mrmango, you should not need to overseed bermuda. If you already have TIF 419 bermuda sod, please resist the urge to overseed it. The seeded variety of bermuda is much different plant from the sodded variety. If you already have seeded or common bermuda, then that's different. Here is a picture of common bermuda invading into Tif 419. You can see the difference in the blade and how the stolon (runner) climbs over top of the 419. The mismatch of bermuda makes the lawn look weedy. Generally if you are fertilizing regularly and the bermuda is thinning out, then you have too much shade. BermudaTamer's picture (above) shows his side yard which is protected on both east and west by homes. The area does not get enough daily sun, so he overseeds every year. If that is your situation and you want to overseed, look for BermudaTamer's post on dethatching. It is still bouncing around near the top of the forum. If you don't want to overseed every year, you can use a different type of grass in there. One that looks like hybrid bermuda is a zoysia variety called Shadow Turf. It is by the same people as created Tech Turf. It will easily grow in lightly shaded areas and will even do well under very heavy shade if you give it enough time. here are some pix of Tech Turf. Picture above shows TT mowed at 3/4 inch. Color is more yellow than bermuda, but density is much better than most buffalo varieties. This one needs to be mowed. They mow at about 3 inches. This one shows the flowers and seed heads. One of the good things about this variety of buff is the flower stems and seed heads grow at roughly the same speed as the blades. Other buff varieties shoot those stems up fast making it look shaggy a couple days after you mow. This pic also shows the density you can expect and the ability to spread. Again, most buff grasses don't get nearly this dense or spread like this one. I should add that this particular spot is in the shade and is not as dense as that in the full sun. The owner is trying to compensate for the thinning grass by fertilizing. It's not working.

A lawn master named morpheuspa is caring for two lawns - his and his mother's. His is all improved Elite cultivars. His mother's is contractor grade. The mother's lawn is gorgeous due to his care. I believe he has demonstrated that even contractor grade Kentucky bluegrass can be the best lawn on the block if you get the soil tuned up and follow proper care. In fact here is a pic of his mother's lawn... If you want the best lawn in the neighborhood, then the Logan Labs soil test is necessary. New seed may not be necessary. I would see what you can accomplish this summer and, about mid-August, decide whether you need different grass. Renovating is a lot of work followed by a lot of stress waiting for the seed to come in. Then you are faced with a 3-year wait as the grass plants mature. If you already have mature grass, I would just make the very best of it first before jumping into the pool of renovation. But also necessary is mastering the basics of lawn care as follows... Basics of Lawn Care After reading numerous books and magazines on lawn care, caring for lawns at seven houses in my life, and reading numerous forums where real people write in to discuss their successes and failures, I have decided to side with the real people and dispense with the book and magazine authors. I don't know what star their planet rotates around but it's not mine. With that in mind, here is the collected wisdom of the Internet savvy homeowners and lawn care professionals summarized in a few words. If you follow the advice here you will have conquered at least 50% of all lawn problems. Once you have these three elements mastered, then you can worry about weeds (if you have any), dog spots, and striping your lawn. But if you are not doing these three things, they will be the first three things suggested for you to correct. Watering Water deeply and infrequently. Deeply means at least an inch in every zone, all at once. Infrequently means monthly during the cool months and no more than weekly during the hottest part of summer. Do not spread this out and water for 10 minutes every day. If your grass looks dry before the month/week is up, water longer next time. If that does not work, then you might have to water more than once per week during the summer's hottest period. Deep watering grows deep, drought resistant roots. Infrequent watering allows the top layer of soil to dry completely which kills off many shallow rooted weeds. You will have to learn to judge when to water your own lawn. If you live in Las Vegas your watering will be different than if you live in Vermont. Adjust your watering to your type of grass, humidity, wind, and soil type. It is worth noting that this technique is used successfully by professionals in Phoenix, so...just sayin.' The other factors make a difference. If you normally water 1 inch per week and you get 1/2 inch of rain, then adjust and water only 1/2 inch that week. Mowing Every week mulch mow at the highest setting on your mower. Most grasses are the most dense when mowed tall. However, bermuda, centipede, and bent grasses will become the most dense when they are mowed at the lowest setting on your mower. In fact there are special mowers that can mow these grasses down to 1/16 inch. Dense grass shades out weeds, keeps the soil cooler, and uses less water than thin grass. Tall grass can feed the deep roots you developed in #1 above. Tall grass does not grow faster than short grass nor does it look shaggy sooner. Once all your grass is at the same height, tall grass just looks plush. Fertilizing Fertilize regularly. I fertilize 5 times per year using organic fertilizer. Which fertilizer you use is much less important than numbers 1 and 2 above. Follow the directions on the bag and do not overdo it. Too little is better than too much. At this point you do not have to worry about weed and feed products - remember at this point you are just trying to grow grass, not perfect it. Besides once you are doing these three things correctly, your weed problems should go away without herbicide. It is too late to fertilize with chemical fertilizers this summer; however, you can still fertilize with organics all summer long. You can start with organics before you get your soil test back - you will always have a nitrogen deficiency. Between the basic lawn care (water and mowing), organic ferts, and the corrections to micro nutrients prescribed by the soil test, your lawn should look amazing by August. You can introduce yourself to organic lawn care by applying alfalfa pellets (rabbit chow) at a rate of 20 pounds per 1,000 square feet. No, you won't be overrun by rabbits. They only eat rabbit food when confined and fed nothing else. Get the alfalfa pellets at any feed store. Check prices between rabbit chow and alfalfa pellets. They are the same product but sometimes there is a difference from brown bag to brown bag. Spray the soap and molasses and you are officially on your way.

Are you sure your pH is 7+ to 8??? That would be rare east of the Mississippi. I know it happens but just want you to be sure. You might send a soil sample to Logan Labs to be sure. If you need to adjust the pH for your grass, you need to know which type of amendment and how much. Other than that...compost is good for getting the soil biology set up. However, if you have not used any fungicides like sulfur, baking soda, or commercial fungicides, then you soil biology is probably not too far off. Compost is nice but it is the single most expensive thing you can put on your lawn. Compost tea is a less expensive way to distribute microbes to the soil. Sulfur is usually used to lower pH. While it is a fungicide, it is sometimes more important to get the pH right so the microbes can grow. Worms will come and go on their own schedule. Don't try to change that. Humus is supposed to be aged compost - really aged. What it usually is in the store is raw manure. There is no standard for that product. Anyway, skip it for now. Corn meal is a fertilizer. So is alfalfa pellets, soybean meal, cottonseed meal, flour, and any other ground up nut, bean, or seed you can find. This is where you get actual bang for your bucks. Apply at 10-20 pounds per 1,000 square feet and wait 3 full weeks for results. Keep in mind that it takes pounds per 1,000 to fertilize. Anything less than pounds of material per 1,000 and you are just adjusting the micro amounts of whatever it is you're applying. Liquid fertilizers cannot possibly put out pounds of material, so just forget about them as serious fertilizers. Visit with your local feed store and find out what they have in a 50-pound bag. They always have alfalfa pellets (rabbit food). See what else they have. What seed do you need? You already have Kentucky bluegrass. That should spread for you to fill in any gaps. Keep it mowed at least 3 inches high and you should be good to go. Oh and water it deeply every week or so. Don't fall into the trap of watering for 10 minutes every day to put down an inch a week. Put it all down at once.

Awww, c'mon morph! Already we know they're newbs. We can help right now. First of all, spring is not the time to get your lawn in shape if you live in the north. Fall is the time, so pull up your gardening panties and get ready. It's practically July so you've got all of July and probably all of August to get ready for the big project. A full renovation involves spraying to kill the grass, then watering to encourage new weeds from seed, then spraying again to kill the new weed sprouts. Then you rake up the chaff and put down the seed. Don't worry about aerating, rototilling, digging, or anything. It's pretty simple. Then you water (to be explained later if you decide on full reno). Then you mow and start backing way off on the watering frequency and going up on the amount. Or if you don't want to do a full reno and just want to see what happens, you can kill the broadleaf weeds with Weed-B-Gone Chickweed, Clover, and Oxalis killer. Spray with a hose end sprayer. That stuff targets only broad leaf weeds like dandelions, thistle, clover, chickweed, oxalis, and most others. It does not kill grassy weeds that might be mixed in with your turf. Once you get the broadleaf weeds killed off, you can evaluate the remaining grass. I have a new house and new lawn, too. Remember this: even mowed weeds looks better than wild weeds. I mow every week just like it was a showplace. Here is something to have on hand. Actually you can start with this right now. Practice proper lawn care so when you do whatever you're going to do in the fall, you'll have some good habits. Here it is. Basics of Lawn Care After reading numerous books and magazines on lawn care, caring for lawns at seven houses in my life, and reading numerous forums where real people write in to discuss their successes and failures, I have decided to side with the real people and dispense with the book and magazine authors. I don't know what star their planet rotates around but it's not mine. With that in mind, here is the collected wisdom of the Internet savvy homeowners and lawn care professionals summarized in a few words. If you follow the advice here you will have conquered at least 50% of all lawn problems. Once you have these three elements mastered, then you can worry about weeds (if you have any), dog spots, and striping your lawn. But if you are not doing these three things, they will be the first three things suggested for you to correct. 1. Watering Water deeply and infrequently. Deeply means at least an inch in every zone, all at once. Infrequently means monthly during the cool months and no more than weekly during the hottest part of summer. Do not spread this out and water for 10 minutes every day. If your grass looks dry before the month/week is up, water longer next time. If that does not work, then you might have to water more than once per week during the summer's hottest period. Deep watering grows deep, drought resistant roots. Infrequent watering allows the top layer of soil to dry completely which kills off many shallow rooted weeds. You will have to learn to judge when to water your own lawn. If you live in El Paso your watering will be different than if you live in Vermont. Adjust your watering to your type of grass, temperature, humidity, wind, and soil type. It is worth noting that this technique is used successfully by professionals in Phoenix, so...just sayin.' The other factors make a difference. If you normally water 1 inch per week and you get 1/2 inch of rain, then adjust and water only 1/2 inch that week. 2. Mowing Every week mulch mow at the highest setting on your mower. Most grasses are the most dense when mowed tall. However, bermuda, centipede, and bent grasses will become the most dense when they are mowed at the lowest setting on your mower. In fact there are special mowers that can mow these grasses down to 1/16 inch. Dense grass shades out weeds, keeps the soil cooler, and uses less water than thin grass. Tall grass can feed the deep roots you developed in #1 above. Tall grass does not grow faster than short grass nor does it look shaggy sooner. Once all your grass is at the same height, tall grass just looks plush. 3. Fertilizing Fertilize regularly. I fertilize 5 times per year using organic fertilizer. Which fertilizer you use is much less important than numbers 1 and 2 above. Follow the directions on the bag and do not overdo it (unless you use organics in which case you may overdo it without fear of hurting anything). At this point you do not have to worry about weed and feed products - remember at this point you are just trying to grow grass, not perfect it. Besides once you are doing these three things correctly, your weed problems should go away without herbicide. If the lawn has been ignored for some time, it would be a very good idea to get the biology back up to normal. Start by spraying the yard with any clear shampoo. Spray at a rate of 3 ounces per 1,000 square feet. Then water about 1/2 to a full inch to work the shampoo down into the soil. This has multiple effects - all good. Then I would apply any organic fertilizer at a half rate. My favorites are alfalfa pellets (rabbit chow) and ordinary corn meal. These are available at most feed stores. Morph likes Milorganite and/or soybean meal. Those might be more available to you where you live. Get whatever is inexpensive to start with. Apply at 10 pounds per 1,000 square feet for the first dose. Once you do that, 3 weeks later your yard should look considerably better in color, growth, and density. That will signal that your biology is back and your soil will be much healthier. Don't worry about chemical fertilizer all summer. Wait until early fall for that. Can't wait to see the pictures.