Actually, it looks pretty good for a one year lawn planted at the wrong time.

1) KBG will naturally dominate over fescue as time rolls on if conditions are right. Mow high, feed well (even during summer as well as late spring through fall if organic, spring and three times in fall if synthetic) and it'll accelerate the process.

Your conditions in the 4-5 hours of sun areas will probably be OK. 3-4 hours of sun is kind of trim for KBG. In that location, red fescue performs better.

2) Proper feeding, proper watering, and proper mowing are the three basics for increasing lawn density. Your watering of 1" a week is correct, if nature doesn't supply it.

Alfalfa is not a good fertilizer at around 2-1-2, so unless you dropped fifty pounds per thousand square feet it's not enough nitrogen. If you did, it causes other problems due to the peculiarities of alfalfa.

If you can enhance that with 15 pounds per thousand square feet of soybean meal, great. Alternately, this is exactly the correct time to apply bag rate of any off the shelf synthetic fertilizer (which will play well with the alfalfa).

3) It depends. How lumpy is it? Could you be feeling uneven grass rather than uneven soil?

I was able to more pics this morning, up close

morph, appreciate your feedback.

It's not really lumpy. Just a few low areas that need to be raised for proper natural drainage. What's best way to achieve raising grade certain areas?

morph, where's best place to pick up soybean meal?

Where are you in Upstate NY? There are many climate zones in NY. I'm in the Lower Hudson Valley, and grass does just fine there. I can help you locate good suppliers of grains, etc.

Andy,. appreciate you stopping by and offering some help. I'm all the up in Clinton County near Canadian border. I use Tractor Supply to get my alfalfa pellets.

FYI, your yard looks great

Check with Agway dealers for grains, corn, etc. Many will order stuff that they don't stock -- be sure to ask.

Luckily I'm in farm country and just talked with the owner of local feed & supply store only 2mi from my house and they stock 50lbs bags of soybean meal..

What's the ratio I should be putting down? In total, my yard is about 35,000 sq ft?

I have one other question. Any recommendations what I should put down to raise low areas. My father n law owns a farm and I can get really good topsoil out of his field where the cows graze. Think that'll be fine. Only talking some area 2 to 3 to 4 inches at most. Should I do this in small increments as there is existing grass?

How should I handle the bare spots? Should I just feed , water and wait it out?

I'm going to prepare a sample kit and send to Logan Labs. Any advice on best way to properly prepare sample to get best results. I will post test results when they come back.

Great site. A lot of knowledgeable people with good insight.

Optimally, 15 pounds of soybean meal per thousand square feet will provide the optimal amount of protein (and eventually nitrogen). Most years, repeat in early May, August 1, September 1, and October 1 for the best results.

Mix your soil sample well. Drying it out is optional, but don't send them soaked soil as it'll delay your results.

Regarding leveling, I'm no expert there but it depends on whether it'll change your grading. If not, 1/4" of topsoil can be added at a time on existing grasses without harming them. Repeat every 3 weeks or so.

Before you use soil from a cattle ranch, ask the owner if he has ever used an herbicide with picloram (PICK low ram) or clopyralid (cloh PEER uh lid). Those two herbicides are still used to kill off those nasty broad leaf weeds in grass pastures. I can't remember the brand names, but he will likely have heard of those. Those two herbicides are effective in the soil for 10 years when left on their own. Even the manure has huge amounts of them. The herbicide will kill trees if you use the soil or compost made from the manure. Just ask. If he says, no, then that soil should be fine.

dchall, I appreciate your input. I've read a lot of threads and see many of your posts. I can tell you know your stuff and I respect what you have to say.

It's my father n laws farm and he has never used herbicide in his cow fields (diary farmer). It's same topsoil we applied when we first did our yard last summer.

Again thanks for stopping by.

I cut my grass tonight and noticed a lot more of these weeds. Can someone tell me what they are and how I can get rid of them?

We got a fair amour of rain past 2 days.

Additionally there is a small section in the yard that I've let go bc dog tracks and urine are killing the grass. I've noticed these same weeds have taken over the dog area.

Could this contribute to me probably. Do I need too control these weeds in all area.

30,000 sq ft. I put down 300lbs of alfalfa pellets this past weekend. I'm going to add soybean meal to that in the morning as I just picked that up tonight. I plan to add 300lbs of soybean meal in the morning.

I cut the grass at 4in. It's mix of fescue/kgb.

The dog spots should eventually stop happening with deep infrequent watering and the organic fertilizer. For now though you can help those spots out by applying a heaping handful of table sugar on each spot. The sugar helps the microbes repopulate and take care of the excess urea in the dog spots.

Can't ID the weed but weed b gone is made for just such a plant. Spot spray each weed.

+1 DCHall. Weed B Gon will take them out. Those are the same weeds I occasionally see in the garden, usually just called "those leafy weeds." I'm really bad at weed ID.

dchall thanks for the tip on the dog spots.

5/22, I put down 300lbs of alfalfa pellets

5/29, I added 200lbs of soybean meal

Over past 3 days we've gotten almost an inch of rain with more coming.

I was cutting at 3in now I'm letting it grow to about 4.5in.

We don't get really hot temps here. We will see some 90s but it's far and few. Mostly low 80s during day & 60s at night. Today's high is 81 and it will get down to 57 tonight. Next 3 days I don't think we will get above 65.

I'm going to pick up the weed be gone this morning. It's suppose to rain more this afternoon. And I just put down the soybean. When's best time to spray Weed Be Gon or does it not matter since it should not harm grass.

I took these pics this morning. On first pic, right side, you can see the strip of fescue I seeded under the tree line. The rest is fescue/kgb mix but kgb is really taking off.

dchall, morph - your insight and help really make this site a great resource for us amateurs. Thanks for always responding and to do it so quickly I'm greatly appreciative.

Generally, apply Weed B Gon when temperatures are below 85 and going to stay there for the day. Plus it does need about 2 hours to absorb into the leaf before any possible rainfall. After that 2 hours, rain doesn't matter.

The organics will take about 3 weeks to kick in, so that hasn't really even begun to improve yet!

Would it hurt my lawn if I used a big sprayer to apply Weed B Gon. My lawn is large and spot spraying is tough & tiring with the wand. if there is a better application to appy weed control on existing lawn I would appreciate the advice. It's just to much to spray by hand with the wand. Thx

Blanket spraying is fine, although it hurls around herbicides that aren't necessary.