>"It could be that the weather and/or soil types in your area make aeration less beneficial. In the west we suffer from low soil moisture and clay soils. " That's very well is possible and understandable. This picture shows plumbers digging into my front lawn in February. You can see the rich, dark, black top soil is >2 feet deep on the surface, then clay beneath. This area has NEVER been aerated, yet the plumbers dug it by hand ... in February ...in Chicago. >"Thanks for the heads-up about seed mix labels. I'm going to pay more attention from now on. One Scott's fescue mix I was looking at yesterday had an analysis that showed 0% noxious weeds. " Noxious is the obvious one but watch the "weed seed" and "other crop seed" percentages also. Know that creeping bent grass seed is like dust and can easily contaminant a good crop of bulk, mass marketed seed. Sod quality and certified seed has stringent inspections prior to sale.

I realize we seem harsh in our review of your situation. You can't always pick the best times to have your plumbing replaced. And yes, I have had both incoming and sewage replaced. All the disturbed soil was mounded back up over trenches and, three years later, everything is as level as it started. If you had low spots to begin with, then you did need more soil for the exact reasons you mentioned. Do I understand that you continued watering 2-3x per day for a month after planting? Or after the first sprouts popped? Or some other reference? The problem with your mix of seeds is that ryegrass pops in a week. If you back off on watering then, which seems to be a strong inclination, then neither the fescue nor the KBG will sprout. Fescue sprouts at 2 weeks minimum and KBG will not sprout until 3 weeks of continual moisture. The reason you have yellowish grass in spots might be that you only have one variety of grass there rather than the blend. You have to suspend the 1/3 rule in the heat of summer. Besides that rule is like the Pirate's Code - more of what you would call guidelines than actual rules. At this point I would treat the weeds as if they were your favorite grass. If nothing else they are green and covering a bare spot in the soil. About mid August you can start worrying about how to get rid of them. For example, crabgrass dies by itself in the fall. It is an annual plant that only lives a few months. If you have weeds that go to seed in a week, you should try to mow the seed heads before they become seeds. Use a string trimmer or something so you are not mowing the grass too short. There are spot weed treatments you can use, too. Weed-B-Gone spray works as does fire and sometimes boiling water. Obviously some are worse than others. The weed hound is a great tool for plucking tap rooted weeds. If you spray weeds, just moisten the leaves of the weed, don't drench the soil. You should also start watering longer and see if you can skip a day now and then. With your sprinkler output, ideally you would be watering for 2 hours once per week during the heat of summer and 2 hours once per month the rest of the non-frozen months. But since your new grass is used to daily watering, you cannot get there cold turkey. You have to ease your way up to once per week watering. Yes, the surface will dry out. That's good. Weed seeds need continual surface moisture in order to sprout. When you allow the surface to dry completely, most weeds are stopped. If you would like to fertilize over the summer, you can use organic fertilizer any time you want. Milorganite is popular but I prefer plain alfalfa pellets (rabbit food). Apply at 20 pounds per 1,000 square feet. In 3 weeks you'll see a deep dark green. Whether you see quicker growth in the heat of summer just depends. It will improve things, though. You can apply every week, every month, or just once. It all helps improve your soil. You...

Sounds like there are a few similar ones. I have one that forms a grey green rosette and it's starting to send up these single stalks of tiny daisy/aster-like yellow flowers. If I remember correctly the flowers turn to fluffy seedheads, which probably explains how they infested so quickly. Mine is not Mullien. I can't ID it either. It also has a strong but short tap root that makes it hard to hand pull. Luckily I have a good tool for the job. And it seems to be perennial as well as a reseeder. I am pulling all I can but there is no way I'm gonna let one flower this year.!!! -Ais.

crab grass, an annual weed grass. Your options are to 1) spot-spray it with Round-Up, although you will also kill surrounding grass with overspray, 2) hand-pull it 3) combo hand-pull/seedhead control this year and application of a pre-emergent NEXT year. If it were my yard I would hand-pull the crab grass and immediately treat bare spots with turf seed to fill back in.