I have only lived here for 2 years. I've been busy remodeling an old house. I haven't had time to tend to the lawn. The previous owners were elderly and neglected the lawn for the last 4 years that they lived here. So the lawn has been neglected for at least 6 years total. I have no idea what type of maintainance that they used prior to their becoming ill. I have never had a lawn with this number of weeds before, so lawn maintainance is new to me. That is why I'm asking for help and where to begin the process of bringing this lawn back into shape. I finally have the time and the energy to devote to the lawn. I have just never dealt with a situation of this magnitude before. Its not that I'm asking for it to repair itself with no work on my part, I'm asking what am I supposed to do, where do I begin? Kill the weeds first?? Fertilize the lawn?? Overseed, or all of the above all at the same time, any time of year?? Should I just wait until next spring and start then, or do I have a chance of making some progress this year?

This reviewed published scientific paper confirmed the usefulness of heavy plastic mulches against Bermuda Grass, and found some organic mulches that were also effective. http://hortsci.ashspublications.org/content/43/3/795.full From the abstract: "Therefore, a 2-year study was conducted under 15-year-old mandarin trees to compare the effects of rice straw mulch, cattail mulch, black plastic mulch, hand hoeing, cultivation, glyphosate, and unweeded control treatments on weed control, fruit yield, and fruit quality. The greatest control (94%–100%) of weeds occurred with the plastic mulch (200 or 150 μm) and three mulch layers of rice straw or cattail. Covering soil with cattail or rice straw mulch (two layers) gave 85% to 98% control of weeds. Uncontrolled weeds in the weedy control caused significant reduction in yield and fruit quality and decreased the yield/tree by 62% compared with hand hoe treatment. Plastic mulches of 200 and 150 μm, cattail (Cyprus articulatus L.) mulch (two or three layers) and two mulch layers of rice (Oryza sativa L.) straw treatments significantly increased the fruit yield/tree by 24%, 18%, 20%, 11%, and 12% more than cultivation treatment, respectively, without significant differences among these superior treatments. Soil mulching with three layers of rice straw, cultivation, glyphosate, and 80-μm plastic mulch treatments caused a significant reduction in weed density and weed biomass, but gave lower yield than superior treatments. Which weeds were in the experiment? " The major grass weeds present on the experimental site were bermudagrass [Cynodon dactylon (L.) Pers.], barnyardgrass [Echinochloa colonum (L.) Link], torpedo grass (Panicum repens L.), and sandbur (Cenchrus pennisetiformis, Hochst. & Steud.) as a grass, and redroot pigweed (Amaranthus retroflexus L.), common purslane (Portulaca oleracea L.), and petty spurge (Euphorbia peplus L.) as broadleaf weeds."

Thanks! Since you have many types of weeds, we'll start with what are easier to control, the broadleaf weeds. This late in the season, broadleaf weeds are probably all you can really get control of until next spring. You can start with 2,4-D, or a mix of 2,4-D and other chemicals. There are lots of different brands and mixes out there, so I can't give you a rate. You'll have to look at the label. You said you wanted to use agricultural labeled chemicals, but buffalograss can be killed by high levels of 2,4-D, and an agricultural label may not list the mix rate for buffalograss, instead listing mixing rates for corn or other crops. I would suggest that you buy a bottle labeled for lawns, to get the correct rate. I suggest something like Ortho Weed-B-Gon Concentrate, which you can purchase at a big box store. A bottle will cover 18,000 sq ft, which would be more than enough for an average lawn. Grassy weeds are more difficult. To control annual weeds, you'll want to apply a pre-emergent in the fall and spring. Pre-emergents won't kill what's already there, but it'll prevent new weeds from germinating. Weed seeds tend to germinate in the fall and spring, so you need to get the pre-emergents out on your lawn at those two times. Three pre-emergents I would suggest are Prodiamine (trade name Barricade) or Pendimethalin (Scott's Halts Crabgrass preventer) and Dithiopyr (Dimension). These products may be cheaper at the ag-store. You'll need to check the labels for the rates, but apply once in September, and once in Late March/Early April. That should be a start to get you into next spring. What will be left will be the perennial grasses. It can get tricky to control these, and these are outside of my particular expertise.

"Plenty of trees around so there are areas where there is no sunlight. Could that be a possible reason? I have no idea." See my previous statement: "Moss grows for any of these reasons - soil is compacted and low in nutrients, drainage is poor and the soil stays wet (drought can have a similar impact), excessive shade or soil pH is out of whack (too acidic or too alkaline)." Moss Out for Lawns generally works very fast when applied according to directions......typically just a matter of hours before the moss turns black and is dead. You still need to rake it out, however.