Last year, my neighbor and I (we both live in Bergen County) pretty much were in the same place as you. He decided to completely renovate with Scotts KBG and I decided to overseed. 10 months later, his lawn is looking GREAT - except for a few bare spots that he will overseed in the fall - and mine looks good when short but looks a bit awkward when grown tall (because of the mix of different grasses). I really like the look of his straight KBG lawn, and I will definitely renovate my own, though most likely not until next year. As for the organic approach, if I were you, I would wait until you at least renovate with KBG in the sunny parts (kbg most likely won't thrive in the shady spots). The reason why I say this is because a rye/fescue/kbg will not "crowd out" weeds in a way that most people will be happy with. While I have seen people crowd them out with KBG, I have never seen someone do it with rye/fescue/kbg in a way that would have made me happy.

I was going to slit seed to thicken the lawn up in a few places. Whatever seed you use, you want to do the whole lawn and not just a few places. I just wanted to stipulate that thought it's probably what you're already planning to do. Excellent details, Chris, but ditto what Turf Toes said. You simply are not going to find premium seeds in store-bought packages. Plus, I have never understood Scott's at all. They've poured millions of dollars into seed research only to mass market junk. I have no idea why they purchased Turf-Seed and really hate that they did. The numbers mean they are new varieties that have been submitted for testing. They won't be named until it is determined they will be a viable competitor. They are not yet ready for market and therefore not available for purchase just as you thought. Most new ones are tested 2-5 years before they are named and are available. Concerning your lawn and what seed to use, I will give my purely subjective :) view and some technical to consider. I absolutely hate mixing bluegrass with ryegrass and really don't like it with the fescues either. The only reasons for doing it that I can see are for utility purposes, such as simply to have a creeping variety for filling in when the bunch types thin out. The fact is, you should overseed regularly - every 2-3 years after good establishment - for several reasons. That applies to every lawn no matter the species and would negate that utility purpose altogether. When it comes to pre-mixes, they are often poorly comprised of varieties that do not compliment each other as far as growth habit, genetic color, etc., and selecting varieties among 2 or 3 species poses the same problem. Generally, someone who is familiar with all the species can share their results and varieties they selected, but it otherwise becomes quite the guessing game. Something else to consider is the varieties that were used. Had you told me the lawn is older or has been the same lawn for many years, I would know immediately it is nothing like the ones sold today and could give you a conclusive answer. But, you say it's only three years old, so I don't know if what you have are fairly recent developments or rather long-standing varieties still sold today that are not compatible. One factor is most recent varieties of rye, kbg, and the fescue boast dwarf growth habit, which means they are low/slow growing. They don't have to be mowed as high and they don't have to be mowed as often. Imagine mixing them in with a lawn composed of long-standing varieties that grow faster and taller. What you end up with is uneven, spikey growth between mowings that compromises quality and appearance since obviously you don't want to have to mow the lawn every 3 or 4 days. Ryegrass has been found to express an allelopathic chemical that stunts/reduces/inhibits the growth of bluegrass, so that is something else to think about. One other thing is a lawn seeded over time with kbg into an existing lawn of ryegrass and/or fescue in effort to convert it will eventually make the bunch types look like weeds (an eyesore) once the kbg becomes dominant. Counter-productive in my opinion. My suggestion is to get rid of the lawn you have and start over with a blend of cultivars of whatever species you prefer. They are all perfectly capable of thriving as a mono-culture. My opinion in this regard is both personal and analytical, but you have to decide what is right for your lawn and your growing conditions based on what you want to achieve. For example, shade may be an issue, how much shade, whether there is a disease prevalent in your area, if there are imposed water restrictions, etc. Good luck and I hope I helped a little.

A) Before my absence and sale of the site, lots of people emailed me and I had no problem with that. I would welcome it again. But as I said, I do not wish to publicly post my email address. It has nothing to do with not wanting to be contacted but I know of too many people receiving prank and even threatening emails from this site (other forums). If email attempts could reach me from My Page, that would be fine but it's out of my control. B) I and many, many others have nagged them for over a year. Please do not think it is more important to me than a year's effort. Really, I imagine they would have fixed it by now if they could. You may have noticed a few months ago the red print near the top of each forum page instructing people to IM administration if they needed to get in touch. That was their attempt at a possible solution for board's email links not working. People couldn't email administration, and they couldn't fix that either. C) Most impractical, plus taking it off the board doesn't prevent the threads since they'd already exist. Besides, each thread already does go down the list. What prevents that is others making their requests on an existing thread. Kinda satisfies the purpose of the initial complaint since each addition is one less thread on the board with the same request. D) The board was slow moving beforehand, so it seems they already discovered there is more to life. I'm sorry anyone feels left out, Quirky, but everyone is certainly welcome to answer any thread on this board. People are asking for Bestlawn because they were directed to Bestlawn, but I highly doubt it really matters to them who gives the answers they seek. All are more than welcome. However, since I don't know of all these other people that you mention, then I really don't expect it. Anyone can do it. I'm only saying I've never seen anyone do it. I'd really appreciate some help with something if I may ask. Some of the new members (and would benefit many who are not new) are requesting information on seeding - seedbed preparation, methods, post care, etc. A "Seeding for Success" how-to guide. I have promised it since two days ago but don't have time to write it up anytime soon as it turns out. I'm moving this weekend and because I won't have internet connection until Wednesday, I am hoping someone will write it for members to have a step-by-step from beginning to end guide to refer to. It's information discussed on the forum numerous times, so I know there are lots of people very knowledgeable and more than capable. May I ask someone to provide it if anyone has time? I'd really appreciate it because I'd rather not keep putting them off. Otherwise, I'll post it when I'm connected to the world again next week. That is, if I'm not in the looney bin. Don't know how I will maintain sanity without telephone or internet connection for three days :)

Wow guys (& gals!) thanks for all the great advice! This was what I needed to here. Anyways, an update - four hours ago, I rounded up the entire front yard. I'm going to do the backyard tommorrow. I'm on my way to KBG! I"m gonna order the compost early next week. Bestlawn, the reason I did the 50% / 25% 25% mix is because I read the NTEP reports and they seemed to prefer Bedazzled over the other two in terms of many things. I don't have it in front of me but it looked like it was a more favorable grass. I mixed in the other two otherwise. Here's my question - I originally bought seed based on the assumption that I would be only overseeding. NOw that I have changed that path, should I be purchasing more seed? What pound / 1000sq feet do you put down on this lawn? Again, I Think I have around 14000 sq feet (I am trying to expand my backyard by 2000 square feet as well - hasn't happened yet) Right now I have enough to meter our 3 pounds / 1000 sq feet. Also - I did take pictures so I will post them at some point. PRobably after 2-3 days of my lawn kicking the bucket.