Colonial Heights Virginia (just south of Richmond) Zone 7 dreaded transition zone!

I have many questions and concerns regarding the upcoming fall season and my newly renovated lawn: HereÂs the background  approx. 30,000 sq. feet of lawn that underwent a complete renovation last fall including and in chronological order; complete kill, two truckloads of topsoil spread over needed areas, leveling, liming to reach optimum ph, slit seeding with a blend of tall fescues and perennial rye, starter fertilizer upon seeding, new underground sprinkler system installed in late winter/early spring, Milky Spore concentrate applied in checkerboard format, pre-emergent application in early spring, core aerating and overseeding (I donÂt think the seeds did anything!) more fertilizer, new soil test and subsequent liming to increase the ph a smidge more, broad leaf herbicide in early summer, Milorganite and grub control (we had a lot of moles which led me to believe) in July. Whew!! ThatÂs a lot of money and time so far!! (and we are by no means richÂmaybe crazy?) Oh, and we invested in a lawn tractor as opposed to our walking mower.

Spring thru early summer the lawn was absolutely beautiful  our Âproud as a peacock feathers were spread wide! Regular mowing/mulching of the lawn at a height of 3 to 3 ½ inches and mostly watered by mother nature during that time. As the summer season progressed things started going bad (havenÂt ya heard this story before!). Spots started turning yellow, then brown in areas, the areas seemed to spread wider and wider, irregular shaped areas and other areas a straight narrow path (like a tire track), no real rhyme or reason that we could figure. The guy who did our lawn renovation said we should expect this, that what was happening was the perennial rye grass was going dormant (as expected) and the fescue would then dominate and give us green lawn throughout the winter months. OK that sounds cool! Well either the fescue seed was seeded very irregularly and sparsely or the guy was just dead wrong and needed to come up with some explaination! These brown patches didnÂt show signs of emerging fescue and remained brown and thus the weeds set in. We discovered Milorganite (thank you forum) and did an application of that in July. In vain I tried to keep up with the weeds by hand pulling, but nearly wore my elbow out and have since quit. IÂve got crabgrass, goose grass, spurge and right now a big burst of nutsedge in various areas. WeÂre still watering, there is still some grass left, donÂt know if much of the lawn is just dormant or dead from the wonderful diseaseÂs central VA is known for (brown patch, pythium blightÂ). I feel like IÂm just watering the weeds at this point, but hubbie doesnÂt want to give up on the grass that is there. Shady area in the very front yard still looks great, sunny hot areas in the back are fading fast, and sloped areas and street side are mostly gone (weÂre on a corner lotÂjoy!)

Watering  an issue unto itself. WeÂve got 16 zones of head to head coverage and still trying to tweak just how long and when we need to run them (itÂs quite a science isnÂt it!). IÂve done the can test and find it difficult at best to determine much from that method (different zones running different days, different times, kids running on the lawn, deer and or dog drinking from the cans?!!, evaporation before I can check the cans, ughh!) WeÂve found rotor heads getting stuck in one position on occasions (who knows  when your system is running while youÂre sleeping what goes on with some of the heads!!). Everyone says not to run sprinklers at night because of fungal problems, but with 16 zones and trying to put down an inch of water youÂve got no choice. Most of our zones are running once a week anywhere from 1 to 3 hours to get the 1 inch down. WeÂve got it programmed at 4 zones a day Thurs.  Sun. starting at 2am and done by 10am or so. The past two weeks weÂve had enough rain to not run them.

My Plan  My Question: Big overseeding in the fall using a good blend of TTTF (thinking Rebel IV, Magellan and the like  recommended for this area). Before I take this on, is there anyway to determine if my lawn is dormant or dead? If itÂs dormant then I wonÂt stress as much about the overseeding, but if itÂs dead then IÂm going to be more aggressive. I tend to go with dead, as it is such a spotty and irregular pattern  wouldnÂt it be more uniform if it was dormant? WouldnÂt it have responded to the watering and rain if it was dormant? Before overseeding I plan to use Sedgehammer to get rid of the nutsedge (right?)  should I bother with the crabgrass? How does one overseed with weeds in the way!!? Some areas it not too bad at all  but other areas have almost bush size clumps of crabgrass. Will the gradually scalping take care or getting enough weeds out of the way for the new seed? I also plan on aerating before overseeding. Do I need to rake up all the dead grass blades before overseeding? If I overseed this fall will I be able to put down my previously planned on two big applications of Nitrogen this fall, or will that hurt the seedlings?

Assuming the overseeding goes well I plan on nitrogen in the fall (if that is deemed not harmful), two applications of pre-emergent next spring, fungicide when the days become humid, and a broadleaf herbicide in summer, Milorganite throughout (unless I go poor by then!).

Pictures: I included a lot! Back yard is southern exposure which gets mostly sun, shade by the evening (some pictures taken from an elevated deck). Side Yard is east, but gets ½ sun 1/2 shade because of the big oak trees around us. Front yard is northern exposure  youÂll note that my best grass is in this front street side shady area. The one front yard picture that is almost all brown is more of a front/side exposure that gets a lot of sun in the hot afternoon. Slopes and street side I know are tough areas and we may have to do something else with street side rather then grass, (right now itÂs pretty much all weeds) IÂve titled the pictures to indicate what youÂre looking at. The lawn is in need of mowing tonight so youÂre seeing it at its longest length. Yes, we have one dog that does most of her business in one area right off the deck steps so I know that area is burned from the dog urine, but thatÂs not the overall problem with my lawn. I threw the ant colony picture in just for kicks! IÂll take care of that with some insecticide granules.

Well, thatÂs my tale of joys and woes  the guy who did the lawn renovation has Âdisappeared from the picture and weÂre in it by ourselves. IÂve lurked on this forum for sometime now (and posted once or twice) and learned a lot. IÂm doing the majority of the learning and research, hubbie does most of the grunt work and listens to my advice, so IÂm charged with coming up with a strategy (Lord, let me get it right ;>). Lawn mowing days right now are h**l because he gets so worked up about the state of the lawn  at that point is beer time!

Answers, advice, criticism gladly accepted. Links to corresponding pictures are below.

Thank you in advance, Janet