount of time after RUing the weeds and unsightly grasses before slit seeding?" Yes, read the RU label. I think is 10 days or something. "The slit seeder at Lowe's has the hopper on the front that looks like a drop spreader built in, The Classen I believe. Elsewhere on this forum I've read of people not being particularly fond of the hopper and just broadcasted the seed with their own spreader and then used the slit seeder w/out the seed in the hopper to work in the seed. Does that make sense?" It sounds like it makes sense, but I'll tell you what happened to me. The darn slit seeder hopper just dumped seed all over the place. So I did what you mentioned, then ran the slit seeder over that...bad bad bad. horrible germination rate. Maybe it was me and I did it wrong or maybe my soil was not good for germination. I did a soil test the next spring and had to add a lot of amendments. Just my experience, thats all.

I recall that post too, token. I think it was someone in Washington state (maybe?). I was wanting to find it too. I have Blue-eyed grass & tiny, tiny wild wild violas and have been watering them to help them increase in numbers - and they have! The grass has a blue haze from their blooms. So pretty. A month ago, I dug up some wild Scarlet Indian Paintbrush plants and planted them out there. They finally recovered and began to bloom. My hope was for them was that they would bloom and reseed. Next spring there would be a 'flow' of red blooms out there too. Temps dropped down into the 20s last night, so not sure if they survived. If so, they will reseed. Scarlet Indian Paintbrush needs to grow in wild grassed and among other wildflowers, as it is semi-parasitic - its roots attach to and absorb some nutrients and water from the roots of certain other plants (i.e. wild prairie grasses). I will be going out to collect some seeds later on in June and scatter them in my lawn this summer. They will germinate in the fall and bloom the following spring. Anyway, I want to seed the back yard grass with low-growing wild flowers and stop fighting Mother Nature. I stopped applying the weed and feed about ten years ago. It killed many of my flowers when it washed down the hill and like you stated, after it killed out all the wildflowers and weeds, there were big bald spots until the Bermuda came back. I like the wild grasses much better and want to increase the wildflowers. I'd like to get Oxalis growing out there too, but I don't think it is wet enough for them. Wine Cups are lovely low-growing wildflowers too, and I have seen them growing together with Oxalis. Both are lovely little ground hugging flowers. Back to subject: I think the post in question was made back in March, token. I don't recall what the name of the topic was though. Bummer. Hope the person who posted it will read this and respond. :) Thanks for posting this. ~Annie Here is a link that might be useful: Scarlet Indian Paintbrush