Well I'm sure Garyinchicago will chime in soon since he is practically a neighbor, but I will give my two cents. First step, get your soil tested professionally (if you haven't already done so). You say your pH is very low. This isn't conducive to having nice grass. You need to lime, but of course without a good soil test, you need to know which lime to use. It will probably be calcitic as most people are deficient in calcium, but you never know. So while you are waiting for your soil test you need to either kill the weeds, or else they will go to seed. If you don't want to kill the weeds because you will be left with just dirt, then mow them as you would a lawn, this will reduce the seed production. Applying a preemergent now will kill any weed seeds as they germinate. Use something that lasts 3 months so you can seed in late summer. Kill off your moss now with Moss Out liquid. It is an iron solution, non toxic, and very effective. The moss will turn black and decompose over time. Once you get your soil test back, you need to get all the nutrient levels up to snuff, and this includes raising your organic matter levels, so you might as well start applying organic fertilizers at a pretty high rate, once a month minimum. In July you will be killing everything and planting good grass seed. You can do this with Round-up, or Solarization, although solarization takes 2 months, and really needs a lot of sun to work well. So again, soil test now (www.loganlabs.com, $20 basic test) and mow or kill your weeds.

All Bran - no problem. I was only ignoring your specific questions until the OP's question got answered. That is apparently done and yes, no activity. Back at that time you had marched ahead and were asking questions that the OP had not really gotten up to. But if you are going to hijack a thread, you may as well do one that is the same issue ;-) Winterizer is designed to provide a heavy dose of N, so that's what it does. Last winter might have been a fluke, though, where the N got used in the warmer conditions. Normally 2/3 of the annual N goes down in fall. The "normal" way to do that is to apply one dose in late spring after the main flush of grass growth is over (remember Memorial Day). Then apply another dose after the summer heat breaks (remember Labor Day). The winterizer goes down in mid to late fall (Thanksgiving). These dates are easy to remember but might not apply the same to someone in Miami as well as someone in Green Bay. You do not need to dethatch. Thatch comes from frequent fertilizer and daily watering. That is not you. You do not need to aerate. Aeration brings up weed seeds you do not need. If your soil seem to be hard even after watering, then you can spray it with clear shampoo to help the water penetration. If you want to fertilize now, you can do that with organic fertilizer, not chemicals. Organic fertilizer can go down any day of the year.

Wow! I'm glad this came back around. I think everyone has learned something since this thread was started. And now Houzz does notify you when messages you have posted on get more action. So maybe we can tune both of you up at the same time. You should not have to core aerate, ever, with very few exceptions. If you have hard soil there are chemistry reasons and biological reasons for that. The chemistry reason is most often an imbalance in the salts (magnesium, calcium, sodium, and potassium). Those can be addressed with a good soil test. The better lawn forums have been recommending Logan Labs in Ohio for soil testing for the past few years. Their $25 test is what you need. They will email the results to you. If you post them here morpheuspa will give you an extensive reading of the results and get you on your way toward soil perfection. The other reason the soil might be hard and clay-like is biological. There are fungi in the soil that will soften the soil for you once they have been well fed and watered. Spraying the yard with a surfactant will go a long way to allowing water to penetrate the soil and create the environment needed for healthy beneficial fungi. The surfactant can be anything but some are better than others. Ordinary shampoo is a good one. Any clear shampoo, like baby shampoo, will work. Spray the yard at a rate of 3 ounces of shampoo per 1,000 square feet and follow that up with 1/2 inch to 1 inch of water. Allow it 3 weeks to work. If you have other reasons for core aeration, please, lets discuss them. You should also not have to treat for insects unless you have found them in sufficient numbers to treat. The first clue you might have a grub problem is when you see beetles swarming your porch lights in May and June. If you see that then in July, before you see any damage, dig up a square foot of turf down to about 2 inches looking for grubs. If you see fewer than a dozen, then you don't have a grub problem. If you see an uncountable mass of them, then spray. Chinch bugs are more of a southern problem because they like hot soil, but it is possible to see them elsewhere. Spraying insecticide as a preventive measure is not good for the soil biology. Insects are an integral element of healthy soil. Spraying insecticide kills off the bad bugs, but if you don't have bad bugs, then it just kills the beneficial insects. I suspect both of you have watering and mowing height issues. Here's something I wrote a while ago that summarizes what I've learned over the past decade or so. 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.

While bermuda can be beautiful, it is a hassle to keep it looking nice. It is one of the few grasses that should be mowed at the mower's lowest setting. Partially due to that, it should be mowed twice a week during the summer to keep from scalping it every week. Bermuda also needs as much water as all the other lawns if you want it to be green. The idea that it needs less water depends on your tolerance for brown grass. When bermuda gets very dry it becomes dormant and turns brown. When St Augustine dries out completely, it dies. Thus you have to water St Aug to keep it alive but you could stop watering bermuda altogether and it would remain alive but brown. Bermuda also needs monthly doses of high nitrogen fertilizer to stay green. This is to say that you can have a bermuda lawn but if you are not willing to maintain it, it is going to look raggedy. It can also thin out and become a haven for weeds. Back in the 50s, before the modern herbicides became inexpensive, when you bought grass seed you got a mixture of a fescue, Kentucky bluegrass, rye, and even clover. The idea was that one of the grasses would dominate in almost any soil and you could have a green lawn with multiple species of plants. That approach is one you might consider. You are in the transition zone meaning that you would be able to grow almost any grass.