Some of what you have said appears to be a misunderstanding of possibly many sources of information. Happens all the time. Then when you read here it is just another source of information so who do you believe?

June is a poor time to seed. July is considerably worse but June is awful. Whatever you got is guaranteed to be a mess of crabgrass and a little of what you originally planted. The failure of this lawn had nothing to do with all your efforts and the use of organic fertilizer. If anything you have salvaged it from 100% certain death. Fall is the time to seed, so you are getting an early start. Good for you!

Weeds are a function of a couple variables, but your choice of fertilizer is not one of them. Here they are

Grass density: Thin grass density = more weeds
Mowing height: Shorter grass = more weeds
Watering frequency: Frequent watering = more weeds

Fertilizer is not a factor except that well fertilized grass tends to become dense. Here is a perfect example I just used a second ago on another topic.

{{gwi:80252}}

The dense, dark green spot was fertilized with Purina Rabbit Chow (alfalfa pellets). Note how thick it is compared to the thin grass adjacent to it. A dense turf like that will not allow weeds in. If your entire yard was like that you would not need any herbicide.

I think you are generally right about the types of grass and your conditions. KBG will only work in the full sun. Differentiating types of fescue is beyond my ken.

Rototilling the lime will lead to a bumpy lawn in a couple years. Don't be surprised when that happens. It can be fixed.

If you can post some pictures, that might help.

Thanks! I'll try to take several pictures tomorrow to show you what I'm dealing with. My lawn, especially after the sprinkler system was installed is very bumpy. I read a thread on lawn leveling, but I figure that'll be a project for another time.

So here it is. These are many pics of the various conditions I'm dealing with around the house. The very weedy areas are where I seeded in June. When I noticed that it was a failure and that I would have to reseed in the fall, I stopped watering and just allowed the weeds to take over. The totally bare area is where a drain was put in and I didn't seed. It feels like I'm dealing with very different conditions at different spots throughout the lawn.

So now, I need to decide where and when to spray either BurnOut II or another natural killer or a chemical killer. Should I do that right away? And once it's dead, what do I do with the dead foliage?

Here is a link that might be useful: Lawn

Hey! I'm in SOuth Jersey and I'm doing a reno this fall also. I've decided on perennial rye and will be using Lesco Double Eagle. I have some shade in my front lawn, but I'm not too worried about it. Take a look at the link below. This guy is in NJ also and his lawn looks AMAZING with the PR.

Question for you.... when you seeded, was your lawn well established in the fall? Did you have any problems with weeds in the fall or was it just this summer? I'm leaning towards PR because of it's fast germination/establishment because I too have tons of crabgrass. Also, I'm hoping that if I have any patches or cragbrass in the future, I can remove the crabgrass and throw down PR seed and it will germinate in a few days... we'll see.

Note: I was unable to put the link to the thread because of 'SPAM" but here are the pics.

Here is a link that might be useful: PR Reno

wow that's perennial rye? looks like astroturf. It's a perfectly manicured lawn and yard. I wonder how hard that is to maintain or maybe his grass is dense enough that he rarely gets weeds.

That does look pretty good. Thanks for sharing. I actually had a major renovation done to the house that dug up at least 1000 sq ft in the front and side. I didn't have much trouble with weeds last year, but the renovation ended late February this year leaving a lot of bare dirt and rocks. So, after the sprinkler system was finally installed, I brought in 5 cubic yards of soil/compost mix and tilled in lime with it to prep for the seeding in early June.

I don't think I'll be going exclusively with the perennial rye, but after seeing those pics I'm certainly comfortable with it being in the mix. I like the idea of having bluegrass where I can, because of the rhyzome/stolon spreading and thickening. There are some very nice bluegrass lawns in on my street, so not impossible. But apparently it's a long germination period when seeding. I think I'll just go with a Northeast mix of a couple of fescues and some bluegrass and rye and see what happens. I understand that some fescues do spread, so I'll have to look into that.

Yea, he confirms that it's Lesco Double Eagle perennial rye. He goes on to say that for 10-11 months of the year it looks better than his elite KBG in his backyard, only losing a bit of color in the July-august timeframe. He also said that his weed problems and maintenance requirements are WAY less than kbg.

These forums won't let me post the direct link. Here is a link to a google search...just click the first link it returns:

Here is a link that might be useful: Google Search Link

Yea I hear ya on the kbg. For me though, it's not worth the time and maintenance. I'd rather spend 15-30 minutes ONCE a year and overseed rather than the whole year dealing with poa and whatever else.

Actually, I just read enough about bluegrass in the last 10 minutes to avoid it entirely. I'm with you. Less maintenance. Looks like various fescues and rye for me.

Just read more, and I don't know if rye is a good idea at this point. Check this site out. It seems to be fussier than I thought. Though much of the fussiness is in Southern areas of the transition zone.

The Pennington SmartSeed Tall Fescue mix (3 tall fescues)that I seeded with really looks great where it came up, beautifully dark green and fine textured. I think that I may just stick with that mix, since I'm going to seed in the fall when it really wants to grow.

I forgot to put the site in. Here it is.

Here is a link that might be useful: Cool season grasses

Every time I think I have my mind made up... I find out I don't. Haha.

Maybe the fescue would be better for me... Not sure I want to mow every 2 days!!

Here's another good site.

Here is a link that might be useful: lawn care academy

It's funny, that site shows South Jersey in the transition zone and it says Perennial Ryegrass is the best adapted for the transition zone!!! :)

So after going back and forth several times... I'm pretty sure I'm going with a TTTF... One of the following: Rebels Tall Fescue Mix, Lesco Transition Blend, or Lesco TriGold.

From the NTEP studies, it looks like the Lesco Transition Blend which is the non-certified blend, actually does better in my area than the TriGold which is certified. Also, the Rebel IV stand does better than any of the TTTFs in my area and is only in the Rebels mix... so... we shall see. Leaning towards Rebels.

Interesting. I didn't realize there was data on the blends themselves. Or did you just go through each of the varieties that make up each blend? I was doing it one by one last night.

I was going through each of the stands. Some weren't listed on the report. Actually 2 of 3 in the Rebels Mix weren't listed... but Rebel IV had the highest score out of all of the stand in all of the mixes, although they were all pretty close.

The only thing is, I'm in South Jersey... I think all those trials are either in North Jersey or PA... so I'm not sure which soil is more like South Jersey! haha... either way I'm sure the Lesco or Rebels will do fine.

The only thing I have to check on is weed seed.... That may be the deciding factor... if one blend has 0% weed seed and Rebels has .05%... that may be the deal breaker... we'll see.

I'm in south jersey too. Mount Laurel to be exact. The closest testing site to me was Adelphia, NJ which I believe is listed as NJ2. But then I looked at the other factors they had listed for each site, and there is a lot of variation in soil conditions from one site to the next. Don't forget to consider the individual ratings on color, leaf texture, etc. But I think we're overthinking this anyway. I'm sure Lesco or Rebels will do fine as well. Good luck!