Thanks joepyeweed and soccer dad, I appreciate you taking the time to respond. I didn't want to add too much information in the first post and overwhelm. Cultural Practices: Yes, I mow at the highest setting and water deeply and infrequently. I am still learning how to measure fertilizer in #/1000sqft instead of using Scott's rotary spreader and throwing it on the lawn, but I think the lawn has plenty of Nitrogen. Using the Scott's 4 step program in the past, I've started with step 1 in late April/early June when the ground temp is 50-55F and I see Forsythia bloom. Other Scott's steps have followed 6-8 weeks after the previous one. As I read more on this site I find steps 2 and 3 are not so good and my constant use of fungicide in the past has probably killed the good fungus too. After reading up on healthy soil I'm betting mine is lacking at this time. While I know it is great to mulch I have bagged since my fungal problems started and, very unfortunately, mulching simply spreads the lawn diseases. I may mulch my leaves this fall. I pull weeds by hand or use weed-B-gon to spot treat. pH: The pH has been a long issue and I'm not sure why. I've had several tests from the local Coop Ext as well as my own solution tester. The back yard has been between 5 and 5.6 for the last 5 years and the front has dropped from 6.8 to 6.2. I do test before I apply lime but I don't know why I can't keep the pH up. This is one reason that the organic method appeals to me - less pH testing and liming. Fungus: I agree with your assessment that N is too high. I should go test that with my solution tester. This is another reason to not follow Scott's program to the letter and go with organic or something hybrid for my lawn. In the past I was uneducated regarding NPK/ compost/ microbes/ bacteria/ good fungus/ and simply followed the steps not knowing if I was putting down a 30-2-4 or a 4-15-10 (just throwing out numbers). Grubs: In year 3 when I applied 24hr control I did have a problem and the grass came up like a carpet. Since then I have used the 3month control (July/Aug/Sep) every year. I don't want to go through that issue again. My area is notorious for grubs and moles and I'm reluctant to skip grub treatment for fear that they will return and I will be unaware until it is too late. Overseeding: Aside from re-seeding small and large(30'x40') patches I haven't overseeded the lawn. I've seeded over some thin areas with some luck by hand and am considering renting a slit-seeder this fall to try and fill out the thin areas. I may wait until next year for this if it takes some time to amend the soil before seeding. Organic: I've been reading lots of posts here about organics and the FAQ is great too. I am going to search my local big box stores and feed stores for corn gluten meal, soybean meal, corn meal and alfalfa meal. And maybe even Scott's organic lawn food (I have lots of gift cards to Lowe's). I understand corn meal is for disease and I'd like to apply it now. How will it affect my current year schedule: Late April: Scott's step 1 Mid June: Scott's step 2 I don't want to over N the lawn again. I don't know much about compost and will read more. 1td/1000sqft sounds like a lot. I have a bad back, is there any way to spread compost other than by hand? A drop spreader? I've read how great compost is but I haven't seen it in any annual schedule. Is that because composting is a one time shot to get microbes and bacteria back in to the soil? How often should one apply a layer of compost? I definitely realize this isn't a quick fix but I'm looking to take the lawn in the proper direction. As long as my practices are good, I'm confident the lawn will respond in time.

Ok first & foremost making compost should be fun, not something to stress over. After all you are doing your own small part to assist mother nature & keeping green waste where it belongs - back in the ground. Making compost is not for those in a hurry. Mother nature is in charge of decompostion whether in the woods or in an earth machine & she doesnt hurry. Your earth machine will heat up if you have the approx. C:N ratio. Above you mentioned crushed leaves are your browns. Perfect, crushed leaves are IMO the best brown. Greens, kitchen & yard waste (take the time to chop green matl. into small pieces). Now mix all that together, dump it all into the earth machine a bucket full at time watering as you go. (This is the only time matl. is added) Jam the lid on & walk away for 3 days. Then come back & notice how the lid goes on easy & how the pile has shrunk. Dig down a little & feel heat from within the pile. You can stir it a little & add water or do it when you come back to check in a couple more days. In any case mix & water when you notice the temp. going down. It is finished when the stuff you get out of the bottom is crumbly, smells good, has a few worms etc...Thats hot composting, matl. added one time only, requires some effort, but not much & its fun because finished matl. happens around 30 days. (sometimes less) Cold composting is not being concerned for C:N ratio, little watering & mixing, adding matl. frequently. Compost will eventually happen. I have two piles one hot one cold. I build my hot batches using the stuff I continually add to the cold pile & my kitchen waste. So fill that earth machine. Go out & fiddle with it now & then, learn as you go. Look at the stuff as it decomposes, think of where you will put the finished matl. Once you get finished matl. you will be hooked... Hope that helps & have fun :)

Ask someone you know that has a cat and buys their kitty litter in those 40lbs buckets if they can save you one, I'm sure they'd be more than willing to do so... They make the best "garden waste" buckets for the kitchen. Over winter I literally had five of them full with various amounts of already decomposing slop from kitchen scraps being thrown into them and the only time you noticed the nasty putrid smell is if you were to open one of them up. Emptied weekly, or even monthly, and you'll not have that problem - I just got wrapped up in work and didn't have an "active pile" going to toss them into. ---- Also, there's a lot more stuff in your house that's compostable besides kitchen scraps. Here's a short list of the things I throw into my "garden waste" buckets. Coffee grounds, coffee filters, dryer lint (not the fabric softener sheets, however), dust and dirt that I sweep up, hair - I have a dog, two cats and a wife that sheds worse than the lot of them, used paper-towels (as long as they're not "greasy"), kleenex and toilet-paper bits that end up in the bathroom trash, used toilet-paper and paper-towel cardboard rolls, I also had* (wifey just broke our 3rd one this year) a cross-cut shredder that is dedicated to shredding all paper that we receive in the mail that is non-glossy print. I rip the plastic out of the windows of envelopes and shred those as well. We also shred all used paper from "to-do lists" and other drawing/note paper that was used around the house. Really need to teach the wifey to stop jamming up & breaking the shredders though because they cost about $100 USD each...grr. I know some of you use the term "DH" but I should really use the term "DW" lol... I solicit my neighbors for all their yard trimmings and unwanted newspapers for my compost as well. Shredding newspaper for compost is typically done by tossing it in a 16 gallon bucket, filling it up with water and letting it sit for a day or two and then using a paddle-whip attachment on my cordless drill to turn it into a soupy slop. Brown, plain corregated cardboard can be processed the same way and serves as a good way to break down the glue that holds it together. ---- My goal is to have less than two 13-gallon bags of trash for the garbage man to pickup per month - or one every other week, depending on how you look at it...and we're pretty close as it is but I was vetoed on cloth diapers so that constitutes 80% of my current landfill contributions. :sigh:

Tomato David, Congrats on your new property! Sounds like you will have some very nice soil by next year. My wife is looking forward to having a big chunk of wildflowers all around the house. Being Japanese, she is not as into having a patch of green grass as I am (although I just want a little one). 'Pup, I was thinking about the weeds, and decided totake a number of different approaches. One is to thin by cutting most of them off at the base and leaving them to rot in place. A second is to pull and mulch the desirable plants near them. The third is to cut, carry, and compost them. I am not too worried about bare ground, the vetch and other plants are spreading like wildfire. Now I have found some serious bamboo coming out of a few roots that got left behind. They are all pencil thin whips this year, but I don't want them to get established where they are now. I have a space set aside for them at the bottom of the hill, surrounded by a 50cm ditch. On the other hand, I have harvested a lot of cucumbers already! It was fun, walking around, then seeing a beautiful straight eight cucumber hanging from a vine climbing a lambsquarter! I found a lot more after that. But you really have to look for them in all that jungle. Eric in Japan Here is a link that might be useful: