I would prefer you wait til the second week of May to fertilize, especially if you fertilized in October or November. At least let it green up completely before if itching too badly to wait a full month. LOL A shameful reminder..... 1. Get a soil test. Call your nearest county extension service for a test kit and details. It will likely take two weeks for results. If you need to apply sulfur, lime, or any other amendment per test recommendation (that is not applied in Step 6), you can do it after seeding if you don't get results back in time. 2. Apply that "R" word stuff and again one week after the first application. You can seed the lawn one week after the second app. 3. Scalp it down 4. Rake it up 5. Core aerate (or cheat with Nitron A-35) 6. Fertilize 7. Sow seeds 8. Topdress 1/4 inch layer compost, peat moss, or clean straw (weed-free). 9. Irrigation schedule water 15-20 minutes twice a day for two weeks water 20-30 minutes once a day for one week water 30-45 minutes once a day every other day for one week water 30-45 minutes once a day twice a week for one week move into deep irrigation, increasing the time to provide 1 inch of water all over and decreasing the frequency to just once a week. Starting off, the schedule supplies roughly 1/4 inch of water, then increases that amount while decreasing frequency of application at the same time. Like practically everything that concerns lawn care, this schedule is a general guideline and should be modified to accommodate your specific conditions. The lengths of time should be modified if you have an automatic sprinkler system since that will not take as long to provide adequate moisture. So, decrease amount of water (time) but maintain frequency as is. The tuna cans test is recommended. If it is still especially warm, you may want to irrigate 3 times a day (10-15 minutes if necessary) for that first couple weeks. Your objective is to keep the upper 1 inch of soil moist and not let the seeds dry out. Baby the grass for the rest of year. Once the seeds begin to sprout, don't walk on it if at all possible. First mowing is when the new grass reaches two inches. *************** Remember that? Not to scold, but the words were to be taken literally and seriously. Just walking on it was potential damage by itself (even while dormant), but dogs don't walk like we do. They scratch, dig into, and rip whatever surface is underfoot. But the lawn was not a surface, at least not yet. While the grass had developed a root system, it was a very shallow one. I don't think it a predictable conclusion. Whether it recovers remains to be seen. If you have seeds left over, I'd get them down just to be safe. Give it a few more days first to see if it will green up. You can use Tupersan pre-m though it is very expensive. Scotts has a Siduron and fertilizer combo.

Welcome to being the latest of the Lawn Whackos. You're in great company...with the rest of all of us here. You're not clueless, you're just starting out. As you learn, this will change. $150 for 500 square feet works out to $0.30 a square foot. For that, I'd come up there and install it for you. :-) All you need is a good rake, several hours, and seed. Kill off the crabgrass (this may take several tries with Roundup as that stuff seems to be able to survive nuclear war). Once dead, rake the whole area clear and get the soil scratched up well. Perfectly-workable-case, get any good seed mix off the shelf. Best-case, listen to Bestlawn or others for suggestions. Seed. Reverse your rake and lightly cover the seed. Water two to four times daily for short periods. There you go, lawn, in one to four weeks, depending. The same kind you'd've gotten from TruGreen. Cost...about $8 for the seed if you buy way too much for overseeding purposes. $20 for the rake. And you get to keep the rake. You'll get weeds, that's assured. You would have with their seeding as well. REALLY horrible section between the sidewalk and the road of which maybe ten feet by thirty feet needs to be re-done. That's called a hell strip because it's just hell on lawns. :-) That area frequently requires some help, extra water through the year, and reseeding. It just doesn't flourish too well under most conditions. Once all this works, we'll be glad to wean you off TruGreen and get you a much nicer lawn. :-)

I would definitely recommend Tall Fescue for Virginia! I am in the very south-most part of central PA (1.5 hours north of DC) and Bluegrass is a challenge in the summer. I renovated my father-in-law's lawn with Inferno, Justice, Padre, Millennium, and Rebel Tall Fescue late this summer and he already has a nice looking lawn (very dark green, medium texture). Tall Fescue is more heat, drought, and shade tolerant than Bluegrass - attributes you could use in your environment! Another recommendation would be to wait until the end of next summer to do your work. I know - big buzz kill - but it is FAR more economical both money and time-wise to plant grass in late summer. Having said all that, if you really have your heart set on Bluegrass, know that it will be a year before you have a really nice lawn. Also know that you WILL be using a lot of water if you want to keep it green in Virginia.

Now is the time to spray it out and give the KBG the entire season with no shade from the weeds.