I'm just going to suggest something completely different. Can we assume you live in Sacramento, CA? Because crabgrass is a summer annual plant that requires full sun to thrive. If you have something growing in the middle of your lawn currently, it is not crabgrass. Crabgrass is dead, Dead, DEAD in the winter and does not come back in the spring...except from new seed. Can you take a picture and post it? We can help you post it if you can take the picture. What I suspect is you have some sort of fescue growing around the edges and St Augustine grass growing in the middle. St Aug will likely be green now if you have had a mild but rainy winter. St Aug is a broadleafed, warm season, grass that resembles crab grass to the uninitiated. If I recall Sacramento, CA is a fine place to grow St Augustine due to the warm summers and mild winters. First you have to decide what you want to use the lawn for and what you want it to look like. If you are going to play football on it and let the Great Dane pups frolic, then you need different grass than if you are going to just look at it. You also have to decide fine blades (like the fescue) or coarse (like crabgrass and St Aug)? Fescue is going to need a lot of water in the summer because of your heat, but there are varieties that will work well. St Aug can be very lush, but you have to adjust to the coarse appearance. Next you should know that you don't have to have crabgrass at all. There are a couple things you can do to keep it away from your yard. First is to water only infrequently but deeply. Crabgrass seed needs several days of moisture to germinate. If you water once and let that soak in for a week or longer, the crabgrass seeds will not germinate. However Mother Nature is about to through you a curve and water for several days. When that happens your second line of defense is to have the tallest grass you and your spouse can agree to. Set your mower to the highest setting and mow at that height for a month to see how you like it. Don't judge before the end of a month because it will look straggly until it all grows up to the right height. So why mow high? Because crabgrass requires full sun to thrive. Tall, dense grass provides enough shade on crabgrass seedlings that they cannot set a good root, so they die. In this regard, St Augustine is a winner for a few other reasons. One is that St Aug is a sod-forming grass that grows very densly in full sun. Fescue is a bunch grass that grows one plant from each seed and does not knit together to cover the bare ground. Bare ground will fill up with weeds. That is Mother Nature's law. The other advantage with St Aug versus crabgrass is that crabgrass is not very salt tolerant while St Augustine will grow out into the sea if you let it. Thus you can kill any amount of crabgrass and retain all the St Augustine by sprinkling the dampened crabgrass with baking soda. The crab dies in a day or two and any intermingled St Aug is unaffected. Sac'to has a lot of options for either warm season grasses or cool grasses. You need to make some decisions about what the lawn will be used for, how you want it to look, what you are willing to put into it, and what you are willing to put on it. Then get back here with the answers and we can help you. By the way, tilling is a bad idea for lawn surfaces. It might work for gardens, but you don't have to walk on those. Tilling now will result in a lumpy, bumpy lawn in 3 years.

Thanks joepyeweed and soccer dad, I appreciate you taking the time to respond. I didn't want to add too much information in the first post and overwhelm. Cultural Practices: Yes, I mow at the highest setting and water deeply and infrequently. I am still learning how to measure fertilizer in #/1000sqft instead of using Scott's rotary spreader and throwing it on the lawn, but I think the lawn has plenty of Nitrogen. Using the Scott's 4 step program in the past, I've started with step 1 in late April/early June when the ground temp is 50-55F and I see Forsythia bloom. Other Scott's steps have followed 6-8 weeks after the previous one. As I read more on this site I find steps 2 and 3 are not so good and my constant use of fungicide in the past has probably killed the good fungus too. After reading up on healthy soil I'm betting mine is lacking at this time. While I know it is great to mulch I have bagged since my fungal problems started and, very unfortunately, mulching simply spreads the lawn diseases. I may mulch my leaves this fall. I pull weeds by hand or use weed-B-gon to spot treat. pH: The pH has been a long issue and I'm not sure why. I've had several tests from the local Coop Ext as well as my own solution tester. The back yard has been between 5 and 5.6 for the last 5 years and the front has dropped from 6.8 to 6.2. I do test before I apply lime but I don't know why I can't keep the pH up. This is one reason that the organic method appeals to me - less pH testing and liming. Fungus: I agree with your assessment that N is too high. I should go test that with my solution tester. This is another reason to not follow Scott's program to the letter and go with organic or something hybrid for my lawn. In the past I was uneducated regarding NPK/ compost/ microbes/ bacteria/ good fungus/ and simply followed the steps not knowing if I was putting down a 30-2-4 or a 4-15-10 (just throwing out numbers). Grubs: In year 3 when I applied 24hr control I did have a problem and the grass came up like a carpet. Since then I have used the 3month control (July/Aug/Sep) every year. I don't want to go through that issue again. My area is notorious for grubs and moles and I'm reluctant to skip grub treatment for fear that they will return and I will be unaware until it is too late. Overseeding: Aside from re-seeding small and large(30'x40') patches I haven't overseeded the lawn. I've seeded over some thin areas with some luck by hand and am considering renting a slit-seeder this fall to try and fill out the thin areas. I may wait until next year for this if it takes some time to amend the soil before seeding. Organic: I've been reading lots of posts here about organics and the FAQ is great too. I am going to search my local big box stores and feed stores for corn gluten meal, soybean meal, corn meal and alfalfa meal. And maybe even Scott's organic lawn food (I have lots of gift cards to Lowe's). I understand corn meal is for disease and I'd like to apply it now. How will it affect my current year schedule: Late April: Scott's step 1 Mid June: Scott's step 2 I don't want to over N the lawn again. I don't know much about compost and will read more. 1td/1000sqft sounds like a lot. I have a bad back, is there any way to spread compost other than by hand? A drop spreader? I've read how great compost is but I haven't seen it in any annual schedule. Is that because composting is a one time shot to get microbes and bacteria back in to the soil? How often should one apply a layer of compost? I definitely realize this isn't a quick fix but I'm looking to take the lawn in the proper direction. As long as my practices are good, I'm confident the lawn will respond in time.

Follow up - I went through all the steps. Lime, potassium sulfate, de-thatch with a verti-seeder and straw blankets where necessary to control erosion (if we ever get and rain again). To help build up the organics, I used spent beer mash from my friend's micro-brewery. Since it's wet it isn't really easy to spread around. I mostly flung it with a shovel, so the coverage isn't real even. It smelled kind of funny for a couple of days, but doesn't seem to have hurt anything. I may do another application in the early spring. I used a blend in the front yard and mostly tall fescue in the back shady yard. Water, water, water and more watering. Watering 6,000 sq feet in a royal pain in the arse! I just couldn't do the recommended thrice per day, but I usually got two waterings in, until things started sprouting. By far, the best water came on too few occasions from Mother Nature. She really knows how to soak the yard evenly. Low and behold, the dirt is now covered with green grass (and a few weeds) it looks great and we are pretty pleased with the results. I have mowed it once (at the tallest setting) and may mow toward the end of November to mulch the leaves. Click o the link below to see where I am now. Here is a link that might be useful: My most recent post about winter prep & weeds

LOL, you got bitten by the "dish bug" for sure Lynne. I think you were warned that would happen if you hung out here for awhile! I really like the plate with the leaves, and the swirls and solid white will work for so many events. I'm going to have to hit another Dollar Tree, the one near me hasn't added any new dishes in a long time. I've not seen the pretty ones like you found there for sure or they would have had to come home with me! NanaKaren, I'm really glad to hear that your kids are encouraging you to "play dishes", it's really fun to create something and use your pretty dishes and accessories instead of having them just sit in a cupboard. You can even do tables for one if you like, and you know they say food tastes even better on a pretty plate. ;o) Did we post some step by step picture posting instructions for you? If not, just say the word, and we will help you learn to post your pics. Believe me, it makes it so much more fun when you can show off your creations--and if I learned to do it, anyone can. Luvs