>"Make sure I get this straight, with Kentucky blue grass planted in the fall and only grown an inch. It considered mature when it goes through winter and that would allow me to apply weed killer." Yes. >"what type of weed killer should I use? Weed-bgone? I also have a lot of broad leaf weeds, would 2 4-d be ok on a lawn that was planted in fall?" Yes, 2,4D is fine now ... but know that 2,4D is not the cat's meow for every weed. Look at labels and purchase a combination of 2,4D with Triclopyr or 2,4D & Quinclorac for better weed coverage. >"should I apply a fertilizer with weed control?" No. Fertilizing and weed control is two separate operations with different timing needs. When it is time to fertilize (after a real mowing) - then fertilize. If it is time to kill weeds (like now) then kill weeds >"I don't want to kill my grass because I'm not patient enough." Then don't fight mother nature. Allow the grass to wake up naturally when it's good and ready. Your lawn knows no calendar. Once the spring 'growth flush' begins, as soil temps rise, you will be mowing twice a week - guaranteed! It is then that you begin feeding. In the case of a newly renovated lawn, you can "spoon feed" your lawn this spring. This means - half the bag rate of synthetic fertilizer, applied twice as often. This keeps the young lawn, like a child, constantly fed. Utah has crazy weather, so once it warms up and summer conditions begin, STOP the synthetic fertilizer until fall. During the summer, drop something organic for a slower, more gentle constant feeding. Milorganite would be perfect for this time.

Great minds think alike. I'm replacing my cheap bluegrass (Kenblue) that's doing well with Midnight II, Bedazzled, Moonlight, etc. this fall myself. What I just did was stop watering, cut to 1" (way too short) and ask what I can do to stress it out. I'd rather not use Roundup unless I must (I have dogs).

Thanks for your reply. However, your psychic senses are wrong. I do tend to analyze things, especially when it's regarding a new endeavor/field I have no prior knowledge/experience of. It has yielded outstanding results for me in the past and so I continue to approach things in this manner. Regarding seeding too late - well, first off, I just took possession of the house so I couldn't seed earlier. Also, I live in Edmonton, Alberta Canada and if you've ever lived here, you would know that our summer is pretty much about 2 weeks long. lol Anyway, When I did the overseeding, it was about beginning of June and temperatures were about 10 C - 20 C and we've been getting a lot of rain lately. In fact, we're just starting to go up to highs of 20 C - 25 C and in about 5 days is the first day we're supposed to hit 29 C, as per the forecast. I know that Spring and Fall are the textbook times to overseed but our weather/termperatures here does not conform to the norm. Our temperatures in October are already winter temperatures for a lot of places in the States. Also, I did not want to wait until fall because I wanted to get started on thickening the lawn asap. I was confused with this statement though: "But you are just now coming into spring...and fall is just around the corner." Spring is technically done..did you mean, "just coming into summer"? I usually mow at around 4 -5 inches and only take a bit off. I know all about the "only take 1/3 off" and "mow high" recommendations. I only scalped it this one time to prepare for overseeding to facilitate better seed to soil contact. I've read about the roller thing but decided that it wasn't needed. I did not want to compact things any more either especially since I was core aerating. I ran my rake through the soil and seeds to enhance seed to soil contact and this is a technique that has been recommended in several articles and videos. I also did not want to bury the seeds too deep. In fact, I already have baby grass growing to about heights of 2 inches now. I only noticed them yesterday and they are even much taller today. I like your idea of sowing KBG first, then fescue then PRG but here's the thing - I have not found any stand alone seed packages in my local Walmart/Home Depot/Canadian Tire stores. They are all blends. I haven't gone to garden centers though but that's also because I do not want to pay more for something that sells less at Home Depot. Also, I think this says something.. I think that for our climate and grass types, the seed blends probably tend to work better. I think this is evidenced by the fact that I primarily see Scotts Sun and Shade being sold in all these places and not the other types - i.e. high traffic, high heat etc.. Also, this blend tends to get the best reviews on Canadian Tire.com. The other thing too is that I've read blends were made so that the PRG can germinate first and help establish the turf while the fescue and KBG are taking their sweet time to germinate - helps with thickening up lawn quicker and crowding out weeds. If I wanted to wait (or had the luxury to do so - i.e. lawn isn't too bare) the full 21-28 days, then I would probably just seed with pure KBG and not worry about blends. I've decided to wait with the dandelions. I've emailed Scotts and they said to wait after mowing the new grass 3 times before using Killex as it destroys grass seed and new grass. Just wondering why you say spot spraying is far better than broadcast anything. I just feel that if Killex is safe to use on an established lawn, it would be more efficient to just broadcast it, in terms of time and coverage. Regarding my neighbor's lawn - I'm not worried that her lawn looks like crap..I just feel that her dandelions are invading my lawn and I can see that most of the dandelions on my lawn are on the side close to hers. Anyway, I'm just gonna keep mowing high and hopefully it gets thick enough to crowd out weeds and hopefull I won't have too many dandelions and I'll just deal with them as they come.

I think we can help you with a little more information. Was your lawn green all winter or did it go dormant (turn tan)? This will help identify what kind of grass you have. Are you sure it's poa annua (with the tiny white flowers)? Can you post a couple pictures: One from an altitude of 5 feet and look across the lawn. The second from an altitude of 3-9 inches. Preferably take them in the shade or under clouds. You should not have any thatch. You might have some dead grass but thatch is usually several inches thick and is caused by over watering and fertilizing. Why were you going to aerate? Did someone tell you you need to? Did you read it somewhere? Is your soil hard when it's wet/moist from a long rain? Do a screwdriver test. When the lawn is dry see how hard it is to stick a screw driver down into it. Do it again when it's moist from deep irrigation. Generally we're getting away from core aeration - at least on this forum and a couple others. Stop using weed-n-feed products. If you need fertilizer then use a plain fertilizer. If you need a herbicide, spot spray with a targeted spray on each weed. Some herbicides will kill all broadleaf weeds like dandelions and clover. Others will kill all grasses like barnyard grass, poa annua, and whatever grass you have that you like. The wnf products are very hard to apply properly. If you don't apply properly then you don't get the effect you think it should give you. Generally you should fertilize once in late spring (Memorial Day is good), in early fall (Labor Day), and again around Thanksgiving or before the first frost. April is too early despite what the TV commercials lead you to believe. How would you feel about spraying the entire lawn with RoundUp to kill everything this fall and start over completely?