Fall is the ideal time to re-seed/overseed, but in my opinion they should have overseeded in early spring. The #1 way to prevent weeds is to have thick, healthy turf grass, mowed at 3.5-4 inches. A healthy lawn will block the crabgrass from getting any sun and ultimately smother it. Granted, you still would have had plenty of weeds this summer, it's not like your first overseed in the spring would have magically created a lush lawn, but it would have given you a foundation, so that this fall you could really overseed and by next spring have a thick, healthy lawn. It seems like a waste to put grub control, fertilizer, and per-emergent on sparse lawn. Really, they were just fertilizing the weeds. Timing is very critical on the pre-emergent, especially so with organic corn meal gluten. You need to put it down when the forsythia starts to bloom or the first 3 consecutive 50+ degree days. If they missed that window, it's effectiveness is compromised. Depends when in April they put it down. Should have been down the first week, the latest. If you have that many weeds it would be best to start over completely. You need to really kill all those weed seeds and the only way to do that is to either use roundup all over the lawn or preferable without using chemicals by using a process called Solarization (see link below). You could get started doing all of this right away and be ready by late august for core aeration, overseeding, and most likley lime application, but I would HIGHLY recommend having a soil test done. UConn may have an extension office, I know Umass does and it is cheap and provides PH and all the other key nutrient levels of your lawn. Good Luck Shawn Here is a link that might be useful: Lawn Solarization

I live in North central Iowa and here's how I would do your lawn work list. The weekend the Vikings are out in San Francisco for their pre-season game (Aug 21-22) I'd rent the core aerator and also over seed the bare spots. During the "Bye Week" for the Vikings (Sept 27 to Oct 9) I'd work on the Creeping Charlie. 1st ... Spray Charlie with Miracle-Gro to make it happy 2nd ... 5 days later spray Charlie with a 2-4-D product 3rd ... 5 days later spray Charlie with a Triclopyr product The fertilizer will accelerate the weed storing carbs for winter and the 2 shots of herbicide will tag along with the carbs to Charlie's roots. It will seem like little or nothing has happened to the weed. But ... next spring you will have killed 50% to 75% of it. It took me 4 season of 2-4-D and triclopyr to get on top of Charlie. Now, I just spot spray with 2-4-D when he visits, which is each and every year. (*sigh*) Good luck on your project!

Thanks SC77, There are several Blue Seal dealers within 10 miles of my home or my place of work. All, Below I posted the products available. Any thoughts on which one to use? The information given did not listed amount of sq/ft coverage per 50lbs bag. Do you know what the coverage might be? Safe 'N Simple Pre��"emergence Weed Control 9��"0��"0 100% organic, Safe 'N Simpleî Pre-emergence Weed Control 9-0-0 is an all-natural plant product made from Corn Gluten, a dried protein separated from corn during the manufacture of starch in the food industry. In 1985, while studying its value as a fertilizer, researchers at Iowa State University discovered that Corn Gluten contains a natural organic compound which inhibits root development in seedlings. Germination occurs, but seedlings die from lack of a root system. The result is an environmentally safe, non-toxic, completely natural weed control. Safe 'N Simpleî 9-0-0 provides weed control and an excellent source of slow-release nitrogen, 9% nitrogen by weight, in an easy to spread crumble form. When spread at the recommended rate Safe 'N Simpleî 9-0-0 provides 4 lbs. of nitrogen/ 1,000 square feet. Nitrogen is released as microorganisms break down in the soil. Available in 25 & 50 lb. bags. * Size and Price: 25 lbs - $29.9950 lbs - $47.99 * Quantity: 1 Safe 'N Simpleî Farm, Field & Pasture Food Safe 'N Simpleî Farm, Field & Pasture Food 5-1-5 is an all-purpose natural fertilizer containing soybean and alfalfa meals, nutrient rich organic plant material that will enhance the soil, increase soil biological activity, and provide needed nitrogen, phosphorus, and potassium for healthy lush plant growth. Recycling plant material back into the soil is natureâÂÂs way of replenishing nutrients and rebuilding soils. Conventional synthetic fertilizers supply plant nutrients. Safe 'N Simpleî 5-1-5 provides plant nutrition and promotes a healthy soil ecosystem. Farm, Field & Pasture Food nutrients are derived from soybean meal, alfalfa meal, fish meal, and sulfate of potash-magnesia. * Size and Price: 50 lbs - $26.99 * Quantity: 1 Safe 'N Simpleî Lawn Food 6��"2��"4 Safe 'N Simpleî Lawn Food is a natural based fertilizer containing soybean, alfalfa, and fish meals, organic materials that enhance the soil, increase soil biological activity, and provide needed nutrients for a thick healthy green lawn. Recycling plant material back into the soil is nature's way of replenishing nutrients and rebuilding soils in natural habitats. Conventional synthetic fertilizers supply plant nutrients. Safe 'N Simpleî 6-2-4 provides plant nutrition and promotes a healthy soil ecosystem. The key to long term lawn success is a healthy soil environment. Available in 50lb. bags * Size and Price: 50 lbs - $26.99 ...

Search for 'surfactant golf course' in the journals. Every land grant university in the country has been doing those for decades. The reason golf courses need all the tools is because they absolutely have to have green grass every day of the year. They force feed and force water it. What happens is they develop a hydrophobic fungus growing on the surface of the grass and soil. When that happens they can water all day long and it just sits on top and evaporates. This is what I get from reading the journals I alluded to above. That sitting water promotes the hydrophobic fungus. In an attempt to break through that surface they tried spine aeration. The spines poke through the surface layer of fungus and allow moisture to penetrate. That works to the extent that the spines have a certain spacing. So the water enters the soil separated by the spine to spine distance. Another attempt to solve the hydrophobicity problem was to use a surfactant like Cascade Plus. That product seems to work in every study. The surfactant has the distinct advantage of breaking through the fungus everywhere so spine to spine distance means nothing. The surfactant has a side effect of softening the soil. We use it simply for the side effect. But if you would rather break your back bouncing around behind a $250, 500 pound, rental core aerator instead of spending 30 cents and getting a little wet, you go ahead. I'm not coming through the screen to grab you by the throat. I would hesitate to recommend to others anything outside of personal experience or studies from reputable Universities or professional organizations like the USGA or field turf organizations. That's great for you. We're not hamstrung by that self imposed restriction. Although I did believe the shampoo method of soil softening was bunk until I tried it. Now look at me shouting about it. I also advocate mowing most grasses at "the highest setting," rather than the university recommendation of mowing Midnight Kentucky Bluegrass at 2.65498256 inches and Chocolate Kentucky Blue at 2.65829683 inches. The point is not to mow it at 1 inch. It needs to be tall so just friggin' keep it simple for the homeowner who doesn't have a $5,000 lawn mower to adjust it to fractional inches. I also advocate watering deeply and infrequently. My land grant university in California taught us to water daily. But here in these forums there was a discussion (kind of a rugged discussion) about the benefits of watering daily versus deep and infrequent. I lost that one. The winner was a lawn care professional from Phoenix who convinced me that if he could water his clients' lawns once a week, that I should be able to do the same. Well whaddaya know, I tried it and he was right. It might be interesting to know that there is no university research to prove that plowing the ground has any benefits to farmers. People have been doing it for 10,000 years with no research. But there are those no-plow converts who swear up and down that they get better results than when they were plowing. Do you need the science when your pappy tells you it's true? Sometimes you do. Why not core aerate? Because the cores bring old weed seeds to the surface and sunlight giving them a new chance to germinate. Because removing the cores destroys the soil structure adjacent to the holes as that soil must melt away to fill the holes. Similarly the cores on the surface melt coating the surface with un structured soil. Because the soil microbes at 3 inches deep, now exposed directly to the air, will be destroyed simply because they bury themselves to get away from the air. Because if you're removing cores containing rye or fescue plants, those will not regrow to fill in where you removed them. For me the number 1 reason not to core aerate is because Mother Nature does not core aerate. If it was an important thing to do She would have created some creature somewhere that had hooves hardened in just the right shape to penetrate the soil and remove cores.