neilaz is exactly right. This is a good discussion to have because neither the hubby or wife are exactly correct! The reason you have weeds is you seeded in May when all the summer weeds are ready to germinate. You provided water to your grass seed and the weeds took off. Had you waited (and I realize sometimes you cannot wait) until fall, then the summer weed seeds are not germinating that time of year and you could have used the entire fall to establish a fairly dense turf. So that's why you have so many weeds. Weed and feed is not what you want or need right now. The summer weeds are going to die anyway so why pay to kill them? What you need right now is fertilizer. I am assuming you are north enough that the summer heat is ready to break. Labor Day is usually the day we apply the end of summer fertilizer. No earlier because the summer heat is still stressing the grass. Adding the stress of a salty fertilizer is too much and can burn the grass plants. However, if you want to apply an organic fertilizer, you can do that any day of the year without worry of salt stress on the grass. Secondarily another reason not to use weed and feed is that the weeds die best when they are well fertilized. By fertilizing now, for example, and coming in to spot spray individual weeds in two weeks, you could get much better results than by using the W&F product. With W&F you get a tiny boost of fertilizer but by the time the weeds are ready to take up the herbicide, it is washed off and away. Now is the time to plan what to do about your lawn. If you have a fescue lawn then you most certainly will want to get rid of the weeds and add more seed where the weeds were. If you have a Kentucky bluegrass lawn then you will not need more seed but could benefit from getting rid of the weeds to allow the KBG to spread. Still I would wait and go through the feeding process first...after the summer heat breaks and the evening temps start to cool off. Then use the spot spray to kill the weeds. Do you know what weeds you have? Different weeds need different treatments.

Hello Tia, If by wild canary you are referring to the American Goldfinch (see link below), I can share what I feed 'my' flock here in western Michigan all year round. I provide thistle seed mainly, very tiny black seeds that they seem to adore. You'll notice that most feeders on the market that cater to the Goldfinch are for holding thistle. I also have black oiler sunflower seeds out for my beloved chickadees (my favorite feathereds) and noticed that the goldfinches go after them some too. Hope this helps! Here is a link that might be useful: American Goldfinch

OK Scot, enough about the cougar. LOL It is amazing what you can see when you have snow. Last snowfall we could see tracks all around our chicken coop, and where it went over the fence and all around our neighbors storage, then back around again. We didn't find them until some melting had occurred but we think ours was a red fox since we see them in our neighborhood lots of nights. A couple of nights ago, I walked outside late at night and saw something move by my front porch. Since there is usually a cat there, I didn't even pay any attention until I was well into the yard and when I did look it was a possum. I guess the cats had left him a little food. LOL

If there's iron in the fertilizer it can make the grass dark green. But it's also possible the mix has changed and the cultivars are genetically darker.