Welcome LJoy. I'm not the greeter, but thought I'd say, "Hi!" My first reply was one of frustration. Did you read the follow up? We have sudden rains, birds, water restrictions, and wind, too. Everyone does. And I'm sure your lawn with straw came in nicely. My point was that you don't need it. Mother Nature does not use straw. She uses force on the ground from livestock hooves to press the seed into the ground. Obviously I can't come through the screen and enforce anything I might suggest, but I can try to present some rationale for doing or not doing what I suggest. Basically my suggestions are the combined wisdom of my time on this and several other forums. My suggestions are definitely not based on my personal experience. I had to unlearn a lot of what I thought was the truth about lawn care to come up with what is a fairly simple approach to it. Sometimes that takes a long time to explain why it is so simple, but it really is. I owned many homes for 30+ years before I learned how to take care of my lawn. I wish I could go back in time to the 70s when I had a terrible lawn, and the 80s when I had a terrible lawn, and the 90s when my lawn was only decent every other year. It's only been since 2002 that my lawn came alive. That happened because of what I learned here. All the experts who were here when I arrived have moved on or were banned for various reasons. New ones have arrived. I'm just giving back where I can. I'm looking forward to new posts from you about your issues. I can tell you that 80% of lawn issues get back to proper watering. If you are not doing it deeply (inch at a time) and infrequently (weekly or twice a month), then you are doing it wrong. If you live in the north you should be mulch mowing at your mower's highest setting. And if your turf seems thin you either need seed (wait for fall) or fertilizer (only organic in the summer) or both. And sometimes Mother Nature does not cooperate.

I get to be the one to tell you this, because I'm a huge Milorganite fan. I apply it to everything in my yard except the fenceposts. I love the stuff. Don't put Milorganite down for your last fall fertilizer application. You want to have a big-first-number fertilizer, like a 18-X-X or a 24-X-X, or a 20-X-X, rather than Milorganite's puny 6-2-0. (In the fall, we call it 'puny', but in the spring and summer, we call it 'mild'. It is mild: it's a good source of nitrogen, and of organic material, and of iron. A few other trace elements, as well. And it won't burn the lawn, even in summer heat, but will still release nitrogen, gently, even in summer heat. You just can't beat it. But in the fall, that last application for the year, you want a bigger shot of nitrogen: that will allow the grass to do what little growing it's got left, and spread some roots and rhizones, and store the nitrogen over winter for use in the spring, and use that nitrogen in the spring. "Building reserves, for later use" is what the lawn will do. And should do. But it can't, with Milorganite, as there isn't enough there to start with, with that 6-2-0 formula. Go grab a bag of Scotts, or Lesco, or some other fertilizer with a big-first-number. A 20, or a 24, or even some urea, at 40 or so for the first number. The lawn will love you for it.

Right PJ! LOL! I almost forgot how much rain helps and I've got a long memory! We got about two inches last week, but still leaves my yard with less than than the yearly average most deserts get! But it was 'shore' a welcome relief for the plants and it greened things up. The alfalfa pellets didn't hurt any either -- that's for sure. Denise, you're right. They do contain a growth factor and rosarians use it a lot. I've used it on the plants for years, just never had used it on the lawn before, but I will now. Patty, there's a Starbucks near me. I'll have to check it out and see if anyone else is getting their 'black gold' coffee grounds. My little one cup a day of coffee grounds isn't that much.

That's a really important point about proteins as the source of nitrogen and carbohydrates as the source of carbon. I too cringe when I hear people talking about "greens" and "browns", as in the former having nitrogen, and the latter having carbon. That's hugely simplistic. There are plenty of "browns" that have of lots of protein/nitrogen. Fallen leaves, after natural senescence, are brown and have little nitrogen. That's because the nitrogen has been sucked back into the tree. But if you strip green leaves off a tree and let them dry out and become brown, they'll have plenty of nitrogen. In the same way, hay and straw are both browns, but hay has plenty of nitrogen. Straw does not. The protein content of hay is why it's good animal feed. Straw is not. BTW, chlorophyll contains nitrogen and it happens to be what makes leaves green. But most of the nitrogen in living plants is not in the form of chlorophyll.