If they said fescue then it probably did not include any KBG. They would have said was a mix or a shade/sun blend. It could be this brown color is a result of not getting enough fertilizer in the fall. I am an organic kind of guy and will tell you to apply 20 pounds per 1,000 square feet of alfalfa pellets (rabbit chow). Why that and not chemicals? Because it is too early for chemicals and not too early for organics. Organic are very forgiving while chemicals are not. If you goof up an organic app, no problems. If you goof up a chemical app, you could spend a lot of money restoring it. And if you like the results of the organic fert, you can always add more. If you like the results of the chemical app, you have to wait until fall to add more. Also set your mower to the highest setting (or one notch down from the top). Tall grass resists weeds much better than short grass. Tall grass also needs less water than short grass. Water deeply and infrequently. Deeply means a full inch all at one time. Infrequently means monthly in the cool months transitioning to once every 7 days in the hottest heat of summer. If you get hotter than the hottest heat, then slide it up to every 5 days, but in no case should you ever be watering daily or every other day. The idea is to allow the soil surface to dry completely while there is a deeper reservoir of moisture for the roots to draw from.

K31 tall fescue was basically the only TF in use for lawns until about 1980, when improved TF cultivars were released to the market. Rebel and Falcon were among the first ones on the market, but there were others. I don't know much about fine fescue history and usage, but generally they aren't used in the transition zone for full lawns.

+1 Tiemco. I have written two postings in the past two days for folks that wound up with difficult-to-treat weeds after using big-box seed mixes. It's penny-wise and pound-foolish to save a couple of dollars on seed and then wind up having to purchase specialty herbicides to kill the weeds (the herbicides cost $50-$130). Purchasing really good (sod-quality) seed lowers the follow-up work that can go on for 2-3 years. It's similar to purchasing knock-off parts to repair your car - it may work or it may backfire and cause other problems. Also consider that disease-resistance is much better in the newer cultivars, which avoids the do-it-again-and-again cycle of repairing the lawn. This post was edited by andy10917 on Sun, Dec 9, 12 at 9:56

That's getting a bit low for any real nitrogen uptake. It would do no harm to apply a "wineterizer" type fertilizer. Uncoated, fast release, a high percentage of WSN-water soluable nitrogen, but likely not much benefit. You have been given good advice on lime. You want calcitic lime not dolomitic. If you get pulverized or crushed, you want the highest mesh number you can get and as close to 100 calcium carbonate equivalent as you can find. If pulverized, you will want to use a drop spreader rather than a broadcast spreader. Some unsolicited advice: You do want to get the pH up into the 6s, but 5.9 isn't a major problem by any means. Your potassium on the otherhand is quite low. I'd give potassium priority this fall. It plays a major roll in root health and growth and putting it down now will give it time to move down into the soil and for the salts to wash out before next spring. Potassium and lime should not be applied at the same time. There should be 3-4 weeks between adding them if you decide to do both. You want to find 0-0-50- potassium sulfate SOP. Avoid muriate of potash 0-0-60.